Meta-analysis is a statistical technique used for combining the findings from independent studies to identify patterns, discrepancies, and overall effects. This paper provides a thorough review of the meta-analysis method, including its methodology, applications, advantages, and limitations. By synthesizing data across multiple studies, meta-analysis increases statistical power and improves estimates of effect size, offering robust insights that are often more reliable than those derived from individual studies.
Introduction
Meta-analysis has become a pivotal research tool in various fields including medicine, psychology, education, and social sciences. It addresses the problem of limited sample sizes and inconsistent findings across studies by aggregating results to draw more generalized conclusions. This paper explores the fundamental principles of meta-analysis, its procedural steps, and the importance of addressing heterogeneity and publication bias in research synthesis.
Methodology of Meta-Analysis
Literature Search and Study Selection:
Detailed description of systematic search strategies to identify relevant studies.
Criteria for inclusion and exclusion of studies, focusing on study design, quality, and relevance.
Data Extraction and Coding:
Procedures for extracting necessary data from selected studies.
Coding strategies for categorical and continuous variables.
Statistical Analysis:
Explanation of effect size computation, such as odds ratios, risk ratios, and standardized mean differences.
Techniques for aggregating effect sizes, including fixed-effects and random-effects models.
Assessment of heterogeneity using statistics like I² and Q-test.
Exploration of potential moderators through subgroup analysis or meta-regression.
Assessment of Publication Bias:
Methods for detecting publication bias, such as funnel plots and Egger’s test.
Applications of Meta-Analysis
Medical Sciences: Enhancing evidence-based medicine by combining results from clinical trials.
Social Sciences: Addressing broad questions about human behavior by synthesizing research findings.
Environmental Studies: Evaluating the impact of interventions on environmental outcomes.
Advantages of Meta-Analysis
Increased Power and Precision: Ability to detect effects that individual studies may not.
Resolution of Controversies: Capability to reconcile conflicting results from different studies.
Policy Making: Providing evidence that can guide decision-making processes.
Limitations and Challenges
Variability in Study Quality: Impact of including studies of varying quality on the overall analysis.
Heterogeneity: Challenges posed by variations in study populations, settings, and designs.
Publication Bias: The tendency of publishing only studies with positive findings affecting the meta-analysis outcome.
Case Study
A detailed case study on a meta-analysis conducted in the field of cardiovascular research, illustrating the process and impact of this technique in advancing understanding of drug efficacy.
Conclusion
Meta-analysis serves as a powerful tool that can enhance understanding and inform practice across various disciplines. While it presents certain challenges, its ability to synthesize large bodies of research and provide high-level evidence supports its continued use and development. Future research should focus on improving methodologies for handling data diversity and enhancing transparency in the meta-analysis process.
References
Borenstein, M., Hedges, L. V., Higgins, J. P., & Rothstein, H. R. (2021). Introduction to meta-analysis. John Wiley & Sons.
Crits-Christoph, P. (1992). A Meta-analysis. American journal of Psychiatry, 149, 151-158.
Dehalwar, K., & Sharma, S. N. (2024). Exploring the Distinctions between Quantitative and Qualitative Research Methods. Think India Journal, 27(1), 7-15.
Field, A. P., & Gillett, R. (2010). How to do a meta‐analysis. British Journal of Mathematical and Statistical Psychology, 63(3), 665-694.
Guzzo, R. A., Jackson, S. E., & Katzell, R. A. (1987). Meta-analysis analysis. Research in organizational behavior, 9(1), 407-442.
Hedges, L. V., & Tipton, E. (2010). Meta-analysis. Handbook of Behavioral Medicine: Methods and Applications, 909-921.
Hunter, J. E., & Schmidt, F. L. (1982). Meta-analysis. In Advances in educational and psychological testing: Theory and applications (pp. 157-183). Dordrecht: Springer Netherlands.
Sharma, S. N. Techniques of Meta-Analysis for Unlocking Knowledge.
Within the intricate tapestry of human society lies the fundamental framework of family and social structures. These interconnected webs of relationships not only define our sense of belonging but also shape our identities, behaviors, and overall well-being. By exploring the nuances of family dynamics and broader social networks, we gain invaluable insights into the fabric of society and the mechanisms that underpin human interaction and development.
The Vital Role of Family: At the heart of society, families serve as the nucleus around which our lives revolve. Whether through the traditional nuclear family or the expansive networks of extended kin, familial bonds provide a sanctuary where values are instilled, traditions are passed down, and emotional support is freely given. Within this intimate sphere, individuals learn to navigate the complexities of human relationships, laying the groundwork for their journey through life.
Moreover, families serve as the primary agents of socialization, molding individuals into active participants within their respective communities. From the earliest stages of development, children absorb cultural norms, ethical principles, and behavioral patterns through interactions with their families. These formative experiences not only shape their worldview but also equip them with the skills and resilience needed to navigate the wider social landscape.
Yet, the concept of family is as diverse as the societies in which it exists. Cultural variations, economic realities, and shifting social norms all contribute to the kaleidoscope of family structures observed worldwide. From multigenerational households to single-parent families, each configuration reflects unique values and priorities, underscoring the adaptability of the familial unit in response to changing circumstances.
Navigating Change and Adversity: In the midst of societal transformations, families grapple with an array of challenges ranging from economic hardship to shifting gender roles. Urbanization, globalization, and technological advances have reshaped the fabric of family life, ushering in an era of unprecedented complexity and diversity. While these changes may strain traditional notions of family, they also present opportunities for growth, adaptation, and redefinition.
For instance, the rise of blended families and co-parenting arrangements underscores the resilience of familial bonds in the face of divorce and remarriage. Similarly, same-sex partnerships challenge conventional definitions of family, highlighting the fluidity and inclusivity inherent in modern family structures. By embracing diversity and fostering open dialogue, families can harness the strength of their collective experiences to navigate change and adversity.
Beyond the Family Unit: Exploring Social Networks However, the influence of social structures extends far beyond the confines of the family unit. Communities, comprising diverse networks of relationships and affiliations, serve as vital extensions of familial support. Within these communal spaces, individuals forge connections, share resources, and collaborate on shared goals, fostering a sense of belonging and solidarity.
From neighborhood associations to religious congregations, social structures provide avenues for social interaction, mutual support, and collective action. By participating in community life, individuals not only strengthen their social ties but also contribute to the broader fabric of society. Moreover, communities play a crucial role in addressing systemic challenges such as poverty, inequality, and social injustice, amplifying the voices of marginalized groups and fostering social change.
Conclusion: In essence, family and social structures form the cornerstone of human society, weaving a tapestry of interconnected relationships and shared experiences. From the intimate bonds of the family unit to the expansive networks of community and society, these structures provide the foundation for individual growth, collective well-being, and societal resilience. As we navigate the complexities of the modern world, understanding and nurturing these bonds are essential for building inclusive, thriving communities where all individuals can flourish.
References
Alesina, A., & Giuliano, P. (2010). The power of the family. Journal of Economic growth, 15, 93-125.
Becker, G. S., & Murphy, K. M. (1988). The family and the state. The Journal of Law and Economics, 31(1), 1-18.
Bernardes, J. (1997). Family studies: An introduction. Psychology Press.
Hardwig, J. (1990). What about the family?. Hastings Center Report, 20(2), 5-10.
In the intricate web of social interactions that defines human society, groups play a crucial role. From shaping our identities to influencing our behaviors and beliefs, groups hold immense significance in our lives. Sociologists categorize these groups into various types, each serving distinct functions and exerting different levels of influence. Among these classifications, primary, secondary, and reference groups stand out as fundamental categories in understanding the dynamics of human socialization and interaction.
Primary groups are characterized by close-knit, intimate relationships and frequent interaction among their members. These groups typically involve strong emotional bonds, mutual support, and a sense of belonging. Family, close friends, and small social circles are typical examples of primary groups.
Within primary groups, individuals experience a deep level of emotional connection and intimacy. Members often share values, norms, and personal experiences, contributing to a strong sense of solidarity. Communication within primary groups tends to be informal and personal, with individuals feeling comfortable expressing their true selves without fear of judgment.
Primary groups play a fundamental role in socialization, providing emotional support, validation, and a sense of identity. They serve as a crucial source of companionship, guidance, and emotional security, shaping individuals’ attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors from an early age.
Secondary Groups
In contrast to primary groups, secondary groups are larger, more formal, and often formed for specific purposes or goals rather than for deep interpersonal relationships. Examples of secondary groups include workplaces, academic institutions, sports teams, and professional organizations.
Secondary groups are characterized by a more impersonal and instrumental approach to relationships. Interaction within these groups is often task-oriented, focusing on achieving common objectives rather than fostering emotional bonds. While members of secondary groups may share common interests or goals, the relationships tend to be less intimate and enduring compared to those in primary groups.
Despite their impersonal nature, secondary groups play a crucial role in society by facilitating cooperation, collaboration, and the achievement of collective goals. They provide opportunities for individuals to network, acquire new skills, and pursue shared interests beyond their immediate social circles.
Reference Groups
Reference groups serve as benchmarks for individuals to evaluate their own attitudes, behaviors, and achievements. These groups may not necessarily involve direct interaction or membership but exert influence through comparison and aspiration. Reference groups can be both real (e.g., a professional organization) or imaginary (e.g., celebrities or fictional characters).
Individuals often identify with and aspire to emulate the values, lifestyles, and behaviors of reference groups that they perceive as desirable or prestigious. The influence of reference groups can shape individuals’ self-concept, aspirations, and decision-making processes across various domains, including career choices, consumer behavior, and social activities.
Reference groups play a significant role in shaping social norms, trends, and cultural practices by setting standards of acceptance and approval. Advertisers and marketers frequently leverage the concept of reference groups in shaping consumer preferences and influencing purchasing decisions by associating products with aspirational lifestyles or social identities.
Comparison of Different Types of Groups
Here’s a comparative table outlining the key differences between primary, secondary, and reference groups:
Aspect
Primary Groups
Secondary Groups
Reference Groups
Size
Small
Larger
Varies (can be small or large)
Relationships
Intimate, close-knit
Less intimate, task-oriented
May not involve direct interaction
Interaction
Frequent, informal
Less frequent, more formal
May involve indirect influence
Purpose
Emotional support, identity
Goal-oriented, task completion
Comparison, aspiration
Membership
Based on personal connections
Based on shared interests or goals
Can be real or imaginary
Examples
Family, close friends
Workplace, sports teams
Professional organizations, celebrities
This table provides a clear comparison of the main characteristics of primary, secondary, and reference groups, highlighting their differences in size, relationships, interaction, purpose, membership, and examples.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the concept of groups encompasses a diverse array of social structures that play distinct roles in shaping individuals’ lives and societies as a whole. Primary groups foster intimate relationships, emotional support, and identity formation, while secondary groups facilitate cooperation, collaboration, and goal achievement. Reference groups serve as benchmarks for comparison and aspiration, influencing individuals’ attitudes, behaviors, and aspirations. Understanding the dynamics of primary, secondary, and reference groups provides valuable insights into the complexities of human socialization, interaction, and cultural dynamics.
References
Anderson, C., & Kilduff, G. J. (2009). The pursuit of status in social groups. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 18(5), 295-298.
Barth, F. (2010). Introduction to ethnic groups and boundaries: The social organization of cultural difference. Selected studies in international migration and immigrant incorporation, 1, 407.
Conover, P. J. (1988). The role of social groups in political thinking. British Journal of Political Science, 18(1), 51-76.
Dehalwar, K. Empowering Women and Strengthening Communities: The Role of Community-Based Organizations (CBOs).
Olsson, A., Ebert, J. P., Banaji, M. R., & Phelps, E. A. (2005). The role of social groups in the persistence of learned fear. Science, 309(5735), 785-787.
Sharma, S. N. (2016). Introduction to Sociology. New Perspectives in Sociology and Allied Fields, 1.
Tajfel, H. E. (1978). Differentiation between social groups: Studies in the social psychology of intergroup relations. Academic Press.
Mindfulness and Meditation: Practicing mindfulness and meditation can help you become more aware of your thoughts and feelings without judgment, allowing you to better manage them.
Physical Exercise: Engaging in regular physical activity can release endorphins, which are natural mood lifters. Exercise also helps reduce stress and anxiety.
Healthy Lifestyle: Maintaining a balanced diet, getting enough sleep, and avoiding excessive alcohol and caffeine intake can all contribute to better emotional regulation.
Seeking Support: Talking to friends, family members, or a therapist about your feelings can provide validation, support, and perspective.
Creative Outlets: Engaging in creative activities like painting, writing, or playing music can be therapeutic and help channel negative emotions into something constructive.
Setting Boundaries: Learning to say no and setting boundaries in your personal and professional life can help prevent feelings of overwhelm and resentment.
Positive Self-Talk: Practice replacing negative self-talk with positive affirmations and realistic perspectives.
Gratitude Practice: Keeping a gratitude journal or simply taking time each day to reflect on things you’re grateful for can shift your focus away from negativity.
Taking Breaks: Sometimes, taking a break from the source of negative feelings, whether it’s work, social media, or other stressors, can give you the space you need to recharge and gain perspective.
Professional Help: If negative feelings persist or interfere with your daily functioning, seeking help from a mental health professional can provide personalized support and treatment.
Remember that coping strategies are personal, and it’s essential to find what works best for you. It’s also okay to seek help when needed and to prioritize your mental health.
Meta-analysis, a statistical technique that combines and synthesizes data from multiple independent studies, has become a cornerstone in scientific research. By aggregating findings from various studies on a specific topic, meta-analysis provides a more comprehensive and robust understanding of the subject matter. This article explores the concept of meta-analysis, its methodology, advantages, and limitations, emphasizing its crucial role in advancing research across diverse disciplines.
Understanding Meta-Analysis:
Meta-analysis involves the systematic review and quantitative synthesis of data from multiple studies. The primary goal is to pool data to draw more accurate and reliable conclusions than those possible from individual studies alone. This approach helps researchers overcome limitations associated with small sample sizes, variability in study designs, and potential publication biases.
Key Components of Meta-Analysis:
Literature Review: Conducting a thorough literature review is the first step in meta-analysis. Researchers identify relevant studies, ensuring a comprehensive understanding of the existing body of work on the chosen topic.
Study Selection Criteria: Establishing clear inclusion and exclusion criteria is crucial to ensure the selected studies are comparable and relevant to the research question. This step helps maintain the integrity of the meta-analysis.
Data Extraction: Data from each included study are systematically extracted. This involves collecting information on study design, participant characteristics, interventions or exposures, outcomes, and statistical results.
Effect Size Calculation: The effect size quantifies the magnitude of the relationship between variables or the intervention’s impact. Common effect size measures include odds ratios, risk ratios, and standardized mean differences.
Statistical Analysis: Meta-analysis employs statistical techniques to combine the results of individual studies. Weighting is applied to account for study size, and heterogeneity tests assess the variability between studies.
Advantages of Meta-Analysis:
Increased Statistical Power: Meta-analysis enhances statistical power by combining data from multiple studies, allowing researchers to detect smaller effect sizes that may be overlooked in individual studies.
Generalizability: Pooling data from diverse studies increases the generalizability of findings, providing a more comprehensive understanding of the research question across different populations and contexts.
Identifying Patterns and Trends: Meta-analysis enables the identification of patterns or trends that may not be evident in individual studies, offering a more holistic view of the research landscape.
Resolution of Inconsistencies: Conflicting findings in individual studies can be reconciled through meta-analysis. By exploring sources of heterogeneity, researchers can identify factors contributing to discrepancies and refine their interpretations.
Limitations of Meta-Analysis:
Publication Bias: Meta-analyses are susceptible to publication bias, as studies with significant or positive results are more likely to be published. This bias can distort the overall findings and affect the validity of the meta-analysis.
Heterogeneity: Variability in study designs, participant characteristics, and methodologies can contribute to heterogeneity, challenging the synthesis of results. Researchers must carefully assess and address heterogeneity in their analyses.
Quality of Included Studies: Meta-analyses are only as robust as the studies included. If the quality of the individual studies is low, the overall meta-analysis may be compromised.
Conclusion:
Meta-analysis stands as a powerful tool in the researcher’s arsenal, offering a methodical and quantitative approach to synthesizing evidence from diverse studies. While it has its limitations, when conducted rigorously, meta-analysis provides a valuable means of drawing more reliable conclusions and advancing our understanding of complex phenomena across various disciplines. As research methodologies continue to evolve, meta-analysis remains a key player in the pursuit of knowledge and scientific progress.
References
Dehalwar, K., & Singh, J. (2015). A Critical Evaluation of the main Causes of Water Management Problems in Indian Urban Areas. International Research Journal of Environment Sciences. 4, 8.
Dehalwar, K., & Sharma, S. N. (2023). Fundamentals of Research Writing and Uses of Research Methodologies.
Sharma, S. N. (2019). Review of most used urban growth models. International Journal of Advanced Research in Engineering and Technology (IJARET), 10(3), 397-405.
Sharma, S. N. Techniques of Meta-Analysis for Unlocking Knowledge.
The Vidarbha region of Maharashtra primarily consists of four major cities. Nagpur being the largest has a huge rural population which is deprived of stable sources of income and is riddled with social problems including alcoholism. The primary contributor to the alcoholism problem is the male population. Inadvertently, the women of the household have to take up the responsibility of earning the bread. In regions lacking educational infrastructure, women have to not only overcome sexism, misogyny and toxic masculinity to earn, but they also have to battle the unavailability of jobs and the unwillingness of employers to employ women just to keep the food on the table. Out of the 48 lakh unemployed people in Maharashtra, the Vidarbha region contributes 6 lakh of them. Although an older report, according to the 2013-14 Report on District Level Estimates for the state of Maharashtra, Nagpur reported 27% unemployment in urban areas and a staggering 55.3% in rural areas. As mentioned earlier, this was a relatively old statistic. However, going through the Covid-19 pandemic hasn’t done any good in the rural employment sector.
Taking the dire unemployment situation into consideration as well as considering the rising issue of alcoholism amongst the general male population in the region, it has also given rise to domestic violence, marital rape and sexual assault under influence. The Covid-19 pandemic and the Lockdown made this situation a lot worse as unemployment was peaking and the availability of alcoholic beverages was very low. Upon gathering statistics from an NGO called Aroha working for the development of rural women, it was found that domestic violence cases simply multiplied by 2.3 times during the first lockdown (March – July 2020). This is an extremely dire situation and it is continually worsening with the increase in economic disparity and water shortages reaching an all-time high. This is the time when the need to empower women to gain financial stability and independence is the most. The NGO Aroha has taken this as their mission and has been working towards training women in making handicraft items and selling them on an international market through powerful marketing and product development via their brand Rangers.
Rangers is a traditional eco-friendly, high-quality handicrafts store based in Nagpur which sells purses, handbags, lamp shades etc which are made by women from rural areas and all the profit is evenly divided between all women involved, contributing to their financial independence.
Aroha starts by enrolling women who are in dire need of financial assistance. They start by providing them with training in handcrafting, Warli art, stitching, embroidery and block printing. Then, once the women graduate with enough skills, they’re hired by Rangaresha which provides them with employment, stable income as well as incentives for them to work. Aroha is financially supported by Larsen & Toubro Ltd. Since 2004, Aroha steadfastly remained focused on the promotion of livelihoods, capacity-building initiatives and extending training support as well as surfacing as a resource agency for all of the above for the benefit of other allied agencies. With time self-help group formation activities were also undertaken. In the past 17 years, Aroha has helped 1739 women overcome poverty and has made them
capable of standing up for themselves and fighting back against years of oppression. Although the actual statistical data about profits and actual gross income from handicrafts remains unknown and the organisation didn’t provide that information, it is undeniable that the organisation and their vision had been successful in their initiative and continue to empower women to date.
This report is an excerpt of an interview project that i completed for one of my practical classes. I had to interview people working in NGO working for marital rapes analyze the interview.In this project i’ve interviewed Dr. Chitra Awasthi, the founder of RIT foundation that in collaboration with many NGOs to promote gender equality in India.
NATURE OF REPORT
In order to gain insight on the prevalence of marital rape in India and to promote gender and social equality in the country, the students of Mass communication and journalism were instructed to interview an NFPO (RIT Foundation) within the field of awareness through Media
There were no stipulations about the medium used or the questions to be asked. Students were permitted to select their own respondent owing to their comfort as well as good knowledge of the field. The report is directed to citizens of the country and people across nations. The report aims to start a conversation on this topic, to give women under martial rape the courage to raise their voice and to pressurize the law-makers to criminalize such acts.
MARITAL RAPE
The act of sexual intercourse with one’s spouse without the consent of the partner is known as marital rape. Whether the perpetrator is a stranger or a spouse, it is one of the most horrific acts a man can conduct against a woman. Though marital rape is the most common and repugnant form of masochism in Indian society, it is hidden behind the iron curtain of marriage. 83% of married women i.e. nearly one in every 3 women have been subjected to physical, sexual and emotional violence from their spouse. Almost 31% of married women between the ages 15 and 49 have suffered from sexual abuse cite their current husband as the perpetrator.
Any undesired sexual actions by a spouse or ex-spouse conducted without consent and/or against a person’s will, achieved by force, threat of force, intimidation, or when a person is unable to consent, are classified as marital rape. Intercourse, anal or oral sex, forced sexual conduct with other people, and other sexual practices that the victim finds degrading, humiliating, painful, or unwelcome are examples of these sexual actions.
Rape is a crime that occurs when a woman refuses to provide her consent. It’s crucial to remember that lack of consent doesn’t always have to take the form of the word ‘no.’ It’s reasonable to assume given the circumstances. If a woman consents to sexual intercourse within a marriage because of the threat of harm to her children or herself, the woman loses her right to stay in the house or get maintenance, it is not valid consent. It is still rape.
THE CURRENT SITUATION AND STATISTICS
140 of the world’s 195 countries have already made marital rape a criminal offence. The United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Australia, and Russia are among the countries on the list.
However, 55 countries, including India, China, and Singapore, are countries where it is still OK to rape your wife.
The concept of marital rape has not been recognized until today. We’ve been lobbying for a law to make it a crime, but first we need to gather statistics on rape in marriage.
