Finding Inner Safety. Dr. Nerina Ramlakhan

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Finding Inner Safety

      The key to healing, thriving, and overcoming burnout

      Dr. Nerina Ramlakhan

This edition first published 2022.

      Copyright © 2022 Dr Nerina Ramlakhan. All rights reserved.

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      Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is Available: ISBN 9780857089236 (paperback) ISBN 9780857089243 (ePub) ISBN 9780857089250 (ePDF)

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For both Nirvanas, past and present

Message from the Author

      When I began writing this book, I soon realized that all of me wanted to be wholeheartedly involved – the scientist, the practitioner, the philosopher, the survivor, and the thriver. So, what unfolded, and what you will come across in the four sections of my book, is a blend of the various ingredients that have, over the years, become my USP – I call them my 5Ps. In the blending of these 5Ps, I aim to present to you a more holistic viewpoint, and one that will not only ignite your intellect but also open your heart, nourish your soul, and spur you to action!

Physiology and Psychology

I started out as a scientist. I have a degree in physiology and a doctorate in neurophysiology. And I have also studied psychology and psychiatry. It wasn't long after my postdoctoral work and a couple of short-lived academic posts that I realized I wasn't really interested in being an academic. Actually, I thought I wasn't cut out for the world of work at all until I experienced the ‘click’ of working in the ‘human laboratory’ and realized that my real fascination lay in the workings of the mind, body, and spirit. Particularly fascinating were seemingly ‘esoteric’ concepts and how they might be explained by scientific theory, an interest I could never have pursued if I had stayed in academia, constrained by strict scientific protocols and peer review pressure. I needed to let my mind roam free! Free to find the answers to the Why's that petri dishes and test tubes were never going to give me. I believe this stood me in good stead when I began consulting in corporate environments where many of my clients tended to be more left brain – logical, rational, ‘if you can't see it, it doesn't exist’ human beings. For such clients, blending esoteric with scientific theories was probably more credible. Perhaps it felt safer too.

Professional Experience

Observations from the ‘human laboratory’ started back in the 1990s when I headed to London's Square Mile to work in a health-screening clinic. Still wearing a lab coat but this time measuring the health of corporate employees. Since then, I've been measuring people's health, talking to them about their health, observing how life impacts on our health. And not only corporate executives such as law, accountancy, or insurance firms and investment banks. I've also worked with police officers, schoolchildren, lorry drivers driving oil tankers through the night, women recovering from cancer, stressed-out mothers, chief executives and their chauffeurs, famous actors, members of royal families from far-flung exotic places, members of Parliament. And I spent more than a decade working in a psychiatric clinic, The Capio Nightingale Clinic, where, ironically, years before, I'd stayed for a month as an in-patient. Here, I worked with people who had burnt out, people with addictions, people who couldn't sleep, felt depressed, anxious, afraid, and who'd lost hope. In this book I will share snippets of the stories of some of the people I've been privileged to help over the years,