About Selvan Srinivasan
Born in Chennai in 1962 and raised in Mumbai the author was nurtured as a multi-lingual, multi-cultural cosmopolitan youth. His entrepreneurial parents and deeply spiritual and intellectual grandparents shaped his character and love of books at an early age. Taking on the responsibilities of the family when his dad was immobilized briefly, the author became an entrepreneur himself while making progress on his inward spiritual journey as well. Through this book, he seeks to share transformational experiences of himself and others who recovered from seemingly incurable conditions by finding their Happy Place within.
LiFT: Tell us about your book, the journey of writing it and its content.
Selvan: For hundreds of thousands of years sunlight was the only source of light on earth. Sunrise would trigger activity in our bodies with the secretion of Serotonin and sunset would usher in the sleep state with the secretion of Melatonin. Our ancestors enjoyed wholesome sleep despite the otherwise hostile environment in which they lived. It all started to change when about a hundred and fifty years ago Edison invented the lightbulb, eliminating the difference between night and day. And Humans started losing wholesome sleep.
There is an inexplicable underlying sense of restlessness in human society both in the collective as well as the individual levels today. Especially in the urban environment in which almost sixty percent of the world population lives. This underlying restlessness which shows up as stress or lack of ease or a state of rush or hurry, is actually a state of inner energy imbalance. It is the primary cause of the strife and conflict, and the aggressively competitive state of mind we find across all strata of society. It is also the primary cause for the spurt in modern disease, such as auto-immune conditions, cancers, all life-style chronic diseases and low immunity against micro-organisms.
Today we are in the Digital Information revolution and light (especially light emitted by our digital devices and resultant lack of sleep) is not the only factor causing this underlying restlessness in our society. I would say, even the air pollution, food, and water contamination, are all significant but not primary factors as they affect only the physical layer of our existence. The invisible, unnoticed energy pollution, in my opinion is the biggest cause of the restlessness we all collectively experience. The space around us is probably filled with unimaginable amount of information – in the form of energy waves – emitted by and connecting all our digital network. This is energy pollution, and it was almost non-existent even a few decades ago.
Our physical body is only a small part of the whole of us. There is a huge bubble of energy engulfing our body variously called – Bio-Field, Bio-Plasma, Human energy field, Subtle body, Aura, Energy body, Atman, etc. This energy field acts as a protective space suit around us. If the physical body is the hardware, this energy field is the software running or operating it. The energy pollution surrounding us and caused by the digital information age, interferes and imbalances the human energy field and distorts the way we think, emote and experience life.
This is probably the reason why, in spite of tremendous advances in medical science, human suffering, especially in terms of chronic and lifestyle disease has only increased over time. On the other hand, homo sapiens or human beings as a species is the pinnacle of creativity for the universe. After several billions of years of experimentation with life forms (and evolution of life forms) nature has come up with the human being – the most fantastic creation since the Big-Bang. Nature has endowed us with an ability to heal ourselves, to rejuvenate and enjoy wholesome wellbeing – a self-repairing mechanism so to speak. We do have the ability to live an energetic, active, healthy life even in the present modern urban environment. It just involves learning to inculcate a specific mind-set followed by a specific skill set that can be cultivated into a regular habit within our daily routine lifestyle.
Awareness Journey is the actual life-transforming journey travelled by the author from illness to wellness, from being an emotional wreck to channeling the same emotions to fuel the growth into maturity and wisdom. Having experienced unimaginable and seemingly miraculous transformation in my life, I went on to create a six module – six month mentoring course to guide others experience the same. After five years of mentoring several participants through this course, I have now been inspired to bring it to you in the form of this book.
The Happy Place is an inner state of being that is the original pure radiant joyous inherent state with which we were born. We quickly lost it while growing up and have been living with the underlying restlessness ever since. During childhood and youth, the effect of this restlessness is not overtly evident, but it definitely exists in almost everyone and it starts showing up as we grow. A set of practices – a way of life, that you could easily learn to help you to return back from your state of restlessness to your Happy Place within, this is the aim of the book.