And according to the latest National Health and Family Survey (NFHS-4) for 2015-16, 5.4% women have experienced marital rape, under this category. But while the data on marital rape in India exists, marital rape as a crime “does not exist”.
And yet 5.4% of married Indian women say they have experienced marital rape. 4.4% of them say they have experienced marital rape in just the last 12 months before this survey. The figure recorded by NFHS-3 for 2005-6 was 9.5%.
But while the data on marital rape in India exists, marital rape as a crime “does not exist”.
The data also includes entries for “forced her to perform any sexual actions that she did not want to” and “forced her to perform any sexual acts that she did not want to with threats or in any other way.” Overall, 2.5% and 3.6% of married Indian women answered affirmatively to these categories as well. That brings the number of married women who have been subjected to what would be called rape or sexual violence if the perpetrator had not been their husband to 11.5 percent.
Despite the historical misconception that rape by one’s partner is a minor occurrence that causes little damage, research shows that marital rape has serious and long-term implications for women. Injuries to private organs, lacerations, discomfort, bruising, torn muscles, tiredness, and vomiting are some of the physical repercussions of marital rape. In addition to broken bones, black eyes, bloody noses, and knife wounds, women who have been assaulted and raped by their husbands may experience other physical consequences such as broken bones, black eyes, bloody noses, and knife wounds as a result of the sexual violence. Miscarriages, stillbirths, bladder infections, infertility, and the risk of contracting sexually transmitted diseases like HIV are all gynecological repercussions of marital rape.
Women who have been raped by their partners are likely to experience significant psychological repercussions. Anxiety, shock, acute dread, despair, suicidal ideation, and post-traumatic stress disorder are some of the short-term symptoms of marital rape. Disordered eating, sleep issues, depression, difficulties forming trusting relationships, and increased negative thoughts about themselves are all common long-term impacts. The psychological consequences are likely to linger for a long time. For years after the abuse, some marital rape survivors describe flashbacks, sexual dysfunction, and emotional pain.
OTHER COUNTRIES’ LEGAL STATUS
In the United States, experts estimate that 10% to 14% of married women are raped throughout their marriage. Researchers discovered that marital rape accounted for almost 25% of all rapes when they looked at the frequency of different types of rape. Given the popularity of marital rape, social scientists, practitioners, the criminal justice system, and society as a whole have paid little attention to the issue. In fact, it wasn’t until the 1970s that society began to recognize the possibility of rape in marriage. Until recently, the usual rule was that a husband could not be convicted of raping his wife because he has an implicit right to sexual intercourse with his wife under the marital contract.
Resistance restrictions are still in place in the majority of American states. There are no exemptions for husbands from rape prosecution in seventeen states and the District of Columbia. There are still certain exemptions for husbands from rape prosecution in thirty-three states. In several of these thirty-three states, a husband is excused from prosecution when his wife is most vulnerable (e.g., she is mentally or physically disabled, unconscious, asleep, etc.) and legally unable to consent. The majority of States have certain spousal exemptions, indicating that rape in marriage is still considered a lesser offence than other types of rape.
When we look at the laws of various countries, we can find that most of them punish rape both within and outside of marriage.
In Australia, for example, if a person has achieved the age of 16, he or she can petition to a judge or magistrate for an order permitting them to marry.
By 1991, however, the marital rape exception had been repealed in every state in Australia.
In New Zealand, a person under the age of 20 but over the age of 16 can only marry with the approval of their parents. For women, the age of sexual consent is similarly 16 years. The New Zealand Crimes Act of 1961 makes no provision for marital rape. In 1985, the marital rape exemption was repealed. In the United Kingdom, a marriage between two people under the age of 16 is void. In 1991, the marital rape exemption was completely repealed.
A marriage between two people under the age of 16 is void in the United Kingdom. In 1991, the marital rape exemption was completely repealed. In Egypt, the age of majority is 21 years old for all legal reasons except marriage. The legal age for consent is 18, and intercourse with a female under the age of 18 is considered rape under the penal code.
Various states in the United States have different laws. In the United States, the marital rape exception has been repealed in 50 states. In Indonesia, the age of majority, as well as the age at which girls and boys can marry, is 16 for girls and 19 for boys. A girl’s legal age for giving valid consent to a sexual act is also established at 16 years. Any marriage that occurs before the age of majority is null and invalid.
LEGAL POSITION IN INDIA
In India, marital rape is legal but not de facto. While in other nations, the legislative has either criminalized marital rape or the judiciary has actively participated in recognizing it as a crime, the judiciary in India appears to be working at cross-purposes. The Supreme Court ruled in Bodhisattwa Gautam v. Subhra Chakraborty that rape is a crime against basic human rights and a breach of the victim’s most prized fundamental right, the right to life, which is contained in Article 21 of the Constitution. However, it contradicts this declaration by failing to recognize marital rape. Though there have been some advancements in Indian domestic violence legislation, they have mostly been limited to physical rather than sexual abuse.
This established the notion that a woman does not have the right to refuse sex with her spouse once they are married. This gives husbands sexual access to their spouses, which is in clear violation of human rights principles and gives husbands permission to rape their women. The rape legislation only applies to two types of married women: those under the age of 15 and those who are separated from their spouses. While rape of a girl under the age of 12 may result in a sentence of ten years or more in jail, rape of a girl under the age of 15 results in a lower punishment if the rapist is married to the victim. When Section 376-A of the Indian Penal Code, 1860, was added in 1983, it made some headway toward criminalizing domestic abuse against the wife.
The Law Commission’s proposed definition of sexual assault, which is wide, complete, and acceptable, could be used in place of the existing term of rape in Section 375 IPC, according to the report. The Task Force, like the Law Commission, stopped short of suggesting that marital rape be included in the new definition. Currently, India’s legal framework is severely inadequate in terms of safeguarding women’s bodily integrity and sexual autonomy.
ABOUT THE FOUNDATION
The RIT Foundation is a non-profit organizationcreated in 2009 by Dr. Chitra Awasthi, an educationist, writer, and philanthropist. The RIT Foundation is collaborating with a number of non-governmental organizations in India to promote social and gender equality.
In 2015, they filed a petition – RIT Foundation v. Union of India writ petition c no. 284 of 2015 seeking to criminalize marital rape. It will be coming up before the Delhi High Court for final hearing early next year.
“The first step to breaking the silence is having the tool to validate,” Chitra Awasthi says. The last refuge of male dominance is the control of women’s sexuality and bodies. It will take time to smash it. However, as a society, we must begin a dialogue and put pressure on lawmakers to act.”
Respondent’s Background
Dr. Chitra Awasthi is the president and founder of RIT Foundation. She has been working as an educationist with children and young adults for the past 36 years now. She is well-known in academics for her psychological insights and comprehensive understanding of holistic living solutions. With a postgraduate degree, a university topper, in sociology from Kanpur University, she has authored a wide range of books on sociology and allied subjects. Her major interest, however, has always been in religion and spiritualism. She has translated, edited, and produced secret treasures from English, Sanskrit, and Hindi, and she is an eager student of spiritual literature in the Indian tradition. Rit International is her first foray into the corporate world. She does, however, wish to help share the same knowledge to children who are less privileged, so that they can benefit from high-quality education and knowledge.
Infidelity can be better defined as any act that violates an open or explicit agreement
between two people, thereby damaging the relationship. It usually means having an
emotional or intimate relationship other than your partner.
Deception is one of the most devastating and destructive things that can happen in a
person’s life. It can lead to emotional distress, anxiety, depression, increased risky
behaviours and cause real physical pain.
All infidelity violates the supposed or implied marital union, whether that be emotionally or
physically.
Relationships in which more than two people are involved are known as Polyamory
relationships. In non-monogamous behavioural relationships, partners can practice flipping
or polyamory (having multiple romantic relationships at the same time). These programs
promote honest communication and consent between all members and is not an example of
infidelity.
Now, how does Infidelity affect society?
Disloyalty to a person is like a storm. When it floods you, you and everyone else are thrown into many different places. When parents are in trouble so are their children. When a house burns down, children and adults are left homeless. The same can be said of infidelity. Confusion, fear, uncertainty, anger, tears, withdrawal, suspicion, frustration, fighting affects everyone in the family and especially children who are naturally more sensitive and rely on their parents for emotional and physical stability and security.
For young adults, infidelity can wreak havoc on trust, and infidelity can have devastating effects on a person’s mental and physical health. The condition is associated with depression, anxiety and unhealthy coping strategies such as poor diet and substance abuse. Some mental health professionals believe that there may be a similarity to post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
Types of Infidelity
• Physical Infidelity: Physical or sexual contact outside of relationships. There may or may not be an emotional attachment between partners.
• Emotional Infidelity: Emotional attachment or intimacy with another person. Emotional affairs can do as much damage, if not more, to a relationship as a physical affair.
• Cyber Infidelity:
social media has made it easier for people to engage in online
messages, chats, forums, or groups with sexual content. Cyber infidelity also
includes viewing erotic stimuli, such as porn.
• Object Infidelity:
Excessive love or interest outside of relationships can lead to
what is known as materialism. This is a situation where one partner is too focused on
something like their job or their phone, causing disruption in the relationship.
Credits – neil webb
Data And Facts
Statistics report that anywhere from 40-60 percent of adults in committed relationships commit acts of infidelity and despite popular opinion, there is no significant difference in these percentages between men and women. Not only has dishonesty in the workplace become increasingly common but it has also become easier to deal with dishonesty on the Internet and social networking sites.
Taoism is an ancient Chinese philosophy. This philosophy was supposedly written by Lao Tzu during 500 B.C.E. We don’t know if Lao Tzu existed. We have no living proof of his presence. Taoism is a philosophy that is based on non-doing. Not getting in your way. Respecting the natural flow of this universe. For example, if the force of the river is on the right side then you’d be a fool to swim towards the left side. Taoism is about going with the force of life or with the TAO. Tao is not a god but it’s us all, every living being is a part of the tao.
One of the key things about Taoism is yin & yang. It talks about the balancing force of this universe. Action and non-action, dark and light, hot and cold. Every example has meaning because their opposites exist. There is no action without non-action or no light without dark. This teaches us to accept all things for what they are. Taoism finds power in the natural truths of life. It promotes harmony. When we accept the natural form of this universe, we become one and attain harmony. The tao can’t be explained or held. It can only be felt by letting go.
“Look, but you can’t see it.
Listen, but you can’t hear it.
Reach out, but you can’t touch it.
Invisible,inaudible,intangible.
Elusive.
The one, the tao”.
• Lao Tzu.
What does getting in your way mean? We often second guess our instincts and in some situations that is necessary. Taoism is all about making things simpler rather than complex. Living in the now, acknowledging everything but still detached from it. Creating your own “way”. Inculcating meditation in your life is one way to do it. I can’t stress how much meditation helps in finding yourself. Taoist meditation is a little different from the normal one. It’s more about communicating with your own body.
Like stoicism, Taoism believes in a modest approach to life. If I were to give a personal example, my mind automatically dived toward the future and I wouldn’t even know that it did. It was an automatic reaction that kept happening. But since I’ve come across Taoism, this situation has gotten much better. It has made me more accepting of my habits and given me a “way” to deal with them. You can’t change everything about who you are, you can accept it and get better at dealing with it. Taoism helped me do that. The teachings of Lao Tzu make you go into a state of Nirvana. That state can’t be explained because it is something beyond words. The tao cannot be held or explained. It can only be felt.
What is Tao? It is just this. It cannot be rendered into speech. If you insist on an explanation, This means exactly this.
I went into the Osho centre expecting a breath of fresh air and a new perspective on life. I had reached my saturation point and was seeking something meaningful. I learned a meditation technique there which changed my life forever. So the process, is that you have to lay down and breathe slower than you usually do. After doing that, you focus on your left leg and try to breathe through it. You move your attention towards the right leg and do the same. That’ll make your legs very light and peaceful. After doing this, you move all your attention to your navel centre which is the centre of your body and breath through it. If you do this correctly then that’ll give you immense harmony and peace. It feels as if all the negative vibrations are leaving your body. After this, you move your focus to your heart and breathe through it. And then from the face. In the end, you try to feel your whole body and try to breathe through your whole body. After this, you reflect on your meditation and take 3 deep breaths.
I’ve been practising this meditation for the last 2 months and it has made me comfortable with myself. I am now more accepting than ever, more confident than ever. It gave me a roadmap to working towards myself. Meditation makes you interact with yourself. When you do that consistently, you become more sure of who you are and what you want in life. I feel if you have clarity in life, everything automatically falls into place. Meditation definitely helped me do that.
I also met people from different walks of life in the centre. Middle-aged people, old people and young people doing completely different things. But doing things at their own pace and getting better at dealing with it every day. I came across a man whose name is Aditya. He is a middle-aged man in his 30s. He is not married and lives alone. In India, more often than not you expect a man in his 30s to be married cause that’s what society dictates. But he was completely free and detached from the social bounds we have. He was an artist working as a freelancer for the last 10 years. His energy was just different from the normal crowd. It was so refreshing to meet someone like that.
I always wanted to inculcate meditation in my life but I never had the discipline to do it until I started going to this centre. Meditation is so helpful for any human being because it makes you more conscious about yourself and when you are self-aware, you tend to make better decisions that affect you and you are aware of your flaws and you respect them. You find a way to deal with your vulnerabilities. I’d encourage my fellow members to go and seek out a spiritual experience free from the bounds of bureaucracy. This experience was personally so therapeutic for me and encouraged me to think in different ways and change my brain pattern towards life. It made me conquer my fear. And the only way to conquer fear is to accept it. I’d leave it at that.
The youth are more affected by this culture & it’s making their life miserable and the most important thing is they just don’t know how to stop worrying enough about it.
The Orthodox or popular opinion of becoming successful and achieving it all very fast ; the ultimate respect status that comes with being the all achiever is Hustle culture, driven by the desire for more.
We are compelled to believe that time is running out and that we must do more, achieve more in less time. The most essential goal in your life should be to prioritise achievement over anything else. It shouldn’t be a big deal to sacrifice your mental and physical health for your life satisfaction. As a consequence, the youth begins to believe. We are constantly seeking more from ourselves, others, and our life. Hustle culture arose from this constant desire for more. It’s also on the upswing.
Now wanting more isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but when it becomes excessive, it’s time to act.
Signs that you are a hustler :
1. You never stop overthinking – Overanalyzing your life and ambitions lead you to constantly put self-limiting beliefs on yourself. Resulting in dread of the judgement, and assumption of the consequences which makes it worse.
2. You want to accomplish everything in one day – Being impatient with your goals and believing that completing more tasks more quickly than others will give you greater recognition and popularity.
3.You want to attain long-term goals in the short term- You focus on making the big leap instead of comprehending that it takes time, patience, and efforts to accomplish anything. Trying to skip the intermediate phases but fail and are left feeling unmotivated.
4. Trying to do all and more at once – You multitask all the time and put your work and aspirations before your needs for rest, sleep, and self-care.
5. Validation is what matters mostto you – when people appreciate your achievements and proficiencies, your desire is stoked, but when it doesn’t, you spiral into self-doubt.
6.You are a materialistic life seeker – Quality of life and ideas don’t interest you & latest trends do. You are leading a typical life because you don’t know how to live otherwise
7.You feel guilty for not being productive enough– Often you feel terrible for putting comfort before your goals. Exhausting yourself completely is part of the process towards success.
8. Being ignorant about you mental health– As you pursue a career-oriented lifestyle, believing that this is the only way to gain respect and prestige, you start comparing yourself to others who are ahead of you and the seeds of self-doubt begin to grown in you.
9.You don’t put your health first – Your health is your most valuable asset and should always be prioritised above all else. Unfortunately, people frequently disregard this and endanger it in pursuit of mediocre accomplishments.
If you think you’re hustler, it’s time to take a moment and reflect. Hope you found this helpful.
Can’t figure out how to sleep better? Below are the best techniques for getting better sleep, from sleep experts and neurologists.
1. Keep Clocks Out of Your Bedroom
What’s the biggest change you can make to get more sleep? Don’t look at the clock during sleeping hours, says sleep expert Terry Cralle. Without a clock, the “chore” of falling asleep goes away. You won’t start doing math in your head and worrying about how little sleep you’re getting. If your room is dark and cool and you’re “in the dark” about how much sleep you’ve missed, you’ll most often fall back to sleep soon.
2. Follow a Sleep Schedule
One of the biggest reasons we don’t sleep is that we don’t respect it. “People say they only have time for 4–5 hours a night,” says Cralle. “But that can be dangerous, with studies showing metabolic changes after just a few nights of short sleeping.”
Wondering, “When should I wake up?” Or, “What time should I go to bed?” Try to go to bed as close to the first full darkness as you can, and rise with the sun. Going to sleep at 9pm, 10pm, or 11pm matters less than keeping the same sleep schedule every night.
Is 6 hours of sleep enough?
Getting 6 hours of sleep a night will sap your focus, moods, health, and well-being. Always get 7–9 hours of in-the-bed sleep time, even if you’re awake for some of it. Even if you feel fine after six hours of sleep, your effectiveness suffers.
3. Get More Daylight
Numerous studies show getting more natural light is one of the top techniques for how to sleep better. Yet we’ve got ever brighter screens in laptops and phones. Those screens—and our brightly-lit homes—are sending silent messages to our brains that say, “It’s morning! Go to sleep 12 hours from now.” Trying to override those messages can be like eating a 32-ounce porterhouse steak right after Thanksgiving dinner. Your body will say, “Nope.”
The upside? One-third of US employees work from home at least sometime during the week. That gives us a tremendous opportunity to work on a porch, park bench or in an outdoor cafe. In winter, sit near a window for a few hours in the morning.
4. Have a Coffee Cutoff Time
Tired of being tired? Try switching to decaf after 2pm. Studies show that even drinking coffee 6 hours before bedtime can rob your sleep time.
5. Try Audiobooks
Listening to an audiobook can help you sleep. Turn the volume down and set the playback to its slowest speed. Then set a timer so it shuts off in an hour. Most phones can set a “stop playback” alarm. Here’s how on iPhone and Android.
6. Distraction Techniques
When your mind has a tricky “job to do,” it stays alert. “Some people fall asleep better with a distraction,” says Cralle. So, here are a few tips for how to sleep better with distractions:
The Navy SEAL Technique
Why is sleep important for Navy SEALs? Imagine trying to sleep in the rain, cold, or in a fire zone, when your life depends on being rested. Thankfully, these hardened warriors have a trick that helps them drift off in two minutes.
How to fall asleep:
Sit on the edge of your bed.
Relax the muscles of your face, jaw, tongue, and eyes.
Let your shoulders and arm muscles go slack.
Breathe out. Relax your chest, then thighs, calves, feet, and toes.
Clear your mind for 10 seconds.
Picture one of these three images:
You’re lying in a pit room in a black velvet hammock.
You’re in a canoe on a calm lake with blue sky above.
You repeat the words “don’t think,” for 10 seconds.
The 2-minute Navy SEAL sleep technique works for 96% of sleepers. The downside? It can take six weeks of practice.
Yoga therapy meets people where they are, connecting them to their own innate healing potential. Yoga therapy clients report experiencing improved mood, decreased stress and chronic pain, and more. See a sample list of research articles on yoga therapy and yoga.
Women exercising in fitness studio yoga classes
One mechanism researchers have uncovered is yoga’s capacity to affect the nervous system by improving our ability to self-regulate. The practice uses methods that work via both the mind and the body, known in research as top-down and bottom-up regulation. Put simply, top-down regulation uses cognitive tools like meditation and ethical inquiry to affect the state of the body, whereas bottom-up regulation uses the body itself, through movement and breathing techniques, to change the state of the nervous system and to affect thoughts and emotions.
In short, the practice of yoga equips us with a comprehensive toolkit to help support regulation and resilience in the mind-body system. Yoga therapy is the specific use of these tools by a trained practitioner.
Click left or below to find out how individually tailored yoga therapy can help with
Chronic pain, including low-back pain, arthritis, premenstrual syndrome (PMS), and other types of pain such as that associated with fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome
Mental health, including concerns like anxiety, depression, trauma and PTSD, insomnia, and others
Neurological issues and complications of stroke, multiple sclerosis (MS), Parkinson’s disease, and traumatic brain injury (TBI)
I have been fascinated by the Japanese and their culture for at least ten years now and I have learned a lot from them. Some of the things I am most fascinated by about the Japanese are their longevity (the Japanese have the longest lifespans of any race in the world), the high importance they place on teamwork, social connections and social responsibility, and their incredibly healthy diets.
If you ask someone the reason why the average Japanese lives so long, the answer you will probably receive is, “because they have a healthy diet”. And that answer is mostly correct. But, as it turns out, there might be more to it than simply a healthy diet. It may also have to do with the fact that the Japanese believe in and adhere to something called “ikigai”, which loosely means “reason for being” or “reason for waking up”.
The Japanese take their ikigai seriously and this motivates them in many ways. It is somewhat akin to the word “passion” in English. It may relate to a person’s career or job, but it does not have to. In fact, only about a third of Japanese profess that their ikigai is related to the type of work they do.
Very often, the Japanese will cite social connections and responsibility as their ikigai. For example, the older generation is respected and highly appreciated. Their opinions and experience are valued by society and this allows them to feel a sense of purpose and responsibility towards others. In other words, their lives matter.
Unlike in the West where our passions mostly take into account what we love to do, ikigai also involves doing something that we love, but it also places a lot of emphasis on a group and fulfilling a role that benefits that group as a whole. Many Japanese are part of formal groups called “moai” and they consider their connection to these groups to be very important in their lives.
A fisherman’s ikigai might be to hone his craft so that he can help successfully feed his family, his moai, or the town, village, or city. A grandmother’s ikigai may be to impart wisdom to the younger generation. A traditional chef’s ikigai might involve preserving ancient recipes and passing them on so that every new generation can enjoy traditional Japanese food. A man who conducts the church choir every week might cite that as his ikigai.
Interestingly enough, a lot of research shows that the earlier a person retires, the higher the risk of an earlier death. This could have something to do with inactivity and being sedentary. It also could have something to do with losing one’s “raison d’etre”, or ikigai.
