Before her senior year of high school started, Simran Tarigopula had published a book.
It’s called “Simple Shifts: 20 Ways to Cultivate a Positive Mind,” and it’s her way of connecting — through the mental health challenges she’s experienced — with peers who are facing the same struggles.
Sadness, depression, fear, anxiety, perfectionism, anger, overwhelm — Simran says she’s felt them all and found an outlet to cope through writing and reaching out to others.
“My struggles and the isolation I felt really made me want to be an advocate for mental health,” Simran says. “My loneliness is what really pushed me.”
She started writing the book the summer before her junior year at Waubonsie Valley High School, and, a year later, had it up for sale on Amazon.
Tips take readers ‘along a journey’
“Simple Shifts” is listed in the self-help and motivational categories, but it’s not “a doctor book,” its author says. The 62-page manual is a creative output full of stories and experiences relatable to high schoolers, so her readers can feel like they’re “along a journey with me,” Simran says.
“I wanted to connect with the students in my class and show them, ‘It’s OK to struggle. It’s OK to make mistakes, because when you do, that’s how you grow,” she says.
A couple of her favorite chapters are those on perfectionism and the importance of feeling emotions instead of suppressing them. Along with her own experiences, Simran says the ideas in her book are informed by content from her AP psychology class and lessons from her therapist. A creative writing class she took at Waubonsie helped her sharpen her expressive skills.
“Definitely one of the most important things in my book is just the idea of embracing your emotions,” Simran says. “That was something I struggled with a lot. The idea that you shouldn’t label your emotions — your sadness or anger — don’t label them as bad.”
Author plans to study neuroscience
Simran describes herself as “a busy high school senior.” She’s involved with Model UN and KidsMatter. She takes honors and AP classes. She says she sometimes would have preferred to “be in bed” than writing her book, but kept going in order to help herself and heal her peers.
“Telling myself it’s worth doing and I’m making a positive change is what pushed me when things got hard,” she says.
With her book published in July, Simran then moved on to college applications, which she says she recently finished. She’s applying as a neuroscience major, with plans to study “psychopharmacology and how psychology and neuroscience are really intertwined,” she says. “I hope to continue studying the mechanics behind the brain because I think that’s really fascinating.”
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