A book author, an accomplished writer, and a public speaker
Image Screen capture from Illumination YouTube Channel recorded by Aiden (Owner of Illumination Gaming)
Dear readers and writers, welcome to my new interview story, which introduces another book author and an accomplished writer whose writing impressed me a lot. I enjoy interacting with people from diverse cultures, countries, and professional backgrounds. I have been interviewing professionals for a long time. I am writing this from my secondary account to find new readers for these interviews. For those unfamiliar, my main account is Dr Mehmet Yildiz (Newsletter).
On this platform, I specifically enjoy interviewing writers. Each writer’s interview is special to me as each person is unique. My goal is to introduce them to my audience so that they can meet another interesting/relatable person on this planet and explore their work. I discussed the Importance and Remarkable Benefits of Interviews in My Professional and Personal Life.
In this interview, I’d like to introduce you to one of my favorite authors Lata Kokal. She was known before as Neha Sonney. I have been following her stories and poems for a long time. Her contributions to this platform are commendable. I also enjoy her books and speeches about self-love.
Meet Lata Kokal
Hi Lata, tell us a bit about your background.
Hi Dr Yildiz, thank you for this great opportunity. How to start! Well, I’m a Sindhi (Indian) raised in Bahrain. I speak Sindhi, English, and Hindi. I was quite independent as a child. I used to watch my parents work with tools to make jewelry. My mother used to make clothes for my sister and me. I copied my parents, and I love getting craftswith my hands and spending time in creative pursuits. I follow my curiosity. I love to know how things work, especially the workings of the human mind. To understand myself, I took to meditation in 2009 and haven’t looked back since. I developed a burning desire to share my story. One day in January of 2016, that led me to blogging and I haven’t looked back since. Now I’m my own lab rat. I study, I experiment what I learn to know if something works for me or not. Then I share my findings with my readers. I’m the author of a self-published book titled Wired For Self-Love.
What are your hobbies, or what excites or entertains you?
Ah! I love that you asked this question. I’m bursting to tell you! Where shall I begin?
Creating: When I was a little girl, I didn’t have a Barbie doll, so my craft self made clothes for other little girls’ dolls. I sometimes make clothes for myself. I love to learn and teach myself to do new things. I’m a kinesthetic learner. Means I learn things by doing. My textbook based school education didn’t provide me with life skills. Experimenting is my happy zone. I cook, bake bread, design and handmade costume jewelry, and dreamcatchers. My mind is a very entertaining place. If you haven’t already figured it out, that’s okay, but I’m mostly introverted. That doesn’t mean I’m shy. Quite the opposite. I love hosting and entertaining people too. I invite people to my home and entertain them with chai and healthy spreads like hummus with my home-baked breads.
Speaking: When I was training to be a speaker with Toastmaster, I used to love what most others dreaded — Table Topics. Table topics were topics in chits or strips of paper that you’d have to pick (without looking) and speak on that topic for 2–3 minutes. I’ve collected a stash of best impromptu speaker ribbons at my toastmaster club. I now use my voice to help people improve their mental health through my in-person and online emotional well-being and personal development workshops.
Traveling: Oh! I love traveling. I’m a sucker for beauty in nature. My solo travels took me to Angkor Wat in Cambodia as well as Petra and the deserts of Jordan. After meeting my partner, we’ve frequently traveled to Japan for cultural experiences. I saw snow for the first time in Sapporo in December 2023 and it was heart-warming to watch fluffy frozen water crystals land on your gloved hands!! We both loved the Netherlands and Belgium.
Metamorphosis: What excites me is witnessing transformation in people no matter what their age. It gives me much happiness and hope when I see that people’s changed perspectives have the power to change their lives. This is why I share my personal transformation. I live to inspire and to be inspired by people and beauty. I’m trained as a coach and I love it when God chooses me as his medium to help others.
Dancing: I also love social dancing. Of the social dances, I quite enjoy Zouk and Bachata. I love people watching, especially how children behave and how their little minds work! I believe that meditation makes you childlike. Children learn through play. Play is very important for the mind and body. In fact, it is a necessity for a healthy human. I encourage everyone to engage in healthy non-consuming hobbies.
