With the advent of mails and mobile phones, most of us have forgotten the joy of receiving the physical mail itself, leave alone sending one to another person. But, there is one person with whom I have also interacted personally who takes time out even during these hectic days, that are driven by work and competition, to sit down and write letters. She calls her letters the “Letter’s of Compassion” and sends them to totally unknown strangers too, who reach out to her to send a letter to their loved one or even to themselves. So now wondering who this noble soul is why she is doing this work.
She is none other than our own fellow blogger, Priyanka Nair, who blogs on Mental Health Awareness for the last couple of years. Her blog has been listed as under the top 15 Mental Health blogs and she does a lot of work in this area. Then let’s hear more in her words itself about the “Letters of Compassion” as to what they are and how she sends them. Priyanka says that she really believes in the following quote:
Me: What was the reason for starting this “Letters of Compassion” activity?
Priyanka: I have been writing to raise mental health awareness for four years now. I have been able to connect with people from different walks of life through my blog and other social media platforms. I receive emails, DMs from all over the world. And there was this one thing which I found common in all of them, The need of being heard and cared for. Since I am already working for a cause, I wanted to take up some initiative to bring about some change around me, hence I decided to take up this small step of writing hand-written letters to people. Just to let them know, ” You Matter“.
Me: When did you start this and how many people you have reached by now with this activity?
Priyanka: I started writing letters in January 2020 and so far I have delivered around 75-80 letters. Honestly, I don’t keep a tab on this. I announce monthly letter intake on my social media channels and I write to the ones who respond to it.
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Me: How to approach you for sending these letters?
Priyanka: I usually post about it every month on Instagram and Facebook page, besides that, I have recently created a separate Instagram page for it, which I call “Letter-Request Bank” anybody can place a request to me via my email or Instagram handle. At present, I am only delivering in India.
Me: Whether you get responses back from those unknown strangers? what was your feeling when you get them?
Priyanka: So far, I have got only one response. But honestly, I do this act selflessly. When we attach expectations to things we do, we start attaching conditions with them. This is something I chose to do, I do not expect my readers to write me back, although I would be immensely joyful if somebody writes me back ?
Me: Do you want anyone else also joins you in this activity or are you doing this on your own completely?
Priyanka: I am doing this all alone, I want to keep it simple and natural. I would never want to commercialize it.
Me: Who is supporting you in all these activities?
Priyanka: My family, my child, and my readers, everyone supports me in this. Many people feel surprised seeing me sending letters to strangers without even asking for the courier cost. So for that, I have dedicated a monthly budget and if the letter request exceeds that month, I put them in the next slot. This way neither my budget gets exhausted nor my work gets piled up or delayed.
Me: Any additional information you want to share with the audience?
Priyanka: I enjoy what I am doing, and I feel I am someway contributing to society and with the comments and feedback I receive, when the reader reads my letter, I feel so content and humbled. No less than an incentive for me. I will continue writing these letters as long as I receive requests and as long as people want to read what I write for them. In the end, I would say, as a society, if there is anything we can do for someone within our purview, we must do it.
My Personal Interaction with Letters of Compassion:
I had approached Priyanka through her Social Media channels during the pandemic time to send out a letter to my child. Being a single child in a nuclear family, my child was undergoing a lot of stress, as he was not able to meet his friends or socialize with them. Priyanka really took time out to go to the post office to post a letter to my child, in which she spoke about the stress even her child is going through, but have to look at the surroundings with a positive outlook. So my child read that letter and was able to relate to her words a lot. There was a positive change in his attitude after reading this letter from Priyanka. I really appreciate her efforts to visiting the postoffice and posting letters to total strangers even during the pandemic time.
About Priyanka:
Priyanka is a certified NLP and Mindfulness practitioner. One can reach her through her website or through social media. She writes her “Letters of Compassion” during her free time. Her contact details are given below:
- Website: Sanity Daily
- Twitter: Priyanka
- Instagram: Priyanka
- FB: Priyanka
Author’s Note:
This post is a part of #WATWB We Are the World Blogfest, a monthly event created by Damyanti Biswas. “We Are the World Blogfest” which seeks to promote positive news. Sharing these stories that show compassion and the resilience of the human spirit increases our awareness of hope in our increasingly dark world. The cohosts are Sylvia McGrath, Peter Nena, Shilpa Garg, Eric Lahti and Belinda McGrath Witzenhausen. And if you want to read more uplifting articles, please visit the WATWB Facebook page here or the Twitter home page here to find links to other stories.
Thank you Suhasini! I feel short of words right now, I cannot be more obliged and humbled. Gratitude 🙂
Thank you, dear. It’s really my pleasure to capture your journey on this angle
To capture this exercise
Of sending letters to strangers
This was lovely to read Priyanka and thank you to mommyshravmusings for sharing it.
‘In the end, I would say, as a society, if there is anything we can do for someone within our purview, we must do it’. This is so true, that if we can, we must …
Thank you Susan.
[…] the time when my dear friend Priyanka from Sanity Daily, has come to my rescue with her “Letters of Compassion“. And she bought back some zing into my child’s life. He started writing stories, based […]