Miscellaneous
The Guilt Free Friday Interviews are a series of honest and inspiring conversations with those affected by guilt. In this episode, motivational speaker and author Shalini Bhalla-Lucas tells me her story of finding her soul mate, losing and then reconnecting with her family and dealing with the grief of losing both her husband and father in the space of 18 months. This powerful story tells us a lot about how guilt can be involved alongside many other powerful emotions. Bio Shalini Bhalla-Lucas is an award-winning author, entrepreneur, speaker, teacher/trainer and the founder of Just Jhoom! She is also an accredited Mindfulness and Meditation teacher – teaching people highly-effective, proven techniques to help combat stress, anxiety and depression. She is currently training to be an End of Life Doula. Shalini has performed all over the world and has had TV appearances on ITV’s Daybreak, Channel 4s Sunday Brunch and the BBC, as well as on numerous radio stations and podcasts. She has been featured in publications such as RED magazine, Top Sante and Dance Today, discussing physical, mental and spiritual wellbeing through dance and mindfulness. In January 2017, Shalini set up the Jeremy Lucas Education Fund in Kenya in memory of her beautiful, kind husband Jeremy Lucas who passed away in 2016 after a two-year battle with cancer. The Fund is currently providing scholarships for 16 Samburu children for secondary and tertiary education. Shalini self-published her first book “Always With You – A true story of love, loss…and hope” in July 2018. The memoir is about her personal battles with mental illness, the coping strategies she relied on to regain a positive mental state after severe depression, and the death of her husband. Shalini writes frankly about her experiences of love, bereavement, grief, depression and suicidal ideation, as well as her struggles with religion and Indian culture, and ends the book with a message of renewal, recovery and hope, and aspirations for the future. In October 2018 the book became a No 1 Amazon Bestseller. “Online Dating @ 40 – The Nobheads, Nutjobs & Nice Guys” Shalini’s second book, a funny and candid account of the highs and lows of online dating, was published in February 2019. It is an honest personal account of a 40-something-year-old determined to 'live again' following the untimely death of her beloved husband and soulmate Jeremy. In May 2019 Shalini was chosen from hundreds of women to be one of six inspirational women from the UK to be featured in the hair beauty company TRESemmé’s Power Your Presence Online and TV Masterclass. In the programme Shalini is featured alongside celebrity Emma Willis speaking about Being Positive, The Power of Thought and Building Resilience. Shalini’s third book “Happiness! Is It Simply A Mindset Shift?” will be published in the autumn of 2019. Shalini’s website: www.justjhoom.co.uk Facebook and Instagram @justjhoom