Some people in the West compare ikigai to happiness, but the two are not synonymous. Ikigai refers to finding happiness and joy in the small, day-to-day activities rather than reaching some final goal that promises bliss. It encompasses finding meaning in the small things. In fact, a person’s ikigai gives them a reason for living even when they are unhappy or miserable in the moment. It is what Victor Frankl wrote about in his epic book, Man’s Search For Meaning. In other words, one can still experience his or her ikigai during times of hardship or suffering. It fosters resilience.
How to Find Your Ikigai
Simply put, your ikigai is where what you are good at, what you love, and what your values are, intersect. When all three of these factors are in line and congruent, it is likely that you have found your ikigai. Try to recall a time when you were doing something and were so engrossed in it that you lost track of time and forgot to eat lunch or dinner. This is often referred to as being in the “flow”.
When you pay attention to tasks that seem to “flow” to you, you will find your ikigai and even deepen your association with it. You will find your life to be more meaningful and enjoyable. Once you notice the things that have meaning to you, you must then take the additional step of incorporating more of those types of tasks into your life. In other words, it requires some action and will not just happen on its own.
This also involves eliminating some things that are not harmonious with your values, that you are not good at, or that you do not like to do. Of course, this does not mean that you can get rid of every single task or activity that you do not like (some people do not like to brush their teeth, but it needs to be done anyway). But it does reduce the amount of tasks that are meaningless to you. Some people delegate these “meaningless” tasks to others to create more time for the tasks related to their ikigai.
One important point to note is that, once you find your ikigai, it will help you see the bigger picture and make even some mundane tasks more meaningful. For example, helping others by conducting research and writing this blog is very meaningful to me. I often experience “flow” and lose track of time when I am writing a blog post. However, I have also come to see that proofreading and correcting my mistakes (not my favorite things to do) are necessary in order to create an article that my readers like and can benefit from.
Knowing what your ikigai is (you can have more than one, although I would be suspicious if a person had more than four or five) not only creates more happiness and meaning in your life, it also can help you live a longer and healthier life. It makes sense if you really think about it: a person is more likely to jump out of bed each morning with vigor if he knows that the tasks he has to perform will make him more proficient at it, happier, and make a difference in the world. Knowing your ikigai also increases the likelihood of you taking better care of your health because your life has meaning.
Knowing your ikigai can be one of the most rewarding things in a person’s life. What is yours?
Are you struggling to be productive while studying online? This unexpected situation is not easy for anyone. We each have to create a new temporary lifestyle! Here are a few tips from Les Roches Global Hospitality Education to help you make the most of your time at home.
Create a designated study area
It is important to separate your studying and leisure spaces to avoid distractions. Your ideal studying area should be quiet, organized, free from distractions and comfortable: so avoid studying in your bed as you might be tempted to take a nap!
Manage your time
Create a plan to help you organize your time and keep track of your daily tasks. You’ll be more effective and feel in control of your day. Scheduling breaks is also helpful. Consider separating study subjects with breaks to help you focus.
Prioritize your daily tasks to achieve
At the end of the day, make sure your tasks have been carried out, and if they haven’t, put them back on your to-do list. Carry them out on the next day according to their priority, but try not to fall behind!
Be ready with questions
Keep track of each topic covered and prepare specific questions if needed. You may want to ask your teacher to clarify any unclear points during live sessions or in discussion forums.
Reward yourself
Striking a task off your to-do list is satisfying on its own, but when you finish a task, consider rewarding yourself with something you enjoy to keep yourself motivated!
Stay connected with your peers and teachers
Human connections are essential, so it’s important to create a support network to stay in touch with others. There are many ways to stay in contact virtually. For instance, you can attend virtual classrooms, take part in discussions boards, or organize a videoconference with your peers, for group work, a study circle, or just to hang out and decompress.
Build your routine
If you’re not used to this study from home situation, it’s critical to establish a routine. For instance, set an alarm, wake up, and get dressed to get yourself into a productive mood. Treat your day like any other, whether you’re going into school or not.
Human behaviour is largely a function of learned habits. To build a new routine, you need to start by forming new habits which will help your brain switch to automatic mode. Based on various studies, it often takes around 21 days to form a habit, so start now!
The situation around the coronavirus requires a high-level adaption. It is indeed challenging, but it’s an opportunity for you to learn and practice self-discipline which is a critical skill to have in life. Learn more about how Les Roches Global Hospitality Education can help you develop the skills you need for a great career.
In 2013, a group of seven boys, all from different backgrounds, who left behind their friends and family to follow their dream of becoming K-pop artistes, were about to debut. But soon afterwards, their hopes were crushed as the bad press from the media, internal strife and lack of proper finance forced them to almost disband multiple times. But they kept on fighting for their dream, even if that meant living in one cramped dorm room and having to beg people to come to their concerts. These boys had very humble beginnings – one of the members, Yoongi, recently had a surgery to repair a torn shoulder labrum. The tear was related to an injury that occurred in 2012, when the performer was hit by a car during one of his delivery-boy shifts.
Flash forward to years later, that same group of boys from South Korea, Bangtan Sonyeondan (BTS), are now one of the biggest boy bands in the world. Among other outstanding achievements, they have multiple No. 1 albums in the US Billboard Hot 100, 15 Guinness World Records and over 300 awards. BTS are the youngest recipients of South Korea’s Order of Cultural Merit award and the first ever K-pop act to receive a Grammy nomination. They are changing the world and the face of K-pop forever, paving the way for others.
For years, BTS struggled to get their music heard. They were not an overnight success, like some people might believe. But because of their struggles and despite of it, they became worldwide superstars and South Korea’s pride and joy. BTS refuse to be confined within the boundaries of the “K-pop” industry, instead often experimenting with different, versatile styles and musical genres like Hip-Hop, Jazz, EDM, R&B, Latin pop, Ballad, Country and Rock among others. Each of the seven members embody various roles and positions in the group, such as dancer, vocalist, leader, rapper, producer, choreographer, and more.
BTS
BTS’s music transcends language, time and cultural barriers; their raw and relatable lyrics resonates with people, going through different stages of life. The healing power of their music does not discriminate. The majority of their self-written and self-produced songs discuss socio-political issues found in contemporary society such as mental health, toxic-masculinity, women’s empowerment, self-love, capitalism, burn-out and the struggles of growing up among other things. Most of their topics are still taboo in the culturally-conservative Asia and are often brushed away as non-existent.
The Korean music industry is known for their “manufactured” and “engineered” sound, where the artistes themselves have no say in what they are singing about, but instead, have their music written and produced by a group of professionals fit for the industry standards. BTS breaks all those preconceived rules by having a voice in their own music. They have started a new trend for Korean singers to explore more complex and impactful themes.
These motifs are often seen in both their studio albums and individual mixtapes. In their latest album “BE”, which was released on November 20, 2020, BTS shared their experiences and hopes during the pandemic, as they as embrace “Be”-ing in this new reality. The relatable lyrics and catchy beats in titles like “Fly to my Room”, “Dis-ease”, “Stay” and “Telepathy” are contrasted with the raw, emotional ballads like “Blue & Grey” and “Life Goes On”.
This album also features their first ever completely English language song, “Dynamite”. It consoles anyone struggling with their mental health during these times and is a beacon of hope for listeners that everything will be okay and life goes on. To me, this album feels like a warm hug from a loved one on a cold winter morning.
BTS’s fans, known as ARMY (short for Adorable Representative MC for Youth) are a group of passionate and creative individuals, from all walks of life, who stand by BTS and each other through thick and thin. Shehrin Tabassum Odri, a digital marketer and an ARMY since 2018, shared her story of how much of an impact BTS has had in her life. “When I was at my loneliest, having hit rock bottom and losing the will to live, BTS was there for me. It was the day they released their ‘Life Goes On’ music video,” she says. “The song was like a wakeup call. It made me realise how many future opportunities and loved ones I will be losing if I give up now and that I’m not the only one feeling this miserable and lost, the members of BTS have gone through this phase too. If they have found a way to stay hopeful for the future to change and better times to come, maybe I should hold on a bit longer too. BTS gave me the hope to keep living.”
“In conservative countries like ours, masculinity is associated with tall, bearded men with deep voices,” mentions Sumaiya Islam, a Nuclear Science and Engineering student. “In a society where men struggle to be vulnerable and be seen as ‘manly’ enough, BTS breaks the gender norms by wearing makeup, jewellery, gender-neutral clothes, and long, colourful hair. They have completely changed my viewpoint on Asian men.” Sumaiya has been an ARMY since 2018.
Atanu Roy Chowdhury shared that the band makes him feel “seen”. “Mental health is affecting our lives, but people don’t want to talk about it. BTS is using the universal language of music to tell the world how important mental health is,” he says. “One of my closest friends died by suicide in 2012, and there are times when it still breaks my heart thinking that I will never see her or talk to her again. Songs from BTS albums help to ease the pain. Having my favourite musicians talk about such issues makes me feel more connected to them.”
By breaking down age-old, ignorant ideas like “men don’t cry” and “only girls can wear makeup”, openly talking about their struggles and sharing their emotions, BTS are showing the world that gender does not have to confine anyone and there should be no one standard of being. Group members Min Yoongi (Suga), Kim Namjoon (RM) and recently, Kim Taehyung (V) and Kim Seokjin (Jin), are known for being open about their struggles with anxiety, depression and burn-out. “I have been called ‘girly’ because I like cooking, cleanliness and keeping my hair long. Even the way I walk has been criticised. Terms like ‘girly’ and ‘gay’ are so easily used as insults, when they should not be,” adds Atanu. “Toxic masculinity is so ingrained in us, and it affects people of all ages. BTS is fighting a difficult fight, and kudos to them for that!” Seeing someone like BTS’ Jungkook be named “Sexiest International Man Alive 2020”, in a sphere usually dominated by white men, can do wonders for brown, Asian men worldwide, giving them an ideal person they can actually relate to. Another ARMY, Niaz Ahmed, shared that messages from the band to “Love Yourself” (a trilogy of their albums in 2018) resonated with him. “Their music was eye-opening, and helped me to start thinking that being happy with who I am is very important,” he says.
Subyeta Sarwar mentioned how being a part of the BTS fandom in Bangladesh has helped her connect with other ARMYs easily, creating deep bonds and long-lasting friendships. Going to different events such as the BD Korean Festival, hosted by BD K-Family, has helped her socialise and meet fellow ARMYs. Since there is a lack of K-pop concerts in Bangladesh, these events are the closest fans can get to experiencing them.
For fans who have been with BTS for a couple of years like myself, it feels like we are growing up with them, experiencing the highs and lows of their lives and career alongside them, not as a distant fan, but as a close friend. There is a popular saying in the fandom, “If you are not a fan of BTS now, it’s because you’re not at a point where you need them yet. Just wait, they’ll find you and come to you when you need to be healed, never too early or too late.”
In the pop-dominated culture we live in, BTS have successfully utilised their music platform to spread the message of social inequality and injustice, which the youth often face. By speaking up about these issues, BTS are not only breaking the preconceived societal stereotypes and creating awareness, they are also urging their fans to do the same. To quote the group’s leader, Kim Namjoon (RM), from his UNICEF speech at the United Nations in 2018, “No matter who you are, where you’re from, your skin colour, gender identity: speak yourself.”
Plenty of exercise. Healthy food. Positive attitude. Plain old good luck. There’s lots of advice out there about how to keep body and brain in optimal shape as the years roll by.
But Louis Cozolino, professor of psychology at Pepperdine University, is deeply engaged with another idea. In Cozolino’s book, Timeless: Nature’s Formula for Health and Longevity, he emphasizes the positive impact of human relationships.
“How we bond and stay attached to others is at the core of our resilience, self-esteem, and physical health,” Cozolino writes. “We build the brains of our children through our interaction with them, and we keep our own brains growing and changing throughout life by staying connected to others.”
Mindful Couple
5 Effective ways to strengthen your relationship:
Spend time with the right people
We generally become more and more like the people with whom we spend our time. The more we see someone model a behavior and see that behavior being reinforced in positive ways, the more likely we are to try it out ourselves—whether it’s a friend having success with a new exercise routine or a partner staying calm during disagreements by tuning into their breath.
One of the most fundamental ways to make sure your relationships are helping you grow is to surround yourself with the right people. Some relationships frustrate us, some make us happy, and some challenge us (and some relationships do all three!). While it isn’t always easy to stop and start relationships, of course, we can aim to spend more time with the people who challenge us.
Create goals with others
Who says that goal setting should be a solitary venture?
When we share our goals with others, we immediately have someone to keep us accountable. It is difficult to stay on track with a goal all the time, but it’s easier if we have someone to help us work through an obstacle or pick us up when we fall.
The social support that we receive from others is incredibly powerful, particularly during those tough times. When the pressure is high, those who have greater levels of social support tend to experience less stress.
We may also be more motivated when we are working toward a goal with someone else. Think about being pushed by a running mate to jog a little faster than you would otherwise. Or giving up your Saturday for a service project because a friend is doing the same thing. Sometimes we need someone else to inspire us to be our best.
Ask for feedback
It’s usually up to us to decide on the areas where we could use some self-improvement. And while this process of self-reflection is important, we can sometimes be bad judges of our own abilities; we usually assume we know much more than we actually do. So why not look to our relationships as a source of feedback about where we can improve?
Feedback is crucial for our development. Research has shown that when we seek feedback and use it as an opportunity for growth, we are more likely to improve over time. How much faster would that process be if we went and asked for feedback instead of waiting for it to come? Imagine your partner’s reaction if you were to ask for feedback on what you could have done differently after a big fight, or how blown away your teenager would be if you asked how you could be a better parent this school year.
Our positive relationships represent a safe space for us to work on ourselves with support from people who care about us. But sometimes we have to make the first move and ask for that support.
Use your broader network
Just like financial capital, social capital is a valuable resource that we can invest in for our own good. The more meaningful relationships we have, the more social resources become available. We often find work or beloved hobbies through our relationships, even at three or four degrees of separation—like your brother’s wife’s friend, who heard about that great new job opening.
In addition to exposing us to new ideas, activities, and opportunities, social capital also frees us up to do more of the things we are good at when we find others to help with the things we aren’t as good at. This has benefits at home and at work: For example, employees are more engaged when they get to spend more time using their strengths. And teenagers are happier and less stressed when their parents focus on building their strengths.
Be grateful
Gratitude has long been promoted as a way of increasing our happiness, but it also motivates us toward self-improvement. If you want a simple boost from your relationships, you can start by just practicing gratitude for them. The act of being thankful can increase our confidence and encourage us to move forward with our goals, perhaps because it tends to make us feel more connected to people and creates feelings of elevation—a strong positive emotion that comes when we see others do good deeds.
So think about someone who has helped you a great deal in the past, and reach out to thank them. Not only will that exchange feel good for both of you, but it might also reignite a relationship that can spark your further growth.
Getting ahead or wealthy in life can be challenging. There are certain daily habits one must follow to achieve success. These habits enable people to use their potential and get things done on time. Many successful and wealthy people are said to have followed or maintained these habits to get to where they are today. So let us do ourselves a favor today by learning about some of these habits.
Everyday isn’t going to be a bliss in our lives. Instead, each day brings with it a challenge and problem of its own. But we don’t have to be upset or defeated by them. A positive attitude is one of the key habits of successful people that you can adopt. It is the habit of finding positive attributes in every challenge you face.
You might be overwhelmed and swamped with problems in your lives, but the idea that one day you will emerge as a resilient and a strong person after going through them can be relatively less draining.
After all, we can only control our reactions and not our circumstances.
The path to success is not always about solitude. It requires you to share your ideas with others and even help others. One doesn’t have to be super rich to help or share with people around them. You can share your ideas with people that can benefit you as well as them. Volunteering for a cause is also a great idea of helping and sharing with your community.
J.K. Rowling says that she used to read anything that comes her way as a child. She states that one must read as much as possible as nothing is as rewarding as reading. Today there are books, e-books and blogs being written on every possible field. You can read from a wide range of reading materials based on your fields of interest.
Reading also helps you develop your vocabulary. You can post or publish your own writings based on the knowledge and vocabulary you have gained by your readings.
Frugality is the habit of being cautious with expenditures. Successful people are very thrifty with their money and resources. They draw comparisons while making deals or purchases and find ways to save money. It is also known as being economical. Economically spending can result in reduction of wastage on resources and money. Thus leading to efficiency.
Success and wealth has often been associated with the habit of rising early. Early risers can devote more time to their work and get more things done. It is again one of the key habits of successful people that you can adapt. There are several benefits of rising early in the morning such as:
Enhancement of organisation skills as you plan your day ahead under a peaceful and calm environment in the mornings.
Rising early gives you enough time to prepare a healthy breakfast which is important to carry on the following tasks of the day.
Rising early puts you at the advantage of being on time. You get the following tasks of the day done without any delay.
Finally, early rising also helps you sleep early without leaving you watching your phone during midnight.
These are some of the habits of successful people you can adopt to be successful yourself.
The phrase ‘healthy lifestyle’ is an abbreviated definition of what it looks like to live a vibrant, active life with a healthy body and healthy mind. Creating a healthy lifestyle doesn’t have to mean drastic changes. Making gradual small changes to your daily routine can have a big impact.
What Is a Healthy Lifestyle? You know the obvious behaviors that describe someone who is healthy and takes care of themselves. A healthy person doesn’t smoke, tries to maintain a healthy weight, eats healthy foods with plenty of fruits, vegetables and fiber and, of course, exercises on a regular basis.
Then there are other elements to add to the list. A healthy person also knows how to manage stress, gets good quality sleep each night, doesn’t drink too much, doesn’t sit too much—basically, does everything in moderation all the time. When you look at everything that could possibly go into a healthy lifestyle, you can see just how hard all of those things are in our current world.
The good news is, you don’t have to change everything at the same time. In fact, the trick to healthy living is making small changes—taking more steps each day,1 adding fruit to your cereal, having an extra glass of water, or saying no to that second helping of buttery mashed potatoes. One thing you can do right now to make your lifestyle healthier is to move more.
Benefits of Physical Activity You know you need to exercise, but there are many excuses not to do it. You’re too busy, don’t know where to start, you’re not motivated or you’re afraid you’ll injure yourself. Maybe you think exercise has to be really hard or it isn’t good enough.
Whatever definition you have about what exercise is or isn’t, the bottom line is that exercise is movement. Whether it’s walking around the block or running a marathon, that movement is exercise and every time you move more than you normally do, it counts.
Healthy Weight Loss or Maintenance Even if you opt for small changes, the benefits are still pretty amazing. For example, increasing your activity level can help you to reach and maintain a healthy weight. If you are currently overweight, small steps toward that goal can have an impact.
Everyone of us, at some point in our lives, would have faced criticism in one form or the other (except of course if we’ve chosen to shut ourselves up in a room and not attempt anything at all in life). It might be about anything – about what you have said or done or not done or the way you dress or about your work, the list just goes on. Criticism pops up everywhere. It’s as much a part and parcel of our lives as the air we breathe, and hence learning how to deal with it gracefully is an important life skill to have.
Is Criticism good for you ?
Criticism, wrapped up and delivered even in the best of the packaging, is not something that anybody actually enjoys. The instant reaction to it in most cases is to close ourselves up and get into defensive mode. So identifying whether it’s constructive or destructive is a key step that’ll help you in figuring out whether it’s good or bad for you.
So, what exactly is Constructive and Destructive criticism ?
Constructive Criticism is a way of giving feedback with an intention of helping you improve yourself. It not just points out your mistakes and weaknesses, but also includes suggestions for improvement and the actions that need to be taken. It can be considered as that much needed reality check which we all need from time to time.
Destructive Criticism on the other hand is given with the sole intention of tearing you down. The reasons for doing that may be many – jealousy, insecurities, ignorance, complexes, boredom etc. Here, instead of commenting on the actions of a person, the focus mainly is on attacking the person and pulling him down. The critic in this case, is not in the least interested in your well being or improvement.
So, as you might have figured out by now, constructive criticism more often than not, represents an opportunity. It helps you in identifying your weaknesses, which you might otherwise be unaware of and enables you to see things from a different perspective. Whereas destructive criticism is more or less an attempt by a person to let his steam off at the expense of others.
How do you identify them ?
Honestly, when you are out there at the receiving end, identifying whether it’s constructive or destructive would probably be the last thing on your mind. But before you pounce on your critic, just pause and take a deep breath. Wait, what ? Yes you read it right. Pause and take a deep breath (Remember, deep breath not an annoyed sigh !You don’t want to worsen the situation, do you ?) Let the emotions flow through you. Do not restrict it but also do not take it out on the other person.It’s not easy but it’s definitely doable. If you find it hard to refrain yourself from blowing a fuse, excuse yourself and take some time out before responding. Setting your emotions aside and getting into a frame of mind where you are calm enough to analyse the situation rationally, is the most difficult but important step to take, while facing criticism.
Once you have calmed yourself down, listen to the other person without interrupting. By listening, I meant active listening and not just nodding along while thinking about ways on how to attack the critic back. Allow the other person to share their thoughts and comments completely. While listening, focus on the content of the comment and not on the tone. Sometimes even the best intended criticisms may sound harsh or even worse, the most toxic comments may be presented in the most tactful manner. So it’s very important that you detach the content from the tone.
At this point, you can try and repeat back what you have heard and understood. Be careful to do that in a non aggressive tone. By repeating back, you are not only making sure that you aren’t misinterpreting their comments, but also helping yourself understand the comment better. When you take a step back and remove yourself from the equation and focus just on the comment, chances are that you may be able to view it through a different lens. At this stage, by analysing it objectively, you will be able to figure out the intention behind it – whether you are actually being attacked or is it just your ego playing tricks on you.
If you are still confused, seek clarification. Break it down and ask questions. When you are asking questions, do it with an open mind and not with an intention to prove the other person wrong. You can ask for specific examples to get better clarity on the issue raised or ask for suggestions on how the situation could have been handled differently. Be genuinely curious in finding the intention. If the critic actually means well, he’ll be able to give you answers or suggestions or atleast give you valid and logical reasons to back his comment, which might help you to see things from the critic’s perspective. Destructive criticism shatters under scrutiny – no logic, no reasons, nothing but just a set of toxic statements thrown at you with the sole intention of hurting your self-esteem and pulling you down.
So now that you have calmly analysed the issue and identified whether the criticism was meant to help you or to tear you down, it’s time to take action.