Personal Development: I love learning about tapping one’s true potential. Practicing meditation revealed to me the truth about myself. My insights challenged my limiting beliefs. Meditation also made me a better listener, so that I can hear what is said as well as what is not. I love observing my behavior as well as others so that I can improve my relationships with myself and others. I learn and implement new things to improve the quality of my thoughts, words and actions. I’m trained as a coach, so I love coaching people to help them overcome their limiting beliefs.
What are the top three books that have affected your life?
More than books, I’d say the authors that had a life-changing effect on me are Paulo Coelho, Deepak Chopra and Osho. All of Paulo Coelho’s books remind his readers how to get in touch and stay in touch with their spirit. Deepak Chopra enlightens his readers’ by tapping into the potential of the universe through mindfulness practices. Osho’s rebellious stories ignited the rebel in me. Together, the books by these authors helped me find the courage to find myself, find my voice and use it to improve my wellbeing.
Why do you write on Medium?
I’ve actually stopped writing on Medium. I loved writing on Medium for several reasons and was pretty active on the platform until things started going downhill very quickly for a lot of authors, including me. It really challenged my standing as a writer who wishes to make a difference in my readers’ lives.
Do you write on other platforms like Substack? If so, how do you find them?
Yes, I do. I have a newsletter called Self-Love Bites. Substack does have more of a sense of community; however, since I haven’t built up much of a following, I’m not going to comment more on that. I do like that if readers who come across your newsletter resonate with your content, then you can gain a lot of subscribers at a much faster rate than on Medium. Here is the link to my Substack newsletter Self Love Bites :
What are your values as a writer?
My personal top five values are authenticity, authority, creativity, health and growth. I learn new things about myself and things I’m curious about that help me grow as a person. I share my authentic findings and life experiences with my audiences in the hope that they will benefit from them. Being an author may give me a sense of authority, which I’m well aware of, and I take this responsibility very seriously. Authority has power. My aim is to empower my readers with little life skills through strategies and lived experiences. I use my creativity to delight, first and foremost, myself, and then my readers, again, by sharing my experiences. This is how I live my values as a writer.
How do you connect with your readers?
This is a tricky question. Currently, I’m sure. I’ve seen that people respond to negative emotion content more than the ones with positive emotion on both Medium as well as Substack. I’m done with writing stuff to warn people of the bad and horrible things happening in our world. I don’t want to do that anymore, even if that means zero engagement on my newsletters. How do I know I’m connecting with my readers? It’s too random to tell you there’s a pattern. I don’t see that yet. My subscribers are on and off at the moment. When they are consistently going up, I guess they are connecting with my content whether they comment or not. The stats tell a story.
Why did you join ILLUMINATION and how do you find it so far?
Oh! I love it! When I was a new writer on Medium and saw other writers publishing their stories with other publications, I wondered how I could do that, too. ILLUMINATION was one of the first publications I applied to submit my stories. I learned about your values as a writer and the owner of several publications with amazing writers and great content. I’ve published several stories with ILLUMINATION and will continue to do so with the stories that support its values.
Who are some writers you follow on ILLUMINATION?
Dr. Preeti Singh, Dr. Mehmet Yildiz, Julianne Buchler, Annelise Lords, and Denis Gorbunov are some of the notable writers whose stories I’ve quite enjoyed and learned from. I’ve been fortunate to have built a personal connection with Dr. Preeti over the course of getting to know her as an editor with several publications besides the positive and inspiring figure she is!
What are the top five stories that you want to share with your audience and why?
- What Men Are Pleading Women To Do
- Surrender — The Divine Feminine and its Super Power
- Ted Talk 6 — Self Love
- Want To Attract Someone Amazing? Try This
- I Love My Part-Time Job of Empowering Little Humans
I would like to share the above stories with my audiences because I have seen from working with single female clients how hard it is for them to find a relationship in hookup culture. Through these stories I seek to empower women and help men have faith that they can find someone to spend the rest of their life with if they keep their minds and eyes open. Change begins with the self. From experiencing childhood trauma and narcissistic abuse, I have seen how that negatively affected my relationship with myself. Having worked on myself and finding a lovely human to devote, serve and love, I can say that it makes a huge difference to experience safety and unconditional love in a relationship. I hope everyone who wants that for themselves finds it.
