Actor Malaika Arora lately gave a uncommon glimpse into her emotional journey by means of 2024 — a yr marked by private grief and quiet resilience.
After the passing of her father and her much-publicised breakup with Arjun Kapoor, she selected to stay personal. However in a current interview with Instances of India, she opened up about discovering consolation in two easy but highly effective phrases: sabr and shukr. Her new tattoo, inked on her higher arm, displays these sentiments and symbolises the emotional weight the previous yr carried. “I don’t get them only for the sake of it, they’ve deep private which means. This specific one symbolises the yr that 2024 has been for me,” she stated.
Explaining her selection additional, Malaika shared, “The phrases ‘persistence’ (sabr) and ‘gratitude’ (shukr) are very comforting. These phrases resonate with me once I take into consideration the place I’m now, in comparison with the place I used to be only a yr in the past.” She described tattoos as markers of transformation, a approach of memorialising emotional milestones — similar to the one she obtained eight years in the past after her divorce from Arbaaz Khan, which confirmed three birds in flight. “That tattoo reveals three birds in flight, marking a brand new section in my life,” she recalled.
Whereas she shouldn’t be at present targeted on her love life, Malaika admitted that she is in a greater, calmer, and happier house now.
Malaika shared, “The phrases ‘persistence’ (sabr) and ‘gratitude’ (shukr) are very comforting. (Supply: Instagram/Malaika Arora)
How do values like persistence and gratitude psychologically help emotional restoration after loss or heartbreak?
Jai Arora, counselling psychologist and co-founder of Kirana Counselling, tells indianexpress.com, “Endurance and gratitude aren’t simply ethical values — they’re emotional survival instruments, particularly within the Indian context the place religious concepts typically information private therapeutic.”
He provides, “We people crave certainty, safety and management, however going by means of grief may be fairly the other and therefore very discomforting. Psychologically, persistence helps us maintain house for ache with out appearing out. Gratitude, in the meantime, shifts focus from what’s damaged to what nonetheless holds which means, the silver linings. For sure, even with persistence and gratitude the emotional steadiness can’t be restored in a day however they slightly act as a continuing type of help and self care.”
Psychological significance of getting tattoos after main life transitions
Tattoos after breakups aren’t simply aesthetic — they’re symbolic acts of reclaiming identification. Arora states, “When life feels unpredictable or painful, getting a tattoo offers a way of management. For somebody like Malaika, it’s a strategy to mark the top of 1 chapter and the beginning of one other.”
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He continues, “A tattoo can turn out to be that story in bodily kind, to assist individuals make sense of their lives. Tattoos may also be symbols of values that one desires to uphold of their lives. The mark of a brand new journey.”
What does it take to actually attain emotional readiness after a breakup?
“Grief and therapeutic don’t observe a linear path,” notes Arora, including that they arrive and go, one like a wave kissing the ocean and the subsequent day like a excessive tide, wrecking havoc. “Readiness isn’t about distracting your self or leaping into the subsequent factor. It’s about doing the interior work — grieving, reflecting, understanding what modified, and studying the way to be okay alone.”
This course of unfolds in its personal time. Some individuals really feel prepared in months, others take years. In Indian society, the place shifting on rapidly is usually seen as power, it’s vital to keep in mind that actual power lies in respecting your personal tempo.