Okay, but before that, you may now take a moment to appreciate yourself for successfully pulling off the I-Can-Be-Calm-No-Matter-What version of you. A little bit of self appreciation always helps to put that vulnerable little child inside you in a better mood.
Alright, now that you are slightly in a better mood, let’s get to business. Let’s say you have identified the criticism to be toxic, what do you think you should do next ? Tell them that their points are baseless ? Make them understand that you are right and argue until you prove your point ? Or give them a taste of their own medicine and criticise them ? Well, the best course of action here would be to ignore. Ignore ? Seriously? But how can you just walk away when somebody is attacking you and challenging your self worth?
Well, it might sound all philosophical and seem like something that only people roaming about with a halo around their heads can do. But trust me, it is the most logical thing to do, given such a situation. Think about it, here is a person who is trying to derogate and destroy your self-esteem, confidence and reputation using some baseless and illogical set of arguments. Do you think if that person was logical enough he would have stooped to this level ? No matter what you do, understand that he has come with a closed mindset and a fixed agenda, that is,to insult you. Nothing you say or do is going to knock sense into that person’s head. And moreover it’s not even your responsibility to do that.There’s no point in wasting your time and energy on such people, so just let it go. Politely excuse yourself, thank the person for the feedback and move on with your life.
Now, let’s come to constructive criticism. When you receive it, ask yourself ‘Does this align with my priorities ?’ For example, you might be criticised for not making that perfect pasta or for being lousy at tennis. Ask yourself, does it really matter ? Is this really a priority in your life ? Well, depending upon your goals, it might or might not be. In any case it is important that you identify that. And if the suggestion doesn’t align with your priorities, even though it is constructive, there is no point investing too much of your time in it. So, take note of it and ask for suggestions on how to improve, if you feel a need for that and move on.And hey, don’t forget to thank your critic !
Now, what if it aligns with your priorities ? Then set your ego aside and ask yourself – ‘Deep down, do I agree with what is being said ?’ If you can’t bring yourself to agree to it, respectfully disagree. Present your side of the story. Engage in a constructive discussion.Chances are that when you do it, the other person may understand your perspective or vice-versa.Either way it’s a win-win. However, there are chances that you both might not come to a conclusion at all. Accept the fact that everyone is entitled to have their own opinions and perspectives and it’s perfectly okay not to be on the same page always. So just agree to disagree and peacefully move on.
Finally, let’s say that the little voice inside your head secretly agrees to all the charges that you are accused of. In that case, buckle up, it’s time for action. If you find that there is truth in what the other person has said, then do not shy away from acknowledging it. Analyse the comment, deconstruct it and figure out what needs to be addressed and what measures need to be taken to learn and evolve from your mistakes. You may even take suggestions from your critic on the steps that need to be taken. Accepting your mistakes and learning from them is a great way to kick-start your journey of self improvement.
Bottom Line
Criticism comes in all shapes and forms. Neither can you avoid it nor can you control the way others perceive you. The only thing you have control over is your attitude towards it and the way you choose to respond to it. It is important that you identify the intent behind it and take action accordingly. And depending on it, you can either use the criticism as a foundation to build a better future for yourself or choose to ignore it if it’s not worthy of your time and energy. Having said that, I also want you to know that developing a positive attitude towards criticism is not something that comes easy. It takes time, patience and hell a lot of practice. So be gentle with yourself; take it one step at a time. And while you are at it, don’t forget to acknowledge and celebrate even the smallest of your milestones. Good Luck !
Social anxiety disorder (SAD), also known as social phobia, is an anxiety disorder that involves intense fear of social settings. Everyday interactions can cause a significant amount of anxiety, and self-consciousness, due to the constant fear of being scrutinized and judged negatively by people. According to ICD-10 guidelines, the main diagnostic criteria of social phobia are fear of being the center of attention or behaving in a way that will be embarrassing or humiliating.
People experience anxiety in several social situations, from meaningful encounters to everyday trivial ones. They can experience overwhelming anxiety or fear in social situations, such as meeting new people, being on a job interview, answering a question in class, talking to a cashier in a store, answering the phone and making new friends. Even everyday things like eating or drinking in front of others or using a public restroom may cause anxiety. Social anxiety disorder is referred to an illness of lost opportunities where “individuals make major life choices to accommodate their illness”.
Social anxiety disorder is known to appear at an early age in most cases. 50% of people with this disorder develop it by the age of 11, and 80% develop it by age 20. This early age of onset may lead to people with social anxiety disorder being particularly vulnerable to depressive illnesses, substance use, and other psychological conflicts. Generally, social anxiety begins at a specific point in an individual’s life, which develops over time as the person struggles to recover. Eventually, mild social awkwardness can develop into symptoms of social anxiety or phobia.
Social anxiety isn’t the same as just “shyness”. Shyness is short-term and doesn’t impact daily life majorly or lead to excessive social avoidance. Whereas social anxiety is persistent, interferes with everyday life, and disrupts one’s ability to attend school, work, and develop close relationships. This disorder could lead to the following:
Low self-esteem
Trouble being assertive
Negative self-talk
Hypersensitivity to criticism
Poor social skills
Isolation and difficulty in social relationships
Low academic and employment achievement
Causes:
Research into the causes of social anxiety and social phobia is wide-ranging with encompassing multiple perspectives. Scientists haven’t yet figured out the exact cause. Studies suggest that genetics can play a part in combination with environmental factors.
Genetics: Anxiety disorders tend to run in families. Studies suggest that parents of people with social anxiety disorder tend to be more socially isolated themselves, and shyness in adoptive parents is associated with shyness in adopted children. Growing up with overprotective and hypercritical parents has also been associated with social anxiety disorder. Adolescents who found having an insecure (anxious-ambivalent) attachment with their mother as infants were twice as likely to develop anxiety disorders by late adolescence, including social phobia
Brain structure: A structure in the brain called the amygdala could play a role in controlling the fear response. People who have an overactive amygdala may have a heightened fear response, causing more anxiety in social settings.
Social Environment and Experiences: A social anxiety disorder may be a learned behaviour. Half of the people diagnosed had the anxiety worsened due to a specific traumatic, unpleasant or embarrassing social situation. Direct experiences, observing or hearing about the socially negative experiences of others, or verbal warnings of social problems and dangers, may also make the development of a social anxiety disorder more likely. Longer-term effects of not fitting in or being bullied, rejected, or ignored are also causes.
Signs and Symptoms:
PhysicalSymptoms
Shortness of Breath
Excessive Sweating
Blushing
Blurred Vision
Shaking
Dry Mouth
Trembling Voice
Palpitations
Muscle Tension
Nausea
Headaches
Numbness or tingling in extremities
Dizziness
Chest tightness
BehavioralSymptoms
Avoiding what makes you anxious
Fidgeting or other nervous actions
Isolating yourself and limiting actions related to the social situation
Leaving or escaping from a feared social or performance situation
Emotional Symptoms
Fear of rejection, humiliation
Worrying about being left out or being unable to overcome anxiety
Feeling defeated as if there is something “wrong” with you
Feeling exposed or vulnerable around others
CognitiveSymptoms
Racing thoughts
Worrying about what people will think
Believing everyone is looking at you or judging you
Thinking it is not worth the discomfort of trying to socialize
Assuming the worst about a situation or interaction
Analyzing social interactions after it’s over
Negative evaluations of yourself
Diagnosis:
Clinicians use a predetermined set of criteria to diagnose SAD, also known as the DSM-5. The following is an overview, which also corresponds to its presentation and help with the understanding of social anxiety disorder.
Fear or anxiety is evident in social situations, where possible scrutiny may be experienced.
Aversion to situations in order to avoid getting embarrassed, humiliated, or rejected.
If the person is able to endure it, it is often done with intense fear or anxiety
Anxiety experienced by an individual that is not proportional to the situation
If the fear or anxiety has lasted for 6 months or longer.
When an individual experiences anxiety or distress that affects their daily living
Anxiety or fear that is not associated with a medical condition, medication or substance abuse
Treatment:
Treatments depend on the severity of your emotional and physical symptoms and how well you function daily. The length of treatment also varies. Some people may respond well to initial treatment and not require anything further, while others may require some form of support throughout their lives.
Cognitive Behavioural Therapy: CBT is the first-line psychotherapeutic treatment for this disorder. It is a type of psychotherapy useful for treating social anxiety disorder. CBT teaches you different ways of thinking, behaving, and reacting to situations that help you feel less anxious and fearful. It can also help you learn and practice social skills. CBT delivered in a group format can be especially helpful.
Psychoanalysis: Psychoanalysis and psychodynamic therapy involve a therapist helping you to understand underlying issues from childhood that may have contributed to your social anxiety. It is most useful for people who have deeper unresolved conflicts contributing to their anxiety. Psychoanalysis may also be useful in some instances to explore potential resistance to change.
Support Groups: Many people with social anxiety also find support groups helpful. In a group of people who all have a social anxiety disorder, you can receive unbiased, honest feedback about how others in the group see you. This way, you can learn that your thoughts about judgment and rejection are distorted. You can also learn how others with social anxiety disorder approach and overcome the fear of social situations.
Medication: There are three types of medications used to help treat social anxiety disorder –
Being out of the box and not following being a part of the rat race is the new black.
Being trapped inside the box of “log kya kahenge” is something that we all have faced and we still do even if we deny it. With the parents and guardians being supportive and the youth being overtly conscious and aware of their rights, we, as a generation, as a club of the 2000’s, the “gen-z club” are trying to freely reign the things that we want to do ignoring any type of judgement and pushing away the people who pull us down.
We are conquering the world of nonlinear growth pattern and not focusing on the aligned growth pattern which means that we do not focus on just the “conservative” idea of growth. We do not indulge into working like a robot but focus on a nonaligned growth pattern which means that we not only love to work but also focus on our mental health. We understand that we are not in a rat race and believe in living our lives in a comfortable manner.
Why is mental health important?
There is a clear connection between mental health and academic performance. Mental health is important for person’s growth just like a person’s physical health. Imagine working with a broken arm, will you be able to work? No. Then why should someone with anxiety disorders, paranoia, depression, etc., are expected to work efficiently when they can’t even process their mind the way they want to.
Social media and positivity
Being a generation with extreme activeness on the social media, we have made social media a happy, comforting place for everyone. Social media positivity helps us bear things. With innumerable creators creating content that helps us ignore the negativity and LIVE.
Log kya hi keh lenge!
When we start, when we initiate, the paradigm shifts, the pattern starts changing. We have to hold hands and work together. We all can shift the attention from “log kya kahenge” to “log kya hi keh lenge” and then see how the world changes, how we conquer the art of living and being a generation that creates better adults.
We the creatures of this planet are born with numerous feelings and emotions and as soon as we get hold of ourselves we decide for ourselves if a certain emotions are important for us or not. And the emotion that gets the last place in this not so perfect ranking is the feeling that portray us as sentimental, weak, and quite vulnerable that of crying, venting out all that we have deep buried inside us through our eyes, tears as people call them are what we find the heaviest to let out and yet heavier to carry within us. The vulnerability that we believe surrounds us every time we emit sentiments or feelings that are emotionally draining turns us into some being that isn’t comfortable about their own emotions and consequently we crawl further into ourselves becoming more of an emotional wreck than an emotional person.
The salty water that is emitted every time we experience any sort of emotional trouble or low can actually turn in to the best kind of respite from the burden that this world puts on us. The relieving of our tensions through our eyes is quite normal and in fact healthy. Taking into the acceptance that we are having a bad day and that crying it out might be the best part of the day then one must do that. With all the responsibilities and tensions of the world we definitely need some type of respite from that hectic schedule and mostly people want to run away from it but crying can actually be the medicine we need on a long day. Though different people have different ways of getting themselves back after a heavy day but if letting out the tears is your way you must not shy away from it.
A common stereotype that makes people control their tears to the extent that they start getting uneasy and it becomes unhealthy is that of crying being associated with weakness, while in reality it has to be quite strong of a person to be vulnerable enough to own this emotional self that they make of themselves. Physical health has always got priority over mental health for a very long time in the past. But now as the times are changing and we as human beings are evolving the significance of taking care of our mental health has been increasing to the extent that people are normalizing the act of crying as the perfect humanly behavior and no connection whatsoever with it being the deed of the coward or the weak. In fact keeping it in is considered much less brave and as more of the action of those who are not familiar with their own weak side and in consequence do not know themselves inside out.
There is no insistence on crying out loud in front of the people we know or not know, but rather it is about letting out of the fear which resides within us, the fear of losing it all, the fear of staying the emotional wreck for the rest of our lives, the fear of going away from sanity, the fear of knowing the weak, vulnerable person that we actually are, the fear of people knowing or seeing our not so perfect side, the fear of getting everything to its worst end, the fear of not making ourselves what we thought of, the fear of not getting back on our feet, the fear of unknown, the fear that makes us let it out.
The dependency of societies on technology is undebatable. Social media has emerged as a saviour amidst the pandemic which made it very challenging to stay connected in terms of our personal and professional life. However, the recent social media outages have revealed a scary fact: we cannot afford them. They cause damages to as many sectors of society as technology benefits.
Effects on economy
Facebook, home to one of the largest social media networks across the globe, upon recently facing a major outage and disruption in its services like WhatsApp and Instagram, took entrepreneurs by shock as their sales dipped dramatically and they scrambled to cater to the increasingly impatient customers. From beauty and clothing to food delivery, many industries were simultaneously affected. The services were completely stalled for hours which created a lot of stress and panic.
Facebook itself suffered revenue losses of billions and the world economy had to pay the price. The small-scale advertisers, influencers, and content creators were forced into helplessness as their only methods of interacting with the audience and making ends meet suffered a blow. Such financial dependence on social media continues to prove itself a major cause of concern.
Effects on education
Social media has been a boon for the education sector, providing students and educators around the world with ample opportunities to enhance knowledge sharing, despite the uncertainties of a global pandemic. But the outages on educational platforms have proved to be costly. Zoom, for example, suffered major glitches which were very inconvenient and caused communication problems between students and educators, which, in turn, is detrimental for their academic growth.
Moreover, educators also feel the pressure to rush through the materials since these technical issues take much time to be fixed. Many other platforms such as WhatsApp, Facebook and YouTube, which are also used by educators to keep the students updated, upon facing such issues, create a lot of panic and confusion.
Effects on mental health
Social media is constantly used by many as a way of entertainment and recreation. It allows us to relieve stress and cope with day-to-day life. But many people also use it as a form of escapism and eventually become addicted. Outages expose them to periods where they experience extreme withdrawal symptoms. When their mental health and happiness are dependent upon an external source such as social media in the form of validation received through likes and comments, feelings of anxiety, stress and emptiness creep in when those services are stalled for hours.
Not only are they unable to connect with others to reduce loneliness but they also get stuck with their negative thoughts which have a very poor effect on their overall well-being. Research shows that social media is one of the leading causes of depression as it is designed in such a way that people automatically fall into the trap of comparison and information overload.
Is there a way out?
While social media outages are abrupt and often uncontrollable, as individuals, we can educate others and take steps towards reducing our dependence on it in some ways-
Limiting screen time – Instead of scrolling endlessly for hours, social media can be used mindfully by delegating certain hours of the day to it while engaging in other activities and hobbies during the day. This would ensure that our well-being is not compromised and we can successfully achieve our goals.
Spending time with others – Be it a family member, friend or even a pet, we must make sure that we have some company so that we do not slip into loneliness or other destructive habits which can worsen social media addiction. Participating in volunteering work or joining local communities that align with our interests is also a great way to be more active physically and mentally.
Social media detox – Refraining from using technology and social media for a fixed amount of time is also a good method to overcome social media dependency. Taking help from family members and friends, identifying triggers which guide the over-consumption and making a planner to track its effects on daily mood are some helpful ways that can make this process easier.
Choosing alternatives – In the case of finance, we must make sure that social media is never the only source of making ends meet. We must always be prepared and have enough skills to tackle the challenges of a physical workspace in case our social media business comes to a halt. Multiple courses can be easily found, online or offline, which can aid us in the process.
Social media outages serve as a reminder that although it is a great source of education, entertainment and much more, it has an unpredictable aspect to it which can prove to be damaging if we do not gain control over our online consumption. Hence, we must learn to strike a balance between our online and offline worlds.
“Like all technology, social media is neutral but is best put to work in the service of building a better world.”
We the people of new, technologically developed world have a way around the advance, next-gen, electronic in such a fashion that it has started affecting our health to the extent of the worst. The toll that excessive screen-time can have on being’s health is of major concern in today’s highly advanced times. Be it a small town or a big city, be it a young kid or an old man, be it the middle-class or the rich, be it a third-world citizen or a first world citizen, everyone has an excessively disturbing effect on health. With the rays that are responsible of the operation of these electronics are said to be harmful as that causing a heart-attack. Along with many other health- problems the cutting- off from the real world around has to be one of the most unwanted affect. As the world moves forward in the digital world, it moves backward in the health status in the real world.
Ramifications
There are numerous effects in a variety of ways on the human being because of the too much interaction with the virtual world. These effects are not only too harmful but sometimes even life-threatening.
Repercussions on Physical health=
The prolonged hours in front of the screen can lead to a number of physical health problems. These can cause health issues like obesity, weak eyesight, neck and back problems.
With people sitting in front of the screens for hours in the same place can lead them to eat unhealthily and excessively. They become more prone to junk food as an instant food is better than the one taking time to cook. The unhealthy food habits that develop because of the increased hours of sitting, makes the person obese sometimes to the extent of no return to a healthy body.
Weakening of the eyesight is one of the most disturbing affect when more than enough hours are spent in front of the screen. The blue light from the screen can cause problems like eye fatigue and blurry vision. Fatigue can cause inability to look clearly at night.
People usually sit in one place for hours while using screen and those positions can cause neck and back problems as sitting in not so comfortable positions can lead to neck, shoulder and back pains, these pains can be higher than we think. Too much screen time snatches away the person of the sleep that comes to them naturally. As studies have found that people generally tend to stretch their screen time by spending time late at nights, causing sleep related problems, generally loss of sleep.
Mental health =
Depression has been indicated as one of the worst effects of increased screen time along with anxiety. The use of too much of phones, laptops, etc can lead to drop in mental health as they tend to damage the brain cells and thereby making the case of one’s mental health further worse.
Students have generally experienced lack of concentration while studying as the excess of screen time robs them off their focus while learning something new and for the first time. The attention span reduces and the sitting hour for actually learning or studying suffers.
With sleep deprivation and lack of focus as is the effect of some drug addiction, screen time leads to irritable behaviour along with person becoming an emotional wreck. People usually involved in screen time addiction end up staying alone for hours and there by affecting their mental stability and health.
Detoxification
The screen time usage can be restrained by detoxification. There are a number of ways of detoxifying, which is the act of staying away from the screen for a specific period of time so as to reduce the effects that it might have on physical and or mental health.
Switching off the applications is proved to be one of the best ways of staying away from the screen when not so required. Turning them off gives people to more time to spend on other things than just the screen.
Resorting to other activities whenever the person finds some free time instead of gadgets can help them restore their concentration and focus. With recreational activities such as reading, writing, painting, playing any instrument etc can be beneficial for the recharging of the brains.
Making a proper routine to follow including the correction of sleep cycle has to be one of the best ways to regain the lost mental and physical health. With a good night sleep, the less strain on the eyes could bring down the eyes fatigue and irritability levels.
Physically being active is very important if you spend hours in front of the screen. Exercising has been a proven treatment to a lot of health problems and here too definitely is going to be beneficial. With the hours of sitting at least one hour of exercise makes the person gain the lost stamina and physical abilities.
Yoga and meditation have had been famous in India now for quite a long time. These two have proved to be the best cure for most the mental health related problems. Thus even only fifteen to twenty minutes of meditation shows tremendous positive effect on mental health of a being.
Do you constantly find yourself cutting off from people without any reason? The feeling that you don’t belong? A major reason for such thoughts is that you find it difficult to blend in with your friends and family. While such mindset is not something permanent, it can develop from a constant state of neglect and lack of affection.
It is not necessary that such state of mind arises in only those who are generally closed off by nature. There is a larger percentage of so-called ‘extroverts’ who also suffer with the same complexion.
While this situation generally arises from a change in friend circle, or after losing a loved one, breakup, or a change in surroundings. Some other reasons like depression, heavy medicines, illness or other social factors can also be an imminent variable.
Some people can also call it a ‘Retreat’, a means to detach from society in order to better focus on their upcoming projects, a major people comprising this class will consist of authors, artists, and such other people in need of peace and tranquility.
The case is not always same for teenagers and young adults. Retreating from society in an abrupt manner is major teller of mental illness, depression, as it is generally termed. While it is not uncurable, a major support is required from family and loved ones in most cases. Emotional support goes a long way in providing support and a feeling of togetherness.
This does not mean that a person who appears to be detached from the general colorful society is weak. That would be a gross understatement. Such people are generally in need of a closure with whatever is it that they have suffering with. No other person can help solve this condition other than the person who suffers from it. All others can-do is provide an understanding gesture and emotional support.
The best ways to deal with such a swing of emotion could be to try to talk to someone and share your thoughts. Other than that, going out for a walk or eating your favorite dish will help make you feel better! The one thing that is imperative through the whole process is that you will emerge Stronger. A better version of your own self. With a better view of your dreams and desires. The only quality required is to have faith and be kind to yourself.
Think of your future self 5 or 10 years from now and how thankful they would be to you that in spite of all the hardships thrown your way, you held on, that is all that is required.
GOOD SAY OR BAD ADOPTING COPING STRATEGIES OR HOBBIES ARE THE THING ON WHICH NOBODY HAS A CONTROL OVER DURING THE LOCKDOWN.
The COVID-19 pandemic and ensuing lockdown measures have created unprecedented circumstances that increase stress and anxiety, thus leading individuals experiencing home confinement to adopt various coping strategies that contribute to building resilience. Given the novelty and recency of the COVID-19 lockdown, factors of coping and resilience in this specific context of home confinement remain undefined. Some put this time in effective routine to get good result but there were some who waste their time with some bad coping strategies.
SOME COPING STRATEGIES WERE-
COOKING– people have learnt to cook for them-self. People who live alone and deprived from the food delivery option have taken up the ladle, some who have no choice and some who see this as a opportunity to learn or put their confined time to some effective work or activity.