What do you recommend to new writers?
Writing helps with self-discovery. Keep writing consistently. If you’re a new writer, you must keep writing on various topics and then gradually niche in on one that works for you as well as resonates with your audience. I’m still learning. Don’t deprive people of stories of your personal transformation. Some people have nothing, not even hope. You never know whose life might change because you decided to share your story.
What are your plans as a writer or as a professional?
As a writer, I want to publish more self-help and poetry books. As a professional, I want to keep giving talks on self-love and conduct mental health workshops.
Many thanks to Lata Kokal (formerly Neha Sonney) for giving a glimpse of her interesting life. You can contact her on Illumination Slack Workspace.
Our editor and media coordinator Aiden (Owner of Illumination Gaming) created a lovely video for Lata in 202 and ILLUMINATION editors shared the transcript.
Meet Neha Sonney on Illumination YouTube Channel
A prolific writer on Medium and a Published Authormedium.com
Here is the video on Substack Mastery YouTube Channel.
You can check out her book here.
Here Podcast: The Relationship Academy
And you may subscribe to her Substack
Self Love Bites | Neha Sonney, Speaker | Substack
Empowering myself and others with mindful morsels, objective perspectives and learning more about navigating the world…nehasonneyauthor.substack.com
Quick Updates
Good news for writers: We made the rules much easier for writers of ILLUMINATION and former ILLUMINATION-Curated without compromising quality. I published the new submission guidelines earlier today. Please take a look and contribute to both ILLUMINATION and Curated Newsletters to benefit from the power of our great community.
Time to Prune the Branches of Our Big Oak Tree: ILLUMINATION’s Evolution to New Heights
From ILLUMINATION-Curated to Curated Newsletters: The Spirit Lives On, Stronger Than Ever
A Brief Intro to our Extending Community Bridging Medium with Substack in Innovative and Collaborative Ways
Now we have a great plan for our Substack Mastery of ILLUMINATION Community I drafted the plan on my website and look forward to your feedback and engagement.
ILLUMINATION Substack Community Support — Dr Mehmet Yildiz
This is a summary of 3-tier service offerings for creators, freelance writers, and content entrepreneurs on Substack…digitalmehmet.com
How I Architected a Charity Organization & Why I Will Run It Like a Business
Outline of my draft plan for creators, freelancers, and entrepreneurs empowered by the Substack networkmedium.com
I recently wrote a book titled Substack Mastery. It already became a best seller on Amazon. If you are interested, I decided to share the early version as one chapter a day for my beta readers. Here are the available chapters on this this platform which also provides free access to non-members.
Today I wrote about my monthly progress on eight different platforms to give an idea to fellow writers. It is an independent review and could be valuable for aspiring writers.
An In-Depth Performance Review of 8 Major Platforms I Contributed to This Month: Key Insights and…
Discover an independent and comprehensive analysis of my contributions and performance across multiple platforms…medium.com
Please explore some leading newsletters featured by ILLUMINATION-Curators in episode 11 released earlier today. It is an excellent collaboration tool for growing your Substack profile and newsletters.
Substack Mastery Featured Newsletters: Episode 11
Curated newsletters of writers contributing to the Substack Mastery publication on Medium for joyful collaboration and…medium.com
Links to Previous Interview Interviews
I interviewed other writers on this platform. The following links will allow you to easily access them. Follow the writers who resonate with you.
