India skipper Virat Kohli said that his wife, Anushka Sharma, has been a “pillar of strength” for him, and they both have “detailed conversations” on how to tackle negativity.
The couple first met during an ad shoot in the year 2013, and it did not take too long for them to feel the sparks. While the two never shouted from the rooftops about their budding love, they neither tried to hide in front of the media. However, they made sure to never let their relationship details become a daily scoop for the media mills to serve with breakfast. And hence, they kept all the details of their 2017 wedding hidden from the gossipmongers.
Virat Kohli talks of having a life partner that understands him
“From a mental point of view, I have a lot of conversations with my wife. Anushka and I have such great detailed conversations about the complexity of the mind and how it can pull you into negativity and what are the things that matter to put things into perspective,” Kohli said during a conversation with former England first-class cricketer Mark Nicholas on his podcast — ‘Not Just Cricket’.
“She has been a pillar of strength for me in that regard. Because she herself is at a level where she had to deal with a lot of that negativity. So she understands my situation and I understand her situation. And to be able to have a life partner that understands exactly what you are thinking, feeling and what you are going through, I do not quite know if I would have had that clarity if she was not in my life,” he added.
He then added “For me, personally, that was a revelation that you could feel that lonely even though you a part of a big group. I won’t say I didn’t have people that I could speak to but not having a professional to speak to who could understand what I am going through completely, I think is a huge factor. I think I would like to see it change. Someone that you can go to at any stage, have a conversation around, and say ‘Listen this is what I am feeling, I am finding it hard to even go to sleep, I feel like I don’t want to wake up in the morning. I have no confidence in myself, what do I do?’“
Kohli also revealed former India batsman Sachin Tendulkar’s advice to him which he “took on board” and helped him change his mindset and tackle negativity. “I did have a chat with him about the mental side of things as well and the thing that he told me was, in cricket what he experienced was if you are going through a strong negative feeling and if that is coming into your system regularly, it is best to let it pass. If you start fighting that feeling, it grows stronger. So, that is the advice I took on board and my mindset really opened up from then on,” he said.