DUSTING AND CLEANING- people have to take this activity without any choice as with this lockdown and without any house help their hands were tied or say only their hands were the one left to do the job. Some saw this as an opportunity to cover their missed fitness routine and some did because they didn’t have any choice but to keep their house clean.
READING- This is one of the good coping strategies people have taken up in this lockdown. Prior to this covid-19 lockdown, people with their busy and anxious schedule and working hours with no time left to give to literature or reading has taken this opportunity for an mind relaxing time with reading .
SCREEN TIME – This is the most adopted and with too much used time, it’s seen as and become a bad coping strategy and habit especially during this lockdown. Most people coped this confined and with too much time on digital screen with movies, shows and net etc, under these most people are kids and students with no school and colleges.
YOGA – Yoga during this lockdown has replaced the gym for fitness routine and mental health also. Some has adopted it to replace the gym but some ha adopted it to relax their mind from this anxious and confined situation. And surprisingly during lockdown it has become a big hit among all age of people from kids to adult and old people also.
Our daily routine can have a toll on our mental health. Work pressures, exam related stress, house responsibilities, overtime with no rest can cause serious health problems and therefore needed to be taken care of. Our human bodies need rest to reset for further work, and when that is ignored we end up getting sick or stressed. As sickness could be treated with medications, we need stress bursting activities too. These activities not only reset our brains for a fresh start but also help us develop the capabilities we never actually cared enough about. These activities help us in getting relaxed after a hectic day or two. There are a number of these activities that can and are helpful in relieving stress.
Hobbies
Every person has at least one or two hobbies that can come as a savior while having a stressful day like, painting, writing, reading, cooking, watching movies, art and craft, singing, dancing etc. With heavy work or studies load people end up paying zero percent attention to their hobbies, but these might help in taking the head out of work for some time and just relaxing while exploring their lost hobbies further. Mostly a person’s hobbies relate to its right part of the brain, which is also responsible for creative development of a being, thus these hobbies can prove to be beneficial in many unexpected ways. Any sort of art form can relieve the stress from a heavy work day.
Music
“My heart, which is so full to overflowing, has often been solaced and refreshed by music when sick and weary.”
Music is to have a magic effect on us while trying to survive through a tiring day. The soft and slow music is to act as a meditation, keeping us at peace and relaxing us. The slow paced music helps us clear our mind and ease up while in a stressful situation. The fast paced music is proven to make us happy or excited while in a low mood. Our brain responds to the happy waves generated by music and helps us loosen up better.
Strolls
With most of the work being desk related or requiring hours of sitting in front of the screen, can be hectic and have unhealthy effects on our mental health. Such a situation calls for a stroll or a walk for at least an hour or so to breathe fresh in park and walk to stretch out our muscles. Walking reduces the strain caused by hours of sitting, thus freeing us from part of our undeserved stress.
Conversations
People sometimes forget the power of conversations. Having work related problems? Talk to your work best friend. Having relationship problem? Talk to your best friend. Having life problems? Talk to your mother. The conversations with right person have the healing power to take you away from a rough, awful day. It might seem like a waste of time to a lot of people but in reality, these conversations hold the power cut off the distress and calm us down.
Breaks
Just like we need an interval in between of a movie or a break in the middle of a show, we sometimes need a break from our daily routine. Little tea or coffee breaks while still going strong with work can be a short term solution but breaks such as- visiting parents, going back to hometown, taking on a vacation, meeting friends, celebrating without any particular reason, can all charge us up to the level that of a fighting war and holding up with pressures then a becomes the easiest task in the world.
Psychological well-being is a significant concern worldwide and India isn’t a long way behind in sharing this. In the event that we assess improvements in the field of emotional wellness, the speed seems, by all accounts, to be slow. Dr. Brock Chisholm, the principal Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO), in 1954, had perceptively proclaimed that “without psychological well-being there can be no obvious actual wellbeing.” More than 60 years after the fact, the situation has not changed generously. About 14% of the worldwide weight of infection is credited to neuropsychiatric problems. The weight of mental issues is probably going to have been thought little of in view of insufficient enthusiasm for the between play between psychological maladjustment and other wellbeing problems. There stay significant issues of need setting dependent on the weight of medical issues and of addressing disparities according to determinants and answers for medical issues.
Progress in emotional wellness administration conveyance has been delayed in generally low-and centre pay nations. Boundaries incorporate the current general wellbeing needs and its impact on subsidizing; difficulties to conveyance of emotional wellness care in essential consideration settings; the low quantities of those prepared in psychological well-being care; and the absence of psychological well-being viewpoint in general wellbeing initiative. There have been various calls for conjuring political will, for upgrading support and for arousing local area cooperation; all with meagre improvement in results.
Along these lines, it turns out to be currently fortunate to investigate the worldview of psychological well-being mindfulness as a method for fighting shame, upgrading counteraction, guaranteeing early acknowledgment, and furthermore animating straightforward and down to earth mediations inside the local area. Today there are open doors as far as developing affirmation of mental problems as key focuses of worldwide wellbeing activity, just as of utilizing new innovations especially web, enormous information and phones in intensifying straightforward field intercessions discovered effective in essential consideration and different echelons.
MENTAL/PSYCHOLOGICAL HEALTH AWARENESS
Psychological wellness mindfulness crusades have yielded positive results. A portion of the procedures embraced to target mindfulness and address shame around psychological instability incorporate interest by relatives, sharpening to treatment and social consideration. Absence of information about the psychological sicknesses represents a test to the emotional well-being care conveyance framework. Examination plays featured the part of local area based frameworks in low-pay nations and has additionally yielded positive outcomes in making mindfulness, in this manner affecting support.
Mindfulness and wellbeing education are two of a kind. Shame and separation are unfortunate results of obliviousness and deception. There are a couple of studies which have estimated emotional well-being education in the Indian setting. One investigation observed emotional wellness proficiency among youths to be extremely low, for example sadness was distinguished by 29.04%
and schizophrenia/psychosis was perceived simply by 1.31%. Shame was noted to be available in help-chasing.
These discoveries support the need to expand attention to psychological well-being. Psychological wellness education is a connected idea which is progressively seen as a significant proportion of the mindfulness and information on emotional well-being messes. Wellbeing proficiency has been portrayed as “capacity to get to, comprehend, and utilize the data to advance and keep up with great wellbeing.” Mental wellbeing education includes acknowledgment, causes, self improvement, assistance of expert intercession, and exploring the data parkway. Mentalities which thwart acknowledgment and proper assistance looking for can be checked by data which is as of now promptly accessible in the public space. There are a lot of instances of mindfulness decidedly affecting emotional wellness results like the Norwegian lobby to lessen the span of untreated psychosis.
THE INDIAN SCENARIO
The WHO has characterized maintainable advancement objectives and explained the effect of psychological instabilities and self-destruction on them. The self destruction rate in India in 2015 at 15.7/100,000 is higher than the local normal of 12.9 and the worldwide normal of 10.6. Self-destruction is the main source of death among those matured 15–29 in India. There stays a huge unaddressed need inside the populace.
The treatment hole, as estimated by the total contrast between the commonness of psychological instabilities and the treated extent, has been observed to be 76%–85% in less-created nations. One of the significant reasons credited to a wide treatment hole is the issue of insufficient assets. In India, deficiency exists in framework just as in HR. Regardless of enhancements in different wellbeing markers, India contributes lopsidedly to the worldwide weight of infection. Our wellbeing pointers contrast negatively and other center pay nations and India’s local neighbors. A huge extent of the populace winds up ruined on account of high cash based medical care consumptions and endures the unfavorable side-effects of the low quality of care. Undertaking moving to no expert local area wellbeing laborers has been suggested as a powerful methodology for conveyance of solid medicines in low-asset settings. Given the critical lack in quantities of specialists, clinicians, mental medical attendants, and social laborers; piggy-sponsorship on essential consideration frameworks and utilizing inventive competitive edges are future approaches.
Anyone can get stress from any situation. Dealing with stress does not have to be a boring routine. Stress-reducing activities are simple, relaxing, and you can do them anywhere.Find out why Stress, Anxiety, and Depression in students increased since COVID-19, and ways to stop them!!
Stress is your body’s response to the physical, mental, and emotional pressure beyond your coping ability. Stress is a silent killer which is responsible for 60% of health issues in your body. Students are more prone to stress since the pandemic.
Let’s see the severity of mental health issues on students.
Onset of Covid-19 Pandemic: Surge in Mental Health Issues
Covid-19 has brought stern changes in our lives. People avoid areas of heavy public congestion to stay safe from any contagious virus.
If you are a student you will know the effects pandemic has brought in your life. You are expected to change your mode of education and take online classes to continue your semester. Many students have seen the demise of their loved ones in the pandemic.
Because of these sudden changes, students have faced extreme mental and emotional pressure.
Lee, Jeong, and Kimshows in their research show that in the US alone, the early stage of Covid-19 pandemic has marked increased stress in undergraduate students.
The research concluded that about two-third of students never used any mental health services. Moreover,
88% students had moderate to severe stress
44% students had moderate to severe anxiety
36% students had moderate to severe depression
The students that were most vulnerable to these mental health issues were female, rural, low-income(below 22K), and academically underperforming students(cgpa<2.0).
The infographic shows the the need for mental health education in students and 10 Stress-management strategies for students to relax.
<a href="https://edupub.org/2021/09/01/10-stress-reducing-activities-for-students-to-chill-out/"><img style="width:100%;" src="https://track2traininginstitute.files.wordpress.com/2024/03/9cd81-10-stress-reducing-activities-infographic-joysi-1.png"></a><br>Made by : Joysi7 from <a href="https://edupub.org/">EDUPUB</a>
Infographic:10 Stress-Reducing Activities For Students To Chill Out!
Coping with Stress
Stress is called a silent killer. Why??
Because stress affects your hormones, blood pressure, memory, sleep pattern, appetite, immune system, and cholesterol. That’s a lot of damage to your health.
But you don’t have to worry about it. Managing stress at the initial level is FREE, EASY, and you can do it ANYWHERE. Stress management at the initial level is done by altering your physical, mental, and emotional status, even without taking any medications. Yay!!
Managing stress in the initial level is your best health investment.
Reduce Your Stress with 10 Easy Activities
1. Take a deep breath
This is a simple breathing exercise. Sit still, relax your body, and try to forget your anxieties. Now, take a deep breath count till 5. Exhale and repeat.
This exercise relaxes you in minutes. When you breathe slowly your heart slows down, signaling your nervous system – it’s time to calm down man.
2. Write yourself a motivational letter
You think no one understands you? Why not write a letter to yourself?
Make an inspiring note. You may add affirmations of your choice, and end the letter with motivation you want.
Just add your name here if you don’t have any clue:
Dear (Your/Name)
I know you are going through a lot. But I know you will be great(insert what you want to be) some day. Keep it up and never give up.
Keep a bunch of self motivating notes somewhere. Whenever you are stressed out, pop one out and read it. You will feel calm and composed.
This is a self motivation technique to calm you. It is your words pushing you to get up on your feet and face that day!
3. Brush up dance moves
If you feel no interest in doing any paperwork then this step is for you. Gen Zs are blessed with all the viral(and cringey) dance moves.
Take 5 minutes to practice a crazy step. Take up a viral challenge(safe, ofcourse). This might sound goofy, but it works brilliantly.
Dancing helps your body release endorphins and finishing a challenge motivates you. The result is positive energy and good vibes!
4. Snacks to help
Certain foods are mood boosters. Your empty stomach makes stress worse. So grab a healthy snack, sip your tea and see magic happen.
Try out variations in your snack including dark chocolate, bananas, oats, and berries. These foods release stress-reducing hormones that will elevate your mood. Stress managing activity sounds delicious.
5. IMAGINATION
Find out which visuals make you happy. Feeling calm starts with your mind. Here check the following steps to reach your calm space:
Plug in your favorite soundtrack
Get into a comfortable position
Close your eyes
Visualize your happy place
Enjoy
This step will manage your stress in an hour, and you’ll end up sleeping like a baby. Visualizing is a guided imagery technique that helps to shift your focus from stress to something peaceful.
6. Keep a Happy Face
You have been told to keep a stiff upper lip to compose your emotions. Many, like me, feel an outburst of emotions that are difficult to control. What is needed is a big laugh. Do you need to force it? Yes you do.
Force smiling releases a stress-reducing hormone that boosts your happiness level, and it’s also free.
7. Clean rooms
Your room mirrors your personality. A cluttered room shows a cluttered personality.
Start by arranging your desk, flipping bits of paper in bins, and re-ordering your books from frequently read to least. Then move to the other areas of your room.
This stress-reducing technique releases endorphins, burns your calories, cleans your room and leaves you with a calm mind.
8. Nature’s touch
A study on the impact of plant’s touch on our body shows:
that active interaction with indoor plants can reduce physiological and psychological stress compared with mental work. This is accomplished through suppression of sympathetic nervous system activity and diastolic blood pressure and promotion of comfortable, soothed, and natural feelings.
doi: 10.1186/s40101-015-0060-8
So bring in the greens in your house, keep a small sapling on your desk. Touching leaves is a great stress buster to gently reduce your blood pressure. Go green thumb.
9. Coloring
People find a variety of activities calming. There are many adult coloring resources available in the market. Coloring is a stress-reducing technique that is a fun and fantastic pre-bed time ritual.
Creativity makes you happier and relaxed.
10. Nap time
Your health is related to your sleep pattern. Sleeping makes your mind to rejuneivate all the lost strength. Loss of sleep can cause altered blood pressure, fatigue, low concentration, and dull skin.
And we haven’t even started talking about chaos when you are sleep deprived.
But taking midday sleep, even for 15 minutes, will change your mood game. Mid-day sleep or power naps is a stress reducing activity you can do at your station. You will feel fresh and stress free.
Final thoughts
Your health is the outcome of all the positive efforts you make.
Pro Tip: Tired doing all the activities?
If you have done all you can to feel better, and still find no change in your mood. Do seek help from your Psychologist. You can also take help from your friends, family or Minister. Frequent mood changes signal an underlying problem. Stress can be more deadly if hidden for a long time.
Stay safe. Eliminate stress for a better life!!
References:
Jungmin . Hyun Ju . Sujin Kim, “Stress, Anxiety, and Depression Among Undergraduate Students during the COVID-19 Pandemic and their Use of Mental Health Services“, Innovative Higher Education, Springer, 2021. doi: 10.1007/s10755-021-09552-y
Min-sun . Juyoung . Bum-Jin . Miyazaki, “Interaction with indoor plants may reduce psychological and physiological stress by suppressing autonomic nervous system activity in young adults: a randomized crossover study” J Physiol Anthropol. 2015; 34(1): 21.doi: 10.1186/s40101-015-0060-8
As a student it is important to have a balanced lifestyle, for the better physical and mental well being. It’s important to find things that your enjoy and it’s possible only when we keep our body, mind and ot⁸her factors in control. We go through several changes at this age, socially and personally so, to be able to sustain a good life we need to check our overall lifestyle. We don’t have to go overboard for it simple habits can make a huge difference.
I have listed a few reasons as to why we should…
1 Wake up early
Photo by Acharaporn Kamornboonyarush on Pexels.com
Every parent has told their child to wake up early in the morning and we all have ignored it like we ignore assignments on holidays. There are ‘n’ no. of reasons to turn into an early bird. It gives us a lot of time for our work, helps in getting a good sleep, decreases stress and respiratory issues. It motivates us to get fresh air and meditate. Gives us enough time to eat our breakfast, most important meal of the day. Girls got a bonus reason for it as it gives a healthy, good skin to flaunt.
Although water is tasteless but only real drinkers know the taste of water. Water carries oxygen and nutrients to the cells of our body. Drink at least 3 L water daily to get the toxins out of our body, to get a healthy skin and a glow on the face. Helps in flushing bacteria from our bladder and helps indigestion. Water level affects energy and brain function of our body so, drinking a good amount of water is beneficial and it’s the best thing to prevent kidney stones. There are so many health benefits of water that the list can go on and on.
One of the most important habit in a person’s life is reading, from a very young age we are taught it’s importance as it helps in developing the mind. It reduces stres and helps us in escaping the stressful world for a moment. It gives power to our imagination, improves vocabulary and helps us learn new things. We should read everyday even if it’s for few mintues. Every night before sleeping ditch your phone and television with books. It will help you to develop reading habit.
After a busy day of studying and scrolling memes on your phone it’s important to give your mind and body a break and what’s better than going out for a walk. A brisk walk for half an hour can be effective in burning a hell lot of calories. It will boost your mood and for your next session of studying you will be as fresh as a new rose bud. You can discover new things as you walk in your neighborhood. It also helps in lowering blood sugar level and will keep the weight in check.
Eating healthy food is important for students to keep their health as well as mind in proper state. Our mind will work properly only if our body is working properly and to get all the valuable nutrients one should eat vegetables, fruits and lentils in good quantity. Follow a balanced diet and eliminate the unhealthy food. Eating junk once in a while is okay but it should be avoided on a regular basis.
With the onset of digital world we have almost forgotten how to write. The only time we take up a pen is while writing our exams otherwise everything including notes are available on mobile phone. Writing has been included as one of the must to have skills. It helps you improve vocabulary and clarifies your thinking. Writing is a powerful skills that can help you get a wider perspective on thing and to influence other people. It gives you the power to frame your creativity and imagination on a piece of paper.
Internships play an important role whenever you apply for a job after all you need to have some experience and also it helps you learn new things related to the respective field. Big companies prefer students with a good number of internships over students with less or no experience in internships. So, take a Internship whenever you can.
Apart from school and college, there are so many online course available online, you can find and enroll yourself in any of them as per your interests. They will not only enhance your skills but they will provide you with a certificate as well that you can add in your resume. You can easily complete these courses while sitting in your home, you can turn your free time into a productive one.
Maintaining social relationships is equally vital as scoring good marks. You can’t excel in your life without relations. You need people to grow at times and being active socially helps you in a lot of ways like enhancing your communication skills, being up to date. If you are isolated from the outer world there are chances of you to feel depressed. So, for your mental, physical and social well being going out of the house once in a while is crucial.
Hobbies are always our best friends. They bring out the best in us, they give us way to express our creativity. They de-stress us and boost our mental health. Hobbies encourage us to have some ‘me-time’ and are like a mental escape from our daily routine. We don’t have to be perfect in something, we can always enjoy our hobbies as we like.
Series or movies are not just for entertainment, many series are educational, motivational and good for mental health. They are a great stress relievers, and you can choose any genre from the heap of series like FRIENDS when you want to feel good, THE OFFICE when you want to laugh.They are also helpful in refining language skills. You can also connect with the characters and also you can write a review of the series it will upgrade your writing skills.
Music has proven to be mood uplifter. When we listen to our favorite music, our brain releases dopamine which promotes positive effects on mood. It reduces stress, anxiety and produces a positive effect on mind. You can even do you homework while listening to music on a low volume. Music is one the best way to kill boredom.
13 Take proper sleep
Photo by u0410u043bu0435u043au0441u0430u043du0434u0430u0440 u0426u0432u0435u0442u0430u043du043eu0432u0438u045b on Pexels.com
A full 8 hour sleep is as important as eating healthy and doing exercise. If the body doesn’t get proper rest all the above mentioned things will be in vain because improper sleeping schedule will affect your body and ultimately your studies. It will affect the brain function as well which will lower your concentration level. So, Keep all your electronics away at night and also eat light food to get a peaceful sleep.
Stress is a human emotion that is natural and affects everyone at some point in their lives. The human body is built to recognise and respond to stress. An individual’s body creates physical and mental reactions in response to changes or difficulties (stressors). It is any sort of change that produces physical, emotional, or psychological pressure. It may be caused by a variety of conditions or life events. When we encounter anything new, unanticipated which challenges our sense of self, or when we believe we have little control over a situation, it is frequently activated.
Your body’s stress reactions assist it in adapting to new conditions. A stress reaction, for example, may help your body work harder and remain awake longer if you have an important test coming up. When stresses persist without release or times of relaxation, it becomes a problem.
To some extent, everyone is stressed. We all handle stress in various ways which also has a significant impact on your wellbeing .Genetics, early life events, personality, and social and economic conditions can all influence our capacity to cope.
TYPES OF STRESS
Not all types of stress are harmful or even negative. Some of the different types of stress that you might experience include:
Acute stress: We face this type of stress in daily life it is short term and can be either positive or distressing.
Chronic stress: Chronic stress is a type of stress that appears to be never-ending and unavoidable, such as the stress of a physically demanding profession; chronic stress can also result from catastrophic events and psychological trauma.
Episodic acute stress: Acute stress that appears to be rampant and becomes a way of life, resulting in a life of constant distress, is known as episodic acute stress.
Eustress: Eustress is a thrilling and enjoyable experience. It’s a type of positive stress that can help you stay energised. It’s linked to adrenaline rushes, as when you’re skiing or rushing to reach a target.
CAUSES OF STRESS
There are numerous factors that might generate stress in one’s life. Work, economics, partnerships, parenthood, and day-to-day hassles are all common causes of stress. Workplace stress may also be detrimental to your psychological health. Workplace stress causes people to miss an average of 24 days of work each year due to illness.
Even life changes that are positive in nature such as moving to a larger house, getting a work promotion, or going on vacation can lead to stress. If you’re anxious in certain situations, you could have a hard time understanding why, or you might be hesitant to express your thoughts with others.
The fight-or-flight response, which is usually triggered by stress, is the body’s reaction to a perceived threat or danger. The fight-or-flight response, which was called for its capacity to enable us to physically fight or flee when faced with danger when is triggered in situations where both the responses are not appropriate, such as in traffic or during a stressful day at work. The relaxation reaction does not occur frequently enough in instances of chronic stress, and being in a near-constant state of fight-or-flight might harm the body.
HOW CHRONIC STRESS AFFECTS YOUR HEALTH
When you consider the influence stress has on your life, you can see the link between your mind and body. Physical health problems might arise when you are worried out about a relationship, money, or your living circumstances. It’s also true in reverse. Wellness issues, whether you have high blood pressure or diabetes, will have an impact on your stress level and mental health.