Interview Biswanath Datta,Interview Veronica Llorca-Smith,Interview James King, Interview Lauren Grawert, MD,InterviewJerry Keszka, Interview Davor Katusic,Interview David Gerken,Interview Claudio D’Andrea, Interview William Spivey,Interview James Boylan, Interview Ruby Noir, Interview Brother Bhunru, Interview Joshua Mason, Interview Michelle Mariscal, Interview Tim Denning, Interview Wendi Gordon, Interview Elle, Interview Waleed Mahmud Tariq, Interview Bill Petro, Interview Sylvain Zyssman, Interview Matthew Bamberg, Interview Øivind H. Solheim, Interview Abhishek Biswas, Interview Payal Koul, Interview Matt Lillywhite, Interview Genius Turner, Interview Shirley Willett, Interview David Mokotoff, MD, Interview Martin D. Hirsch, Interview Gill McCulloch, Interview Adelia Ritchie, PhD, Interview Dr. Lutz Kraushaar, Interview Tim Denning, Interview Lorwen Harris Nagle, PhD, Interview Matt Williams-Spooner, Ph.D., Interview Pernoste & Dahl, Interview Luay Rahil, Interview Melissa Kalt, MD, Interview Ayodeji Awosika, Interview Dr. Preeti Singh, Interview Dr. ADAM TABRIZ, Interview Dr John Frederick Rose, Interview Yogesh Haribhau Kulkarni (PhD), Interview Hakima T A N T R I K A, Interview Mark Sanford, Ph.D, Interview Raymond M.E. Aguirre, Interview Keri Mangis, Interview John D. Leavy, Interview Sinem Günel, Interview Toni Koraza, Interview Annelise Lords, Interview, Mike Zillo, Interview Aurora Eliam, CMP, Interview Charles Roast, Interview Libby Mitchell, Interview Timothy Key, Interview, Christopher D. Connors, Interview Desiree Driesenaar, Interview Jill Ebstein, Interview Bill Abbate, Interview Anita Lesko, Interview John Cousins, Interview Ali Qutmiera, Interview Roxanna Azimy, Interview Karen Madej, Interview Celtic Chameleon, Interview Maïa Belart, Interview Kevin Buddaeus, Interview Rasheed Hooda, Interview Julia E Hubbel, Interview Suntonu Bhadra, Interview Aisha Yusuf, Interview Sharon Hurley Hall, Interview Angel Joy, Interview Tim Maudlin, Interview Mallika Vasak, Interview Yannis Dokos, Interview Lawson Wallace, Interview Chelsea Renee MAT, Interview Earnest Painter, Interview MaryJo Wagner, PhD, Interview Phil Truman, Interview Martine Weber, Interview Michael Patanella, Interview Tree Langdon, Interview Holly Jahangiri, Interview Aric D Mayer, Interview Chris Hedges , Interview Paroma Sen, Interview Jeff Hanlon, Interview Chowa Sekai, Interview Marianna Saver, Interview Annelise Lords, Interview Amy Cottreau, Interview Sabana Grande, Interview, Agnes Laurens, Interview P.G. Barnett, Interview Liam Ireland, Interview Jith
Thank you for reading my perspectives. I wish you a healthy and happy life.
If you are a new reader, you may check out some of my topics, including the brain, mental health, cognitive function, significant health conditions, longevity, nutrition/food, valuable nutrients, ketogenic lifestyle, self-healing, weight management, writing/reading, including 100+ Insightful Life Lessons from My Circles for the Last 50+ Years.
I publish my health and wellness stories on EUPHORIA and share distilled versions on SUBSTACK. My posts do not include professional or health advice. I only document my reviews, observations, experiences, and perspectives to provide information and create awareness.
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This story was originally published at DigitalMehmet.com blogs for free access.
If you are a writer, blogger, YouTuber, or a Podcasters you can join my site as guess creators. I can amplify your voice using my vast network globally. Here is he application form.
Guidance to Guest Bloggers on Digitalmehmet — Dr Mehmet Yildiz
Digitalmehmet.com now offers guest blogging service to Substack writers and storytellers from Medium.com. This service…digitalmehmet.com
Our media coordinator and film maker Aiden (Owner of Illumination Gaming) also re-branded our YouTube channel to support Substack Mastery community better.
How to Use the ILLUMINATION Substack Mastery YouTube Channel to Grow Your Audience
Practical tips to upload your videos to our community channel as writers on Medium, Substack, and other platformsmedium.com
You are welcome to join the ILLUMINATION Community on Medium and Substack. And join our Substack Mastery to build your audience.
Get an email whenever Dr Mehmet Yildiz publishes. He is a top writer and editor on Medium.
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Originally published at digitalmehmet.com
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