It is a true story of the journey as one participant goes through each day of the first module with the mentor and experiences transformational results. It is a self-help book in form of an engaging story, to guide the reader through the journey so that you could easily achieve similar results in your life. This participant had never heard of the energy body or the human energy field and was skeptical about its effectiveness, especially as it seemed too simple, yet it helped her through an amazing transformational healing experience. You don’t need any belief sets or faith to be able to travel on this journey and benefit from it, you only need an openness and willingness to experiment.
LiFT: Why you chose this title?
Selvan: It is based on a true story and derived from my course of the same name that I have been teaching / mentoring for the last five years.
LiFT: When did you realize that you want to be a writer and what’s your inspiration behind it?
Selvan: I realised that there is a writer in me at a very young age – when I was 8 years old we were on a train journey with my cousin sister who is the same age as me. In that trip we both promised each other that we shall have our own novel! And then life took its own course and it took me 52 years to realise that commitment. The inspiration came about out of the unbelievable transformation I went through in my life and have been a witness of several such transformations over the last five years.
LiFT: Where do you see yourself ten years down the line in the world of literature?
Selvan: I have four more books lined up and it is all ready and waiting in Q inside my head! These will be out in the world during the next three to five years. By then a few more book ideas may crop up. I see myself as a New York times bestselling author in the next ten years.
LiFT: How much do you think marketing or quality of a book is necessary to promote a particular book and increase its readers?
Selvan: Quality of the book is in my hands and I constantly aspire and seek help to improve it. The first book itself went through untold number of iterations as I partnered and took the support of several editors and collaborators to read it aloud and keep modifying it to make it better. The journey will continue. However having done this, now it looks like Marketing is the most important aspect in reaching the book to the prospective reader out there. The reader gets to decide whether to buy it or not only when they are presented with the book and this is possible only with the right and powerful marketing strategy. Especially because I dream of selling a million copies of my book.
LiFT: What is the message you want to spread among folks with your writings?
Selvan: Humanity is suffering and yet suffering is unnecessary. Healing is a natural gift nature gave us when it took four billion years of experimenting with life forms before it came up with the human being. But nature played a curved ball with us by giving us the Thinking mind. The challenge is to be able to use the thinking mind and the power of our intellect but also be able to switch it off and rest quietly to heal. Because as long as we are mentally engaged, healing does not happen – despite the most amazing medical facilities and treatment options available in modern times.
How to switch off our mind and rest quietly to heal and bounce back and use our intelligence to grow. The book aims to teach this seemingly impossible skill in the most simplest way to the reader.
LiFT: What do you do apart from writing?
Selvan: I teach this course in a College to Psychology students.
I mentor this course to several participants all over the world by one-on-one mentoring programme.
I am the primary caretaker to my two lovely grand children.
I am the dishwasher and cooking assistant to my life partner and spouse Hema.
I facilitate distance healing as well as touch healing to my clients.
I am a Promotor and Director at PFP Psychological services Private Ltd, a prominent mental health institution in Hyderabad.
LiFT: What are the activities you resort to when you face a writer’s block?
Selvan: Energy movements, Yoga, Meditation, playing with grandkids, cooking, dishwashing.
LiFT: What if your story will be adopted as a movie? Whom would you want to work as a director or actors in it?
Selvan: My book is a novel as well as a self-help guide and I do have a dream of it being adopted as a TV series although it is not possible to compress it into a movie. I would like to play my own role in it but would also be happy to just be a spectator and allow the Director to chose his team and decide how to tell the story to his viewers. I am not the expert there.
LiFT: Are you working on your next book? If yes, please tell us something about it.
Selvan: Yes, I am. I have written about hundred pages and expect this one to be longer – about 500 pages. I have taken a long pause from writing it to facilitate the launch and promotion of my first book. I hope to be able to publish it by September 2023.
LiFT: What are your suggestions to the budding writers/poets so that they could improve their writing skills?
Selvan: I have been blessed with grand parents and parents who were avid writers and skilled in the English language. I have read millions of books as I grew up and all through my life. But writing can come out as a smooth flow only out of deep experience. It needs to be my story for me to be able to powerfully convey it.
Click here to order Selvan Srinivasan’s Book – Awareness Journey