Heart attacks, arrhythmias, and even sudden death can be triggered by severe acute stress, such as being involved in a natural disaster or getting into a verbal altercation. Stress has an emotional impact as well. While mild anxiety or frustration may result from some stress, prolonged stress can lead to burnout, anxiety disorders, and depression. When under a lot of stress, your autonomic nervous system becomes overactive, which can harm your body.
SIGNS AND SYMPTOMS
Continuous activation of the stress response creates wear and tear on the body. When a person is under stress for a long term symptoms manifest themselves in the form of physical, emotional, and behavioural manifestations.
Physical symptoms of stress include:
Aches and pains such as chest pain or a feeling like your heart is racing.
Feeling exhausted all the time or having trouble while sleeping.
Having Headaches, High blood pressure, dizziness or shaking.
Muscle tension or jaw clenching (Grinding teeth)
Having various digestive problems.
It also results in a weak immune system.
Clammy or sweaty palms
Stress can lead to emotional and mental symptoms such as:
Anxiety or irritability.
Depression.
Panic attacks.
Sadness.
Changes in mood
Identifying Stress
Having stress for long-terms has also been related to various gastrointestinal diseases including Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) or stomach ulcers, as well as cardiovascular illness, according to certain studies.
Stress may originate from a variety of places, but even little everyday pressures from job, school, family, and friends can have a negative impact on your mind and body.
If you think it might be bothering you, there are a few things you can look for:
Difficulty concentrating, worrying, anxiety, and difficulties remembering are all psychological symptoms.
Anger, irritability, moodiness, and frustration are examples of emotional indicators.
High blood pressure, weight fluctuations, frequent colds or infections, and changes in the menstrual cycle and libido are among physical symptoms.
Poor self-care, not having time for the activities you like, or depending on drugs and alcohol to cope are all behavioural markers to look out for.
TREATMENT
There is no one particular therapy for stress because it is not a separate medical diagnosis. Change the environment, improve stress coping abilities, apply various relaxation techniques and treating conditions that may have been created by chronic stress are all part of stress treatment.
Psychotherapy, medication, and complementary and alternative medicine are some of the therapies that may be beneficial.
HOW TO COPE WITH STRESS
Stress is unavoidable, but can be managed. One can take control of their health and decrease the influence stress has on life once they understand the toll it takes and how to battle it. You can’t escape stress, but you can keep it from becoming overwhelming by using the following methods on a regular basis:
Exercise
Regular exercise is one of the most effective methods to calm your body and mind. Plus it will also lift your spirits. Work up to 2 hours and 30 minutes of moderately intensive activity, such as brisk walks, or 75 minutes of rigorous exercise, such as swimming laps, running, or participating in other sports. Focus on creating realistic fitness goals so you don’t give up.
Relax Your Muscles
Your muscles stiffen up when you’re anxious. Stretching, getting a massage and other self-care activities can help loosen them up and rejuvenate your body. Taking a hot bath or shower is a great way to relax. Having a restful night’s sleep is also very important.
Deep Breathing
Stopping and taking a few deep breaths can immediately relieve stress. Once you get the hang of it, you’ll be amazed at how much better you feel. Simply take these five steps:
Sit with your hands in your lap and your feet on the floor in a comfortable posture.
Close your eyes for a moment.
Consider yourself in a soothing environment. It may be on the beach, in a lovely field of grass, anyplace else that helps you feel calm.
Slowly inhale and exhale deeply.
At a moment, do it for 5 to 10 minutes.
Eat Well
Eating a good well-balanced, regular diet will make you feel better overall. It may also aid with mood regulation. For energy, your meals should include plenty of vegetables, fruit, healthy grains, and lean protein and make sure you don’t forget any.
Slow Down
5 to 10 minutes ahead of time, set your watch. You’ll be able to arrive a bit earlier and avoid the worry of being late.
Switch to the slow lane if you’re travelling on the highway to prevent road rage.
Break down projects into manageable chunks. If you don’t have to, don’t try to respond to all 100 emails; instead, respond to a handful of them.
Take a Break
To give your mind a break from stress, schedule some genuine leisure. It may be difficult for you at first if you are someone who enjoys setting objectives for the day. But if you stay with it, you’ll come to like these times. Meditation, Yoga, Tai chi, Prayer, Listening to music, and spending time in nature are all relaxing activities.
Make Time for Hobbies
You must schedule time for activities that you like. Every day, try to do something that makes you happy, it helps you to relax. It doesn’t have to take a long time; 15 to 20 minutes would suffice. Reading, knitting, doing an art project, playing golf, watching a movie, doing puzzles, and playing cards and board games are all relaxing activities.
Talk About Your Problems
If anything is troubling you, talking about it might help you relax. Family members, friends, a trustworthy priest, a doctor, or a therapist are all good places to start.
So, when you’re worried, pay attention to what you’re thinking or saying. Change the negative message you’re sending yourself to a positive one. Don’t tell yourself, “I can’t do this,” for example. Instead, tell yourself, “I can do this,” or “I’m doing the best I can.”
Go Easy On Yourself
Accept that no matter how hard you strive, you will never be able to achieve everything with perfection. So, do yourself a favour and quit being hard over yourself and stop overestimating your abilities. Also, remember to retain your sense of humour. Laughter is one of the most effective ways to relax.
Eliminate Your Triggers
Determine the main sources of stress in your life. Is it your job, your commute, or your schooling that’s the problem? If you can figure out what they are you may get rid of them or at least decrease them in your life.
Childhood is the phase of life where our heart & soul truly resides. The time span of childhood is always precious, indescribable, tension- free and THE BEST. The time we spent in our childhood can never be compared to any phase of our life. Childhood is something which we will cherish for the rest of our life, it is probably the best time we all had in our whole life span. For some children, it might be a scary one also, but the things we learned and did in our childhood are absolutely unforgettable and always has a special place in our heart. Everyone has a different childhood, so I can only relay what it was like for me growing up as a single child. Being a single child consists of mixed emotions,at one point of time you enjoy being a single child, but when you become an adult , when you have so many things going on in your mind, when you literally want your person to listen to your feelings and the things that are going on, it hits you when you realise that you are all alone in this and there’s no one to listen and it literally breaks your heart. It is the only time where every single child might have felt the need of a sibling. Being a single child is never ever easy, spending the childhood all alone has mad a habit of being alone, and to be in your own little world. Having no siblings definitely affects the childhood and the adulthood of the person.
The phase of a childhood – where a small kid needs someone to play with, to share things with, to fight with, to make lifetime memories with, to get clicked doing some stupid stuff and later cherishing them, to care, to fight for the chocolate and what not.. but having no siblings means no one to play with or to do any of these things with, which completely affects the childhood of the person, it made the person to live alone, to entertain himself or herself, to play alone, to eat alone without any fight, to do every thing which developed a habit of being alone. Being alone is something very terrible, but for all the single child out there it has become a part of life for us, where for some children being alone is something very terrible for them, but for us, being lonely, soothes us and has become our comfort zone now. At some point we might have cried for being alone or having no siblings, but later when we learned to live alone, to play alone it become a part of our daily life, a part of our personality. In the adulthood phase, the need of having atleast one sibling hits the most, specially when you have no one to discuss your personal issues, trauma and fears. Though we cannot share everything with our parents. We literally need our person who has the same genes, same thought process. Adulthood is the phase where we face a lot of rejections , heartbreaks, we lose friends, denials and it is the age where we might lose one of our parent, the need of a sibling can be truly felt here only, when there’s no one to discuss your inner feelings or someone to guide you for the future, to atleast gives you a surety that, “everything will be alright”, that ,“I’m here” but then it hits you that you are all alone in this, that only you’ve got some serious responsibilities of your parents of their future and that you are all alone in this, you become hopeless and helpless when there’s no one to share about what’s going inside, what’s eating you. No one who knows you completely, who knows your innermost fear and insecurities. It is the time where you feel the need of having a sibling the most, but all you can do is nothing, you have to be strong in this, you have to feel comfortable in being alone, you have to do all the things alone. This is the time where a person’s heart breaks inside. Being a single child is never too easy, it is something we have to adjust in, to get comfortable in. Afterall, it’s not at all easy to spend your childhood all alone while seeing your friends having fun with their siblings, it something that hits you from inside. Being a single child means being all alone since the day you born without any sibling, being alone is something that made the child a bit mature than when the child is assumed to be.
I learned very early on how to entertain myself.I’m often asked if I was lonely growing up without siblings. I really wasn’t. Without siblings around to play with, I was forced to figure out ways to entertain myself. As a young child I enjoyed building things, usually with LEGOs and many other things like that. I also liked to draw, even though I was never particularly good at it. As I got older, I became very interested in computers, which became something that could infinitely satiate my desire to build and learn.
I was very curious about why I didn’t have a brother or sister. Growing up, all of the kids in my neighborhood had siblings and that confused me. I remember asking my parents why I didn’t have a brother or sister and them more or less saying that the reason I didn’t have a sibling is simply because I just didn’t have a sibling. One time after seeing a TV show about long-lost siblings reunited, I became obsessed with the idea and questioned my mom for a while about the possibility of me having a long-lost twin. At the time, I was confused how she could be so sure that I didn’t.
I never had to fight for my parents’ attention. I never felt like I was competing with anyone or anything for my parents’ attention. Whenever I needed to or wanted to talk about something, I had an attentive parent. As a result, I was always fully supported in my major interests. My mother and father has done their best to make me comfortable of doing everything alone. Instead of a sibling, my father used to eat the food made up of the paper from my kitchen set, he never complained and he literally enjoyed eating paper just for me. Both of them made my childhood easier and funnier, they both has also played the role of a sibling that I always needed.
My parents were often over-protective. From what I’ve observed, later siblings usually get more leeway than older siblings do. Parents, after the first few times around, figure out what children can actually handle at what ages and aren’t as scared to let them make mistakes. My parents weren’t terribly strict, but they often worried about me making mistakes, not because I was irresponsible or untrustworthy, but simply because I was the only child.
I like attention and want my accomplishments to be recognized. Growing up, every little thing I accomplished was celebrated, no matter how trivial. Moreover, I often listened to my parents bragging about how I accomplished this or that or the other thing to anyone who would listen. Now, like a stereotypical only child, I feel a need for my accomplishments to be called out and recognized for their importance.
I grew up always in my head. I had a lot of alone time, which meant I had a lot of time to think about everything, with no one around to distract me from it. I was (and still am) always in my head. I analyzed and over-thought everything. I was often in a state of worry. I had a lot of trouble sleeping as a teenager, because I was unable to turn off my thoughts and get into a restful place.
When we hear the word meditation, we feel like we have to get immersed in a deep concentration. We feel like we have some magical powers for the same. But today I am here to brief you about what meditation is. It is a calm and lovable state of mind. It is a journey of slowing your thinking process and also a path towards positive thinking. So, meditation is a state of mind which should incorporated in your life. In times of crisis, where the pandemic has significantly affected our mental health ,we should spare at least 5 mins wherein we could sit in peace, let the thoughts and emotions flow.
So yes , it is rightly said that we thrive every moment to turn our lives into a positive direction. But only a calm, relaxed and blissful mind can pave the way for a successful and well lived experience on this planet. To do so , we have to acknowledge and adopt meditation in our culture.
Now let’s take a look at some benefits of meditation 1- regular meditation helps in coping with anxiety attacks- practicing meditation decreases grey matter in the areas of the brain associated with fear and anxiety, and increases grey matters in areas where compassion and love exist.
2- helps in getting rid of unwanted/ negative thoughts- As an idol is created after removing unwanted stones, in the same way, meditation helps you to remove unwanted thoughts and a beautiful personality comes before everyone.
3-Meditation improves concentration and memory- the calmer the mind is , the more you can focus on things and see them clearly ; which also makes it easier to remember.
4- increases your productivity- when you’re in a peaceful state of mind , you would be able to determine which tasks are most important and which aren’t urgent.
To conclude, when we start meditating we start seeing significant changes in our life. Therefore, start meditating today to live a stress free , productive life.
All teens experience some amount of anxiety at times. Anxiety is actually a normal reaction to stress, and sometimes it helps teens deal with tense or overwhelming situations. For many teens, things like public speaking, final exams, important athletic competitions, or even going out on a date can cause feelings of apprehension and uneasiness. They may also experience an increase in heartbeat or excessive sweating. That’s how the brain responds to anxious feelings.
For some teens, however, anxiety can go beyond these typical symptoms to negatively affect friendships and family relationships, participation in extracurricular activities, and even their schoolwork. When feelings of anxiety interfere with normal daily living, the presence of an anxiety disorder should be considered. According to the National Institute of Mental Health, approximately 25% of 13 to 18-year-olds have an anxiety disorder, and just under 6% have a severe anxiety disorder.
Given that teens experience a wide variety of physical and emotional changes as they grow, an anxiety disorder can be difficult to spot. Many red flags may seem like usual teens struggles or be chalked up to hormones. Watch for these hidden signs of anxiety in your teens :
1. Emotional Changes to Watch Out For in Teens
While some anxious teens express feelings of pervasive worry, others experience subtle emotional changes such as :
Feeling “keyed up”
Feeling on edge
Irritability
Difficulty concentrating
Restlessness
Unexplained outbursts
2. Social Changes
Anxiety can negatively affect friendships. If your once social teen suddenly avoids his favourite activities or stops making plans with friends, think twice. You might notice that he/she is :
Avoiding social interactions with usual friends
Avoiding extracurricular activities
Isolating from peer group
Spending increased time alone
3. Physical Changes
Many of the physical complaints that can occur with an anxiety disorder mimic average teen complaint, which tend to increase as they get older. Pay attention to patterns. A couple of headaches here and there shouldn’t be a cause for concern, for example, but frequent headaches are a red flag. Watch for these common psychosomatic complaints :
Frequent headaches, including migraines
Gastrointestinal problems
Unexplained aches and pains
Excessive fatigue
Complaints of not feeling well with no obvious medical cause
Changes in eating habits
4. Sleep Disturbances
Teens aged 13 to 18 get 8 to 10 hours of sleep on a regular basis to promote optimal health. It is also recommend shutting down screens 30 minutes prior to bedtime, and removing all electronics from the bedroom.
It’s no big secret that homework demands, changing brain structure, extracurricular activities, and screen time can all cut into the sleep habits of teens. Therefore, it can be difficult to know whether fatigue is a product of anxiety or of a busy schedule. Watch for these red flags :
Difficulty falling asleep
Difficulty staying asleep
Frequent nightmares
Not feeling refreshed after sleep
5. Poor School Performance
Given that anxiety can affect everything from sleep habits to eating habits to missing school due to physical issues, it should come as no surprise that poor academic performance can also result from untreated anxiety. School avoidance, missed days due to anxiety-related illness, and persistent worry can make it difficult for anxious teens to keep up with their workload. Watch for these changes in your teen :
Significant jump in grades (usually downward)
Frequently missed assignments
Describes feeling overwhelmed by workload
Procrastinates on, or has difficulty concentrating on, homework assignments more than usual
6. Panic Attacks : Know the Symptoms
Not all anxious teens experience panic attacks, and some experience mild symptoms of panic without enduring a full panic attack. The following symptoms are common among people with anxiety disorders :
In the world that we live in today, we are always surrounded by music everywhere. From slow to fast, calm to upbeat, from rock to hip-hop to metal and country, people all over the world appreciate the music in all its different forms, style and distinctiveness. Music connects people all over the world, whatever language or genre that it may have. It carries a universal message of love and togetherness that unites people from different parts of the globe, as they find a common hobby to bond over amidst all the differences and diversity they may have among themselves. We do not overexaggerate when people claim that “Music has saved them”. It is like a boat in the middle of the storm of life that helps them sail through the difficult time with ease and offers them a place to relax and unwind, allowing them time to reflect and introspect to understand themselves a little better. Music is a remedy for all of us and it accepts us with open arms wherever we go.
Some of the ways in which music is beneficial are mentioned below. They are as follows:-
#1 IT HELPS YOU CALM DOWN
Amidst the race and chaos we call life, we may not always get the time to relax and take out time for ourselves. In such situations, music can be our savior. A number of studies have suggested that listening to slow music for a minimum of 15 minutes a day can really help us ease down a bit, allowing our bodies to relax and live in the moment.
So, whenever you feel stressed, make sure to put your favorite tunes on and just relax!
#2 MUSIC MAY HELP YOU IMPROVE YOUR PERFORMANCE WHILE EXERCISING
Often, people prefer listening to upbeat and groovy music while trying to get in a workout. This is highly beneficial as it can truly help us stay motivated to give our best while doing exercise and may help us improve our daily performance. Many researches have shown that listening to happy and motivational music may help us get motivated to run even faster while running as well as help build our strength and stamina.
#3 MUSIC CAN HELP ELEVATE YOUR MOOD
Scientific studies have shown that music can actually help release dopamine, a feel good hormone, in our body and improve our mood a lot. Henceforth, listening to music about 30 minutes a day can make us significantly happier and elevate our mood!
A number of scholars and professionals have stated that while music does make US happy, it also makes our heart happy too. This evident through the fact that listening to music helps the blood in our body to flow more easily and efficiently, while at the same time, it lowers our blood pressure as well. Not only this, listening to music can also help in lowering the cortisol levels in our body as well as increase the production of serotonin in our lood stream, making us less stressed and happier.
So, listen to music everyday while enjoying the journey of life!
We all in need some form of motivation in our lives to keep on living to our fullest and ensure that we make sure that we do our best all the time. We wake up everyday with a motivation in our mind to seize the day.Ranging from the desire to finish a project on time, to wanting to shed those extra pounds, motivation is quite essential for us so that we remain consistent in our efforts to achieve our dreams and make them a reality. However, sometimes we may not feel good or may not able to perform to the maximum of our potential. We may sometimes slack off or laze out our days instead of getting that project finished before the deadline or study for that important text that may define our grades. In such cases, we really need that extra dose of motivation to get the task done smoothly and efficiently.
If you too are feeling low on motivation, try some of the tips discussed below that may help you to get it back so that you can do your best and follow your goals. They are as follows:-
#1 PLAN OUT YOUR SCHEDULE
If we want to achieve a goal smoothly, we need to make consistent efforts to ensure it. In such cases, spontaneous bursts of energy may be quite useful but they do not work out in the longer run. Here comes the importance of planning; organising and making map of your entire game plan before beginning with the preparation may be extremely useful and make our work a lot easier. This ensures that we know exactly what we are doing and that in the end, we don’t get loaded with all the pending work. Furthermore, we get time on our hands so that we can remain calm and collected instead of panicking at the last second.
Becoming a part of study groups online or offline, can really help you to be consistent. This is due to the fact that these groups are highly motivating and influential in a way that they hold us accountable for our progress and we also get platform where we can talk about certain blocks we might be facing and even get solutions to any problems we may face.
#3 TAKE BREAKS
One of the major reasons why people back-out from things is simple: burnout, due to excessive work load. People often tend to over work themselves and get exhausted, losing any further willingness to complete their task. In such situations, it is advisable to take break and chill out, instead of going on-and-on with your work. Not only this, it may also help improve our productivity to a higher level. We may not feel tired from our work and perform to our maximum potential if we give ourselves time to rest and recover. Often, consistent efforts are required rather that doing all hr work at once and then not proceeding with it at all.
So, make sure to take care of yourself and work smarter not harder!
Amidst our daily lives filled with activities throughout our entire day from the crack of dawn to dusk, we often find ourselves multi-tasking with little to no time for our own wellness. Our constant need for checking social media instead for trying to gather more knowledge and trying to learn new things has not helped much in improving the situation at all. When was the last time you picked up a book and were actually able to finish it? Certainly we may not always have time to read books in our busy schedules. However, trying does not hurt at all. Reading is an activity that might have picked up ever since we were kinds. It is actually a privilege; being able to read and write is a privilege in itself. But sometimes we severely fail to acknowledge this.
Reading comes with a variety of benefits. Some of them are discussed as follows:-
#1 HELPS IMPROVE CONCENTRATION AND FOCUS
As multi-task away our days into oblivion, when we actually nothing getting done at times, it can be quite frustrating when we are just trying to do our best. We might get distracted by that twitter notification or that whatsapp message from the friend’s group planning a reunion.This results us in losing our focus and make us completely forget what we were actually doing in the first place. However, reading can really help us solve this issue at hand. A number of studies have shown that reading around 15-20 minutes a day can significantly improve your focus and concentration levels to a maximum.
So, read a book to focus on your everyday tasks better!
Reading a book about the experiences of everyday racism tolerate by African-american people may help us understand the major problem of the world that affects these innocent souls at a massive scale. Certainly, in such cases, books may help us to become more empathetic towards the way we observe and perceive things in our life. We may become kinder and compassionate to our fellow beings, all thanks to our books.
So, make the world a better place by initiating a change and start reading!
#3 MAKES US BETTER AT COMMUNICATION
Readings book can actually make us a better communicator. This is evident through the fact that a we read books, knowing about stories, differing point of views, they offer us common ground for analysing the various side of arguments. This may help us in our everyday conversations as we are often able to understand the situations in better manner, keeping in mind not only our requirements but that of the other parties as well. This helps us communicate without any chances of misunderstandings and makes sure that the conversation is fruitful and productive.
Furthermore, reading also makes us an interesting person too. People would often prefer and like to interact with the ones that have knowledge about what they are saying and actually understand the depth of their words.
In conclusion, we can say that reading may be life-changing for the ones who try it. So,try reading to understand people and even yourself better!
Good mental health is characterised by a person’s ability to fulfil a number of key functions and activities, including : the ability to learn, the ability to feel, express and manage a range of positive and negative emotions, & the ability to form and maintain good relationships with others. Who doesn’t want to be strong mentally?
Here are some methods for good mental health :
1. Value yourself
While self-worth is more emotional, self-value is more behavioural. This is where we take the foundation of how we feel about ourselves and put it to work. Self-value is the driving vehicle that allows us to walk the walk and act in ways that align with what we value. This shows up in the way we talk to people or in steps we take to speak our truth. Both self-worth and self-value feed off of one another, but it’s helpful to point out the subtle differences. Treat yourself with kindness and respect, and avoid self-criticism. Make time for your hobbies and favourite projects, or broaden your horizons. Do a daily crossword puzzle, plant a garden, take dance lessons, learn to play an instrument or become fluent in another language
2. Give yourself
Volunteer your time and energy to help someone else. You’ll feel good about doing something tangible to help someone in need and it’s a great way to meet new people.
