As a mindset coach, an international speaker, and the founder of an organisation that helps people overcome mental hurdles, 38-year-old Jaikishaan Sharma is no ordinary man.
He looks back on the year 2007 as the one when the journey to self-discovery began, albeit with a lot of challenges.
Jaikishaan had returned to India from Australia to attend the last rites of his father. Devastated by the loss, he did not want to continue his pending master’s degree.
“A part of me did not want to return to Australia, leaving my mother and sister back home. But my mother said it was dad’s dream and two years would fly by,” he says.
So he returned to Australia, completed his degree, and went on to work with an energy and gas retailer.
Eventually, he got married, had a daughter, and was living in his dream home in Melbourne, while excited about the prospects life had to offer.
But in 2015, Jaikishaan recounts things turning around completely and unexpectedly.
“On 11 October 2015, when I walked into the office, I was notified that the company was outsourcing my role. They were making me redundant,” he says.
As he made his way to a friend’s office who had promised to help him find work, he met with an accident that rendered him half-paralysed.
“The doctors told me that my spine had been damaged in the accident and that they needed to perform surgery. I saw my life fall into pieces around me,” he says.
Even in these trying times, Jaikishaan says he remembered his mother’s words — “Jo bhi hota hai, acche ke liye hota hai (whatever happens, happens for a good reason).”
Following the 10-hour surgery and an eight-month rehabilitation period, he was filled with anxiety about the future and about the pending mortgage of his home.
“I was so devastated that I could do nothing for my family that I attempted suicide the next morning,” he shares. Following a few more unsuccessful attempts, Jaikishaan was put on medication for anxiety and depression.
Then one day as he sat in the wheelchair in his drawing room, he turned to watch his baby girl play when she looked at him and smiled.
“It was the moment I felt my life change. I decided I would not live my life by design and default,” he says. And thus began Jaikishaan’s journey to betterment.
“I began my quest to understand how mindset affects everything. I spent seven months of mindfulness, reading good books, practising the law of attraction and just appreciating everything in life, and I began feeling better,” he says.
But he will always remember one morning in December 2019 for the rest of his life when he could move his toe, and soon, his feet. Within weeks he was taking his first steps. The neurosurgeon said this was extraordinary and unexplainable.
In 2021, Jaikishaan decided to use his story to inspire others and took to mindset coaching. He has one simple message: “Do not let your temporary emotions dictate your future.”