When Sanah Thakur graduated from FLAME University in Pune three years ago, she couldn't handle the pressure of not knowing what to do with her life. She suffered panic attacks and told her mother that she needed therapy. "When I was growing up, I was enrolled in The School—Krishnamurti Foundation India in Chennai. Krishnamurti, the founder, had a different philosophy on education, which made his schools stand apart. We spent a lot of time engaging in self-reflection; the learner was included in the learning process. We didn't have a nature of competitiveness," the 23-year-old recalls. But, when she started pursuing BA in Pune, things took a drastic turn. "Everybody was competing against each other. I felt like I didn't belong there. I could not deal with the stress. But somehow, I managed to graduate." The Chennai-based Thakurs then decided to move to Doha. Here, a chance meeting with Martyn Stewart, a chartered psychologist with the British Psychological Society, changed the course of her life.

Stewart is an international educator, consultant, author, coach and motivational speaker. Currently the head of psychology at Doha College, Stewart is globally known for creating The Fear Project in 2016. "It has been developed to assist individuals, schools and companies to address issues with mental well-being and psychological health," Thakur, who was interning during that time at Doha College, tells us. "Stewart asked me to participate in one of the project's programmes. By the end of these sessions, which lasted a few months, I began asking myself, why was I scared earlier? I was just living in fear and I had to overcome it."