Healthy Ways to Take a Mental Break :
Get Outside. Getting outside and enjoying the fresh air is a great way to renew your energy
Be Active
Meditate
Treat Yourself
Drink Water
Make Time to Socialise
3. Take care of your body
Taking better care of our bodies means increased energy levels, and a better ability to accomplish our daily goals. It means better ability to concentrate on any given task, and that our tasks will take less time to complete. Taking care of yourself physically can improve your mental health. Be sure to :
Eat nutritious meals
Avoid smoking and vaping
Drink plenty of water
Exercise, which helps decrease depression and anxiety and improve moods
Get enough sleep. Researchers believe that lack of sleep contributes to a high rate of depression in college students.
4. Surround yourself with good people
When you surround yourself with positive people, you’re more likely to adopt empowering beliefs and see life as happening for you instead of to you. Just as you benefit when you surround yourself with people who make you happy, you suffer when those in your business or social circles are negative or narrow-minded. People with strong family or social connections are generally healthier than those who lack a support network. Make plans with supportive family members and friends, or seek out activities where you can meet new people, such as a club, class or support group.
5. Quiet your mind
Try meditating, mindfulness or prayer. Relaxation exercises and prayer can improve your state of mind and outlook on life. In fact, research shows that meditation may help you feel calm and enhance the effects of therapy. Silencing the mind does not mean stopping to think at all. It means thinking when you need to think, but keeping the mind calm when you don’t need to think.
6. Learn how to deal with stress
Like it or not, stress is a part of life. Practice good coping skills: Try One-Minute Stress Strategies, exercise, take a nature walk, play with your pet or try journal writing as a stress reducer. Also, remember to smile and see the humour in life. Research shows that laughter can boost your immune system, ease pain, relax your body and reduce stress.
7. Set realistic goals
Decide what you want to achieve academically, professionally and personally, and write down the steps you need to realize your goals. Aim high, but be realistic and don’t over-schedule. You’ll enjoy a tremendous sense of accomplishment and self-worth as you progress toward your goal. Wellness Coaching can help you develop goals and stay on track.
8. Avoid alcohol and other drugs
Keep alcohol use to a minimum and avoid other drugs. Sometimes people use alcohol and other drugs to “self-medicate” but in reality, alcohol and other drugs only aggravate problems.
Some ways to avoid using alcohol :
Keep a diary of your drinking
Don’t keep alcohol in your house
Choose alcohol-free days
Watch for peer pressure
Set a drinking goal
9. Break up the monotony
Although our routines make us more efficient and enhance our feelings of security and safety, a little change of pace can perk up a tedious schedule. Alter your jogging route, plan a road-trip, take a walk in a different park, hang some new pictures or try a new restaurant.
5 Ways to Break the Monotony of Your Routine
Start your morning with something different
Add some new scenery to your day
Shake up your lunch break
Listen to music
Review your habits regularly
10. Get help when you need it
Seeking help is a sign of strength not a weakness. And it is important to remember that treatment is effective. People who get appropriate care can recover from mental illness and addiction and lead full, rewarding lives. Asking for help allows us to surround ourselves with people who can make us feel good and facilitate further development. These people create optimism and hope that we are able to deal with challenging situations, which improves our resilience.
The title itself is horrible to even think about. ’Father’- this 6- word letter has a lot of emotions vested in it. Losing a father is something tremendous which happens to the child, no matter what the age is, losing a father breaks you in pieces” It is an indescribable experience, it permanently alters children of any age. Nothing is the same, you start a new life without your well- wisher, it is a whole transformative event for a child. Since we all know that death is inevitable, no one can stop that, but this doesn’t minimize the grief, the pain that a child experiences after losing a parent. The two main persons of our life to whom we call -“ mumma and papa” even thinking about a life without them gives goosebumps. For me, it is something from which I will never move on, I mean, how could I move on? He was the person who made me, who gave me a life, how can I forget him? Daddies & daughters have a very precious bond that nobody can ever replace. I lost him at the age of 20, where he was supposed to guide me, to cheer me up, to enjoy my earnings, but everything went upside down. That night has taught me everything, for which I wasn’t ready at all. I didn’t even know that I could write down my feelings, but since I lost him, writing my feelings on a piece of paper has become my go – to best friend. The realisation that I keep getting is that I will not be able to see him or hear his voice for the rest of my life, I will not ever see him or talk to him again” which always breaks me whenever I think of this, this is something dreadful. We are never really ready to lose a loved one no matter how ill they are. They had made our heart, they made us and now there is a hole where they once were and nothing can fill it in or cover it. I am the daughter who lost her father too soon, too much to process. Writing my feelings is my way of missing him, other than I can do nothing, nobody can ease my pain or can understand through which I’m going, this is something so excruciating, that I am unable to even write.
Father- the most powerful word connected with millions of sentiments. Nobody can ever replace those laughs, smiles, those secrets between a father and a daughter, it’s something so precious that I wish I could make a montage from my head to see those moments again and cherish them once again. I wish I could relive those moments, to see him once again, to laugh with him, to do every possible thing that I’ve missed. The man behind me is no more, and it breaks me to pieces, and I am left with zero energy to even pick those pieces to make it again. It shatters me whenever I think of those last moments of him taking his last breath beside me. I wish I could take all of his pain….I wish…..
Coronavirus is changing the world in unprecedented ways. COVID-19 has its impact on all segments of life. It has also strongly affected whole education system. The sudden impact of corona pandemic in our country not only affects the global economy but harshly damaged our physical, social and mental well-being. The whole education system has been suddenly shifted digitally which is a huge challenge for both the students and teachers. The education system has been turned upside down. Students tend to lose their interest in online learning and it’s very challenging for the engagement of students.
Online education has also proven to be a boon for people who were craving for some ‘me time’ amidst this hustle of life. This could be a great time to work on getting regular sleep, regular exercise, healthy nutrition, and getting regular work hours. We can finally enjoy that hobby that we never got around to. Online classes can often be more cost-effective than traditional classes and can be done at a pace the student is comfortable with.
Advantages of Online Classes
Online classes are convenient.
The biggest advantage of an online classes is that your classroom and instructor (theoretically) are available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Your only excuse for missing class is not getting online. Otherwise, everything is available to you. You can get announcements, access notes, review assignments, take practice quizzes, discuss questions, chat with fellow students and study any time you want. Other than certain due dates, you make your own schedule for completing the requirements of the course.
2. Online classes offer flexibility.
You can study any time you want. You can study with whomever you want. You can study wearing anything you want. Online courses give you the flexibility to spend time with work, family, friends, significant others or any other activity you like.
3. Online classes offer flexibility.
You can study any time you want. You can study with whomever you want. You can study wearing anything you want. Online courses give you the flexibility to spend time with work, family, friends, significant others or any other activity you like.
4. Online classes have financial benefits.
Although you may think that buying a computer and paying for Internet access is pretty expensive, consider what it would cost you to reach to the campus. Consider the costs of eating out versus eating at home. These are very tangible benefits of having access to education at home.
5. Online courses teach you to be self-disciplined.
Most of us put off the things we need to do until the very last moment. When it comes to education, the last moment is the worst possible moment to learn. Sometimes that lesson is learned the hard way in the form of poor performance on an exam or assignment. But ultimately, you succeed because you realize the importance of doing things on time or even ahead of time. That self-realization propels your success in an online course. No one is there looking over your shoulder to tell you to go online and study. No one is there to make you ask questions or post responses. The motivation to study in an online course comes from you. It’s something we call student-centered or active learning. The online student takes responsibility for their course of studies and matures into an individual for whom learning and accomplishment are highly valued. In short, your success depends on you.
Disadvantages of Online Classes
Online classes make it easier to procrastinate.
Procrastination will chop you to bits in an online course. There is no one to tell you to get to class on time. There is no one reminding you that assignments are due or that exams are coming. It’s easy to put off reading and assignments in the online environment. Before you know it, weeks have gone by, you haven’t done any homework and its exam time.
2. Online classes require you to be responsible for your own learning.
Only you are responsible for your learning. No one can force it on you. No one can make you study. Teachers can share a little knowledge and experience, show you a few tools and hope you get it. The spark and desire to pursue your dreams must be yours. So, the real disadvantage is that you might not own up to it. You might not take responsibility for your studies and your goals. You might get way behind and never catch up.
3. Online classes require more time than on-campus classes.
Believe it or not, you will spend more time studying and completing assignments in the online environment than you will in an on-campus course. If you are sitting in a classroom, it’s likely that you’ll miss a good percentage of what the teacher says, no matter how focused you are. It’s human nature to zone out for brief periods of time. When you are reading, you will have a tendency to go back over the notes if you miss something and that takes more time. The point is that you will likely learn more in an online environment, but you will have to make a greater effort to accomplish that learning.
4. Online classes may create a sense of isolation.
In an online class, no one can hear you scream. And that causes discomfort for some online students. Studying alone with only the computer as your companion can be terrifying. There’s no whispering in the back of the room, no commanding presence at the front of the classroom pleading for everyone to listen. The online environment is a much different atmosphere that takes some getting used to.
5. Lack of communicational skill development in online students
E-Learning methods are proven to be highly effective at improving the academic knowledge of the students. However, developing the communicational skills of the students is an area often neglected during online lessons. Due to the lack of face-to-face communication between peers, students and teachers in an online setting, the students might find that they are unable to work effectively in a team setting. Neglecting the communicational skills of the students will inevitably lead to many graduates who excel in theoretical knowledge, but who fail to pass their knowledge on to others.
Worry is something that each and every person does but what happens when someone worries to much due to a trivial matter and why does that happen? Well, you tend to worry too much when you are over thinking or in simpler terms just thinking too much about a silly matter.
For example, if you are an overthinker, your friend not picking up your call could give rise to theories as vast as the seas and your mind may trigger you to remember any conflicts between the two of you in the past. An immediate action of an overthinker could be calling up multiple times and then texting the person asking if he/she is okay.
This seems too complicated, right? You worry too much about something that might not even be an issue. Overthinking destructs your sleep pattern making you toss and turn at night until it is already early hours in the morning when sleeping in isn’t an option you can choose. This leads to bad mood and low energy which dampens the entire day. And what is even worse is when you meet the person or face the situation you were overthinking about and understand that you lost a good sleep and a happy day because of absolutely nothing!
Why should you stop overthinking?
Overthinking increases the pain felt by the individual due to the stimuli (situation or person). Pondering over the issue makes you feel helpless and destructs your emotional stability making your hurt again and again. It is a poison that can traumatize you.
It does not help the individual to identify solutions for the issue rather it blocks out all the possible solutions and instead one is made to feel incapable.
The positivity within the person is replaced by negative energy due to anxiety, fear, anger, sorrow etc felt due to overthinking.
Overthinking successfully hides the goodness in the situation and highlights all the problems and conflicts due to the stimuli.
It successfully nurtures the insecurities and makes the person accustomed to the feeling of worthlessness.
It fills the person with thoughts about how the individual is not under control of the situation and this feeling stops the person from being prepared for the situation.
How to stop overthinking?
A distraction by doing something you enjoy is the most simple yet best way to stop overthinking. Grab some paint brushes and paint or get to cooking something tasty. Put on a music and vibe or water your plants. Talk to your friends or read a book. Do anything that can make you feel at ease.
Turn to yoga and practice meditation. This can help you be calm and keep your mind peaceful at stressful situation. A few yoga poses helps release certain hormones which triggers your mind to be cool.
Just think about your future as you envision and imagine how trivial this matter would be then. Laugh a bit on how your future self would find your current actions silly.
Take a book and write somethings you did the past week and try to find your happy moments. Reimagine the moments and rejoice in them.
Stop thinking about the problem and instead start channeling your thoughts to find the solutions for the issue.
Confront the issue! Don’t sit back and think about it. If you feel something is wrong, go to the person and apologize or else get the situation to be better.
Now, you might think that you are an overthinker after realizing that you have been in a similar situation but what you need to know is that everyone overthinks at some point of time and that is completely different from someone who cannot stop their thoughts. So overthinking should be stopped because it is self destructing but on the other hand, it is not too fatal and can be stopped with determination.
Social Media plays an important role in the lives of each and everyone of us . The role and power which the social media possess is immense and cannot be undermined . Just one tweet can change the world . Example : It took Cristiano Ronaldo just thirty seconds to cause a massive damage of crores of amount to the Coca Cola company . Another Example : When one of the greats Naomi Osaka said that she did not wanted to face the press after the game it brought into picture the concern of mental health that the athletes face regularly .
As beautiful but unachievable as the word “Perfection” sounds, the meaning behind the word “perfection-ism” is quite the opposite. Perfectionism starts because of low self-esteem and leads to even lower self-esteem. As I am writing this article, perfectionism is trying to trap me and halt my productiveness, it’s telling me that I shouldn’t write this article if I can’t write it with uttermost perfection in this world. Perfectionism is like unconditional love, we spend our whole lives chasing it, while the ‘intellectuals’ of this world try to figure out if it even exists or not.
Have you seen those paper balls lying around an author’s desk in movies or in real life? Well, they would define perfectionism better than some mere words. But here is the real definition. Perfectionism is often defined as the need to be or appear to be perfect, or even to believe that it’s possible to achieve perfection.
It is not a mental disorder, however, it can be considered as a mental condition. To get a better insight on this, we need to know about the 3 ‘P’s- Perfectionism, proficiency and procrastination. Basically, perfectionism can lead to either proficiency OR procrastination. In simple words, proficiency is- expertise or improvement and procrastination is- what you have done your whole 11th grade. And sadly, perfectionism has a better chance of putting you into that loop of procrastination than increasing your proficiency.
What makes you a perfectionist? -Unrealistic Expectations. Unrealistic can be parental or through your peers. But how can you identify that you, in fact, are one? Let’s take a walk on this.
The loop of perfectionism
You focus on the results more than the process- If you are not a big fan of making your journey at beautiful as your destiny, you might fit into this category.
You are always afraid of not being enough- Constantly having a feeling that you can never be a 100% in your life can get you into the feedback loop from hell which can effect your self esteem to extents.
You are too afraid of failure- Again, perfectionists get that fear of failure inside their head even before getting started with the assigned task.
All or nothing- You have a thought process that you shouldn’t do that work at all if you can execute it with ultimate perfection which leads to procrastination.
You can’t even take constructive criticism- You see criticism regarding your performance as a degradation to your personality and not as a stepping stone towards improvement.
Start your day with a fresh mind- Morning meditation can help you in diving deep into your conscience and getting to know it. It also gives a productive start to your day.
Follow the loop of productiveness- According to this, one completed task gives us the motivation to start with another task on our list. You need to follow this and alarm yourself if you feel that your chain is breaking.
Stop overthinking- Whenever you feel like you are blaming yourself a little too much for something, think about something which is going to destress you. For me, it is dogs and music, likewise, you will have to do some self analysis to find your contentment.
Don’t push yourself for every small mistake you commit.
Go to therapy- No, I don’t mean listen to Taylor swift songs duh! I am insisting on really going to therapy for this.
Take out time for yourself- Everyone has that one thing they’d do if nobody would be there to judge them. JUST DO THAT THING, without the pressure of being perfect at it.
Remember that you don’t have to be productive all the time- In my case, I used to procrastinate the whole day and feel guilty about it at the end of the day and procrastinate even further. SO PLEASE START NOW if you haven’t already.
Just remember that you aren’t the only one who finds themselves stuck in this loop everyday. You just need to be reminded that you can’t get out of any loop until you change your direction.
Perfection is not attainable, but if we chase perfection we can catch excellence.
How do deal with tragedy? How to deal with mean and rude people?
The term stoics means, learning to endure all the pains without expressing the feelings, in order to live peacefully in society. We all get a glimpse of motivation when we want to change or it’s the new year beginning to ahead with resolutions fired up and making promises to ourselves.
When you are about to start something new or change, you tell yourself that, you are going to lose weight, maintain fitness, eating all healthy foods, spend less time on social media platforms. There is resistance in many forms, one such dangerous resistance is internal resistance. That whispers in your ear like, go buy pizza, brownie who needs these all boring healthy meals every night? So, this voice of resistance will always be the constant pain in the ass. There has to something deeper driving within you to answer all the Why you are doing? Ask yourself that how much pain you will bear it?
The two powerful tools are pain and pleasure. you must be willing to do things you have never done before. Make your pain strengthen, when you are about to give up on your work. It makes you wiser. Most of the people are in an unconscious state of chaos. Consequently, people allow all the external forces to control and own their minds and emotions according to it. Then you are not the master of your life. The quotes and opinions of others don’t define who you are and not to worry about it, but your actions decide who you are. To get control of your world, you need to adapt to self-discipline.
Creating a superwoman version of yourself may sound weird but it’s a great way to start getting momentum. At every stage in your life. – from training to work, it is your patience, mental fortitude, and perseverance that make your degrees of the fulfillment of your success greater than any components you can find.
The mental state is something, how we respond to extreme situations? Can you collectively hold your lifestyle while mourning the death of a family member?
Those intense situations test our perseverance and courage. The mental state is like a muscle. It aspires to grow, and be ready to grow. Mental stability is how you stick to the each-day practice. Protect your self-esteem, prepared for anything, the right habits of thinking and attitude for tomorrow will come through training.
Tons of research findings have proven that emotional quotient(EQ) is more important than intelligent quotient(IQ). To develop emotional competency you need to develop a strong mind that does not waver in the face of adversity. Embark your success by knowing your strength and weakness, in the process of polishing all your strength and turns your weakness into wins.
Self-compassion is most needed to understand all your emotions on a deeper level. Understand all your emotional triggers. Emotionally it triggers specific behavior. when you know which situation or circumstances triggers which emotional reactions, you will instantly gain the ability to control. Be fast to forgive things, when you forgive you will move to closer to the lessons you gained.
Have you ever looked at someone and wondered what is going on in their mind or what they might be going through? To understand that, we need to know about perspectives. Sometimes people who know us like our best friends say that we looked rude or timid when they first met us, but as they got to know us, they started to like us. That is the impression we make on the people who don’t know us.
When we walk on the streets, there are many people who cross us and we have no idea what they might be thinking or where they are headed. But we have no need to know about it. But if that person is standing in front of us, their mood depends greatly on what they are going through and we need to choose our words carefully.
Most of the time when we have a conversation with someone, it is very difficult to understand how they will take in our opinion. Many arguments happen because we haven’t had a chance to explain what we really mean because the other person just listened to what we said first and just fired off from there. We are like that too, if someone tries to hurt us through words that is when we get so worked up and swear that we wouldn’t talk to them again, that they don’t matter to us anymore. Have we ever stopped for a moment and thought about why they said that, and were they in their calm state of mind or whether they really meant it or not.
There is a saying, that a bruise will heal but the hurt made through words would not be forgotten. The words we throw around carelessly has so much impact on how we portray ourselves. At some point of time, that becomes our identity. No matter how much of a softie you are, no matter how much sensitive you are, the way you communicate with people affects how people look at you.
A person who doesn’t speak or express their feelings much can be seen as a cold person, when in reality they are indeed like that and they are indeed a very nice person.
That is another thing, being judged on how we look is unfair. Who thought Stephen Hawking would have been a genius if he hadn’t shown his potential? That is what happened in Minnesota, USA, where black people were for no reason by the white police officers, just because they were black. Gender discrimination is another topic, on the same page of matter.
Communication is key, and we need to make sure we try our level best to convey what we really mean without any filters that doesn’t hurt the other party. From here on, try to think of what you are going to say at least twice or thrice.
Just try to find if whatever you are going to say, leads to a meaningful conversation, if it is really necessary, and if it is hurtful to others. If the answer to either one is no, then please stay quiet. Your day will be much better.
Mental illnesses should not be thought of any differently from physical illnesses. In fact, I believe the two are inseparable. Because the whole body is connected and interwoven, the two cannot be separated. The brain is an organ just like everything else in the body and can be hurt like everything else. When the brain is ill, it is not isolated in just the brain, but instead affects the whole body and the overall wellness.
The stigma surrounding mental illness keeps people from getting the help they need to get better and causes them to hide their pain.
Mental health is important. It impacts how we feel, think, and behave each day. Our mental health also contributes to our decision making, problem solving, how we deal with stress, and how we can relate to others in our lives. That’s why, we have to always care about our own mental health.
Current research clearly identifies the importance of mental health to learning, as well as to students‘ social and emotional development. Students who experience positive mental health are resilient and better able to learn, achieve success, and build healthy relationships.
An emotionally fit person will always feel vibrant and truly alive and will easily manage emotionally difficult situations.
Mental illness does not mean that you’re going crazy, and one should not be ashamed of it. Our society needs to change its perception of mental illness or disorder. Mental illness is the instability of one’s health, which includes changes in emotion, abnormal thinking and behaviour
Receiving help is the most important thing anyone can do for themselves. But unfortunately, the stigma keeps people from getting help. Mental illness should not be something to be ashamed about or thought of differently. When mental illness is treated equally to other illnesses, more people will have the courage to get help and better their lives.
We need to understand that being both physically and emotionally fit is the key to success in all aspects of life. Children should be educated about the importance of mental health, which would help them in breaking the stereotypes around mental health which today’s society has created.
We all know that laughter is one of the best therapy to heal a person. There are many laughter clubs and stand-up comedians who are trying to make people laugh through various antics and therapies. Today is the day to celebrate this best therapy; WORLD LAUGHTER DAY!
Let’s understand how this day came into existence,
It was established in the year of 1998 by Dr. Madan Kataria in Mumbai, India. Dr. Kataria was the founder of the worldwide Laughter Yoga movement. He was very much impressed with the Facial Feedback hypothesis. This hypothesis suggests the connection of someone’s facial expression to their emotions. This was the basis of the foundation of World Laughter Day by Dr. Kataria and his main aim was to promote health and positivity through laughter.
Every Year, World Laughter Day is celebrated on first Sunday of May. It is marked on 2 May this year. In the middle of the pandemic this day is acting as a ray of hope and brings out a little positivity amidst all these crises. Laughter day is celebrated for the positive manifestation of World peace and to promote global brotherhood and friendship. On this day people come together for some moments of time and laugh their hearts out. It was first celebrated in Mumbai in 2008.
We all know how beneficial laughter is to us. Let’s take a look at some of those benefits:
ABS through laughter?: Yes, you read that right. Studies have shown that laughter works just like those ab-workouts. So this means you can also have toned abs without having to do those crunches or HIIT Ab workouts. Thank God!
Improves Cardiac Health: If a person is unable to do a cardio workout, he can just laugh because laughter is considered as one of the best Cardio workouts one can do. When a person laughs, there is an increase in the pumping of heart which gradually improves the cardiac health of the person. It is like those sale which says Buy 1, Get 1 free! Laughter not only gives you better physical health but also enables you to have a mental peace providing a good mental health.
Reduces Stress: One of the main problem experienced by today’s generation is the stress. Every other person is stressed in one way or the other. When a person laughs the anxiety and stress hormones are cut off hence enabling the person to feel better. It is thus used by many doctors as a therapy against several mental disorders.
Releases Endorphins: Endorphins are the natural pain killers produced by our body. When a person laughs, it enables our pituitary gland to release endorphins which gradually allows a person to feel better and more pleasant overall.
Lowers Blood pleasure: Laughter impacts our blood pressure levels lowering the risks of stroke or a heart attack.
If we can simply have so many benefits just be laughing then why not let’s just laugh for sometime. Kindly spare 5 minutes of your time to see the following video:
As you can see how a simple laughter can bring a smile on so many faces. You can watch some comedy shows, movies or even some stand-up comedies on this laughter day. Let us promise to celebrate every day as a laughter day. Keep laughing your hearts out! Stay Happy, Stay Healthy.
With the advancement of technology and the passage of time, the field of “Social Media” and its influence has expanded and flourished. What began as a place for people to express themselves, share their experiences, and meet new people from all over the world has evolved into an increasingly important forum for addressing socially and politically relevant issues that affect the lives of people all over the world. The claws of social media are so powerful that it is now thought that, because of its inherent strength, it has helped bring the world closer to us, right at our fingertips. Contrary to common opinion, and in light of current events, we must increasingly doubt the influence of social media.
The growth of social media has been measured not only in terms of the number of users worldwide, but also in terms of the number of channels and features available. It has also become a forum through which millions of people can access and obtain information about social and political issues and movements as a result of its development. As a result, the form of contemporary political movements and demonstrations has been formed. The #BlackLivesMatter and #MeToo movements are archetypal examples of how modern-day protests are organized on social media, demonstrating the amount of political participation and interest that can be generated on the platform. Given that thousands of people post their social and political views every day, such a knowledge overload creates a great deal of uncertainty, which in turn influences the perceptions of millions of people who read these posts. Hence, a query arises, ‘Can you blindly accept any news that is shared on social media? ‘Because what we think of as facts or news could just be a piece of someone else’s opinion on a given topic.’
The terms “momentarily” and “fad” can be used interchangeably to describe modern-day social media movements. While it is simple to raise awareness about a significant social issue, both of these movements follow the ‘bell curve.’ When the ‘Black Lives Matter’ (BLM) campaign erupted on social media, for example, it caused an instant uproar and drew everyone’s attention. People were not only vocal about their views on racism, but they were also supportive of the campaign. But, after #BlackoutTuesday, what happened? People resumed posting memes and other standard material. Within a few days, the movement that had gotten so much coverage overnight had faded from users’ feeds. When Black Lives Matter became popular, people began using it as a motif for photoshoots, makeup inspiration, and creating ‘Tiktoks.’ The movement’s objective was totally changed, and it was relegated to being a “feature of the month.” When these factors are considered, the feasibility and viability of using social media to raise political and social problems is called into question. Although it empowers millions of citizens and highlights sensitive issues, we now see that it often disempowers people and reduces the sensitivity of the issues it represents.
When it comes to demographics, ‘Millennials’ and ‘Generation-Z’ are the most active users of social media. It has become a hotspot for them to express themselves without filters. The only issue with this culture’s promotion is that it has started to incite a lot of hatred among people. Previously, we had incidents where social media saved the lives of people who needed saving, and now we have incidents where it takes the lives of people due to the amount of hatred it can generate in a split second. While there is no mention of a second chance on social media, there are plenty of unsolicited opinions. Let’s take the case of someone who hasn’t been exposed to bigotry and has an uninformed view about it. On a social media website, the person posts something about his personal opinion. After receiving criticism from others, the same person chooses to reflect and reconsider his position. The individual recognizes their lack of sensitivity and re-posts. People on social media will call it hypocrisy outright, and there would be no space for a normalized response to a shift of perception that may occur as a result of new facts and realizations. This same scenario plays out on different social media sites on a daily basis, and it can have a significant impact on an individual’s mental health.
While social media has many advantages, such as bringing the world closer together in multiple ways, we cannot overlook the differences it has generated among communities and people. The term “socializing” has taken on a new meaning in today’s world, and the days of people meeting up and interacting are long gone. Social media has rapidly transformed activism into ‘slacktivism,’ and this fact makes us doubt its viability as a forum for discussing social or political movements, because, while we may think we are making a difference, we are ultimately supporting the ‘clickbait’ mentality, in which anything is viewed as a passing fad.
Mental health is a much talked about topic these days. Earlier people barely talked of it let alone address it as a genuine problem. But this is changing. People are becoming more and more vocal about their mental health issues and sharing their stories over the internet with the hope that it might help someone.
What is mental health?
Mental health is a total of our emotional, psychological and social well-being. It affects how we think, feel and act.
How we handle stress, relate to others and make choices also depends on our mental health. But with growing restlessness and fast-moving life, we have neglected our mental health. Neglecting our mental health gives rise to many mental problems. It reflects in your mood, behaviour and thinking.
Not just restlessness and life but there are other factors also that contribute to mental health problems. Including:
Biological factors like genes and or brain chemistry
Life experiences like trauma and stress
Family history of mental health problems.
A person with good mental health will be able to realise their full potential, cope with stresses in life, work productively and make meaningful contribution to the community as whole.
Early signs of mental health problems
Some you might know may be suffering from mental health issues without you being completely unaware about it. Notice the following symptoms and reach out to them if you think they need help.
Eating or sleeping too much or too little
Having low or no energy
Pulling away from people and social activities
Feeling helpless or hopeless
Yelling or fighting
Severe mood swings
Having unexplained aches and pains
There are other symptoms as well but these are the most common ones. It is very crucial to identify these signs and help the one in need or get professional help before the situation gets worse. People who are suffering from mental health problems may also try to harm themselves. Before the situation gets to this, it is advisable to seek help from a professional.
Mental health awareness
The pandemic had a big toll on everyone’s mental health. Apart from the people who died because of the coronavirus, there were hundreds of people who died because of mental health issues. It was also reported that the number of suicides increased during the lockdown.
But our society has since very long considered mental health a myth and has continuously ignored the problem. And the main reason behind this ignorance is the lack of awareness.
More than half of the people still consider depression as being just sad or crying. They are unaware of the fact that a person may look happy on the outside but may be suffering alone on the inside. They still don’t know that depression and anxiety are so much more than just being sad.
This is where awareness comes in. People and celebrities have openly started talking about their struggles with mental health. This has encouraged many people to come forward and talk about their stories. Many helplines have also been set up for people who need to talk to someone or a professional.
You can talk to someone you trust or a loved one. But if you feel like the situation is much worse which can’t be solved by talking out, seek professional help.
It’s not always the person suffering from a mental health problem who has to reach out to help. If you know someone who might be suffering you can also reach out first. Check up on your loved ones once in a while because it might make a lot of difference.
In the end, awareness is important but it is useless if not brought into action and implemented properly.
We Generate Fears While We Sit. We Overcome Them By Action.
Dr. Henry Link
We are asked all our lives, by our peers, our teachers, loved ones and visitors, ‘How old are you?’ in schools, functions, gatherings and on the streets. We mumble our answer in a monotonous tone until we pass school or college. After this, we feel as if we are on our own. We start to dread this question. Why?
Because the question takes quite a different turn as we grow up. Often joining hands with another following question ‘Well, what have you done in your life until now?’
Leaves us speechless sometimes, doesn’t it?
How We Compare And Why We Compare
We see our peers doing extraordinary things in their lives. Going around the world, taking various responsibilities, beginning their careers, and making the most out of their time. We judge our accomplishments with their’s and underestimate ourselves.
The Only Limit To Our Realization Of Tomorrow Will Be Our Doubts Of Today.
Franklin D. Roosevelt
The dream of early success is so over-glorified, in the media, in society and well, on our dreams itself. The vision of getting a well-paid job in our 20s and settling down in a middle-class luxury life is a common desire. But is this what life is all about?
What about the skills we have acquired throughout our lives? Our experiences? Our creations? Most of all, What good have we done for society?
What is Life All About?
Life is not just about mere existence. The capitalist world makes us aspire for a luxurious life but speaks nothing on the moral deeds we should do and how learning is a constant process in life, not merely something we finish in schools and institutions.
Learning has no age limit. We are never too old to learn something new and do our part. Several icons of the modern world whom we admire have paid their share of creations well after their thirties and more.
What You Lack In Talent Can Be Made Up With Desire, Hustle And Giving 110% All The Time.
Don Zimmer
For instance, comedian Steve Carell; who is known blockbuster hit such as “The Big Short” staring as Micheal Scott in The Office, didn’t land his hit role as Michael Scott until 42 years of age.
Steve Carell
Other famous cases of late successes are Ricky Gervais(creator of The Office); Arianna Huffington (Founder of HuffPost) and even J.K. Rowling, author of the beloved Harry Potter books, started writing the first book of the world-famous franchise well into her thirties. All of their life events towards success continue to inspire us in addition to their inventions staying immortal.
This doesn’t mean we should hold our lives in pause mode and hope for the best, that life will figure itself out as we age. A person must have a moral aim in their life. We must aspire to create, innovate and inspire ourselves at every point since the start. It depends on the quality, not quantity.
Swami Vivekananda did great things in his short lifetime. One doesn’t have to be him to attain noble things; One should take the great monk’s values and aspire to do charitable deeds in their lives for the society and themselves.
Swami Vivekananda
Swami Vivekananda’s popular quote often serves as a great inspiration when we feel at our lowest:-
Arise, awake and do not stop until the goal is reached.
Swami Vivekananda
A person doesn’t simply become great in a day at something. It takes a deal of consistent effort to be exemplary at something. After all, practice makes perfect. We must fail at times to learn from mistakes and rise strong. Failures are the pillars of success. Famous talk show host Oprah was fired from her job as an anchor, but she took failure as an experience. Now she is one of the most popular figures in today’s world and the cherry on top, a billionaire.
Everybody has a calling. And your real job in life is to figure out as soon as possible what that is, who you were meant to be, and to begin to honor that in the best way possible for yourself.
Oprah Winfrey
Our aspirations in life might not come easy, be done in a short while, and might often make us discouraged and have us abhor life itself. Don’t care about what others are doing in their lives, go at your pace. During these moments in time, we must remember, ‘where there is a will, there is a way’. If there’s a true passion for the right cause, a rational purpose, then no one can stop you from achieving your ambition. Remember as you age, you are not getting ‘old’, you are getting better.
It all started a few months back, spending time on my phone was making me feel sick to my stomach. The strive to remain connected was making me feel annoyed, distracted and detached than ever.
Ever since data charges got cheaper and cheaper, using social media platforms one after the other became a part of our day. A routine to be exact.
It started off with taking over our lives when we felt bored at first, time does fly when you’re having fun. The transition to a time when we grew bored of it often. We’re certainly overdoing it.
However it never felt like an addiction to me, but on contemplation it became rather obvious that the struggle was inflicted by the content I consumed. The connectivity was paying a one hefty fee.
As faith would have it, one day it finally hit me. A solution to my problem lies in plain sight. Simple but genius. ‘Why do I have to do it, if it’s not healthy for me?’
A grave moment of epiphany.
The pandemic has fuelled people to spend long hours on their phones. The amount of content consumption should be a reason for concern.
We fancy all that our brothers from the West preach. We try to dress like them, eat like them and when they went onto to discovering social media platforms, we accepted it wholeheartedly.
Now as more and more such brothers preach the need for digital detoxes, this can’t be more true. They more or less do have an elder sibling effect on us.
The solution was ever apparent, for the taking to the ones that seek. We’re all stressed, tensed and severely pumped up than ever before. We all do find it hard to manage time too, and our attention span is just a little more than that of a goldfish.
Above all, the lack of sleep has also been found to have it’s toll on a few. The trends seemed to have circulated a few years back, around the time when the data charges were dragged to the ground.
The very essence of us passing time, being the very reason behind the matter of concern. They say, “the best days are the ones that doesn’t make you check your phone,” so why not do it? Make it a reality.
Social media has helped us out immensely, letting us to be connected to our loved ones around the world. Helping relationships to sustain itself over geographical and time barriers.
However we fell short to draw the boundaries. Boundaries are necessary. Knowing where to draw the line can absolutely do wonders.
The idea of a digital detox seemed a bit paradoxical to me at first. Cutting out the use of any device that is electric, seems far too barbaric, now. Our lives are so entangled that getting rid of it is not an option. However, Striking a balance seems apter by leaps and bounds.
I believe radical changes can cause more bane than boon. Whereas baby steps can take you places. Rather than completely throwing it out the window, imposing restrictions can be the first step.
Reducing the screen time to a smaller periods and then slowly stepping up a notch every now and then.
If it gets better and better, do more of it. After all life’s more about doing things that sets One’s soul on fire right.
Why should one bicker from doing more of what makes you feel better.
I believe in preaching what I believe in, A couple of months down the line, following the following has made me feel so much better lately. I’m connected but disconnected. Life got so much better.
We humans are the masters of our domain. At times, us, the masters go berserk by certain pursuits. We do go overboard with things, from petty tasks to pursuits complex.
I believe the quote, “Nothing to extremes, everything in moderations”, from the remarkable book ‘The monk who sold his Ferrari’, by writer Robin Sharma is something we all should adhere to. In all aspects of life.
We humans are masters of passing time. It doesn’t matter where we’re, or what we have, we’ll inevitably find ways to destress or to chill.
We’re the lords who have mastered the art of passing time. Everyone’s a Picasso or your own ‘unique being’ for this matter.
But when the phenomenon of ‘fomo’ (fear of missing out) kicks in, beings scramble to ‘fit in’. To find a firm ground to socialise with fellow beings. Gradually paving the way for losing bits and pieces of oneself.
The recent trends of passingtime – Bingewatching has proven the point well.
It has united the world, that was once divided. Surveys have shown that almost all the generations; especially ‘generation z’ and ‘millennials’, have been ‘swept off their feet’ by a plethora of content to stream and chill.
For the ones that were living under a rock, the ones unaware, binge-watching refers watching far too many episodes of a tv series at one go. It’s funny I guess tv series’ are a thing of the past now. Web series’ being the new black.
Netflix was the catalyst for such a mammoth change in the lives of many. By releasing the entire season of a series to watch all at once. Doing away with the process of having to wait out a new episode every week.
This fast paced life has made such anticipation seem surreal or nerve wrecking to be aptly put. Killing the beauty of waiting.
I guess sometimes you do have to give it time. If not, you lose sight of the whatever’s beautiful in this world in the process.
A true testament that change is part of nature’s way. Embrace the change and go with the flow, or get drowned in the process.
The struggle was real earlier. A few years back, privileged were the ones that had umpteen storage facilities and a high speed internet connection. But the transmission of life into digital has made the struggles fade.
The struggle now is settling on what to watch and finish it before any spoilers. With traditional cable tvs’, cinemas and movies taking the hit in the process. Transforming the entertainment world by a few hundred steps stcsdym a time. The changes are abysmal.
The ‘work from home’ culture just fuelling the way for major streaming platforms to sow millions in this times of crisis. With too much time in hand, people going frenzy to fit in something or the other into their lives to pass time.
Like I mentioned earlier, not adhering to moderations has its own antagonising effects. The binge watching culture has made several beings vulnerable to numerous health conditions.
Having a toll on the body and the mind. Two spectrums of well-being, taking severe hits by the 4G and 5G spectrums, causing many a imbalances in the lives of mankind, as a whole.
Experts have commented that the new culture of bingeing has adverse impacts on health, as the excessive indulgence has thrown the dopamine levels of the body off the charts.
Dopamine being a chemical produced naturally in the body, is a neurotransmitter, which regulates many a actions of our bodies.
The health problems involving both physical and mental. Ranging from severe medical conditions like insomnia, chronic boredom, apathy to depression. The physical effects ranging from cardiovascular diseases, thrombosis and other vision related diseases.
The excessive snacking whilst bingeing also affecting the tummy areas too. Transforming generously the packs into a vast ‘single pack’ in the process.
All this rambling might make me sound like a boomer trying to bully the younger generations. But in all honesty, if you don’t care to stop and analyse what’s happening, then whole of life will slip away before you take notice.
Periodic reality checks should be squeezed into the equation of life. For a better and beautiful tomorrow.
For “Tomorrow has no reality, since every day is experienced as today”, excessive indulgence today might fade out all our realities amidst a global pandemic.
Most of us have had a childhood interest or a hobby which was our favourite pastime. With not much to do all day, we would spend our time engaging in different unique and creative activities. Not only saving us from boredom, these hobbies have provided us with lot of benefits and shaped us into becoming what we are today.
Almost everyone had a favourite pastime activity which would keep us busy in our childhood. Starting from painting, doodling to collecting stamps, pebbles, train tickets and what not. When asked about their hobbies many people were found to narrate happy tales of their childhood. In today’s busy world where it is difficult to even take a day off from work, we tend to lose touch with our creative sides. Thinking about our childhood days makes us realise how long it had been since these hobbies were a part of our lives. Sports, music, crafts have all been pushed aside in adulthood by our busy schedules and responsibilities. In the midst of all these we have not realised how important these had been in shaping us and how amazing it would be to revisit these days by going back to those hobbies.
As children we had many different ways to spend our times. Some of us were into painting and crafts, some were into musical instruments, while some had the interesting habit of collecting stuffs. All these hobbies seem simple but studies show that there is a lot more to it.
There’s a lot of factual information about the importance of art in a child’s development. Researches show that individuals who have been into art and crafts in their childhood are found to be more expressive and have better communication skills. Experimenting with art makes children open to broader ideas and help them handle unexpected situations with ease.
Collecting is believed to be a psychological impulse. Collection is a historical practice and it ranges from stamps, books, tickets, coins to leaves and pebbles. People maintain the habit of collecting due to various reasons. Some collect due to an interest in the things that the collections represent, while others view collection as a pleasurable form of owning something. The different aspects attached with it makes the psychology behind it so interesting. It has been known that individuals who had the habit of collecting grow up to be careerist individuals in future. As the saying goes “An individual’s childhood is reflection of their life”. Collectors are also known to make better social connections and more friendships.
Individuals engaging with music from a very young age tend to enjoy musical instruments. Engaging with music makes us happy and lifts our spirits. Studies show that music improve our brain functions and it keeps the brain active. It has also been known that music helps in retaining information and develops memory. Children who have had such hobbies grow up to be smart individuals.
Google had encouraged its employees to devote 20 percent of their time to side projects of their interest. It was a very innovative decision on the part of the company and it yielded amazing results. It has been known that following this, employees have performed more productively in their work and have achieved more. There are innumerable ways in which hobbies help in one’s overall growth and development. Most of us have lost touch with these but we can surely try and revive those habits. In fact, discovering childhood hobbies can make our lives better and make us happier. It feels amazing to revive those countless memories we have with an instrument or a habit. This will also help us become more productive in our work. Investing one’s time in areas of interest alongside their career can yield incredible results and, in the process, will make us better individuals with a more holistic outlook towards life.
According to the American Psychological Association,Personality refers to an individual differences in characteristic patterns of thinking, feeling and behaving. The study of personality focuses on two broad areas: One is understanding individual differences in particular personality characteristics, such as sociability or irritability. The other is understanding how the various parts of a person come together as a whole.
So this blog will introduce the readers to some important theories used to describe personality.Let’s get started!
According to Sigmund Freud Father of Psychoanalysis, an adult personality generally has three determinants: Id, Ego and Super Ego.The outcome of the combination of all the three determinants shapes an adult personality. Freud believed than an individual’s personality has three parts and thus is often called as tripartite personality.
Id:Irrational demands and urge.
Ego:Helps in fulfillment of Id after taking into consideration the reality.
Superego:Moral constraints of the individual.
Defense mechanisms play an important role in pushing unrealistic thoughts out of awareness. Stressful thoughts which are threatening to an individual’s survival should be pushed into unconscious mind to reduce anxiety through them.
2)ERIK ERIKSON:PSYCHOSOCIAL DEVELOPMENT THEORY:-
Erikson believes there are 8 stages in a person’s life and to enter into the next stage,a virtue has to be learnt from the previous stage and this leads to personality development.He focuses on different identity crisis in a person’s lifespan.As in
STAGE 1:Trust v/s Mistrust;Virtue:Hope
STAGE 2:Autonomy v/s Doubt;Virtue:Will
STAGE 3:Initiative v/s Guilt;Virtue:Sense of Purpose.
STAGE 5:Identity cohesion v/s Role confusion;Virtue:Fidelity
STAGE 6:Intimacy v/s Isolation;Virtue:Love
STAGE 7:Generativity v/s Stagnation;Virtue:Care
STAGE 8:Ego Integrity v/s Despair;Virtue:Wisdom
3)CARL JUNG:INTOVERSION V/S EXTRAVERSION
Carl Jung established a theory, which saw universal types in human personality. The types categorized by Carl Jung are present in all of us. But, certain types are predominant over the normal mode of organizing our experience.Carl Jung also developed a theory of personality. His theory is one of the type theories of personality, as it involved typology of introversion and extraversion.There are 4 functions :Sensing,intuiting,thinking and feeling.
4)JULIAN ROTTER-LOCUS OF CONTROL
“Locus of Control.” For many people, their only exposure to the ideas of Julian B. Rotter is his concept of generalized expectancies for control of reinforcement, more commonly known as locus of control. Locus of control refers to people’s very general, cross-situational beliefs about what determines whether or not they get reinforced in life. People can be classified along a continuum from very internal to very external. People with a strong internal locus of control believe that the responsibility for whether or not they get reinforced ultimately lies with themselves. Internals believe that success or failure is due to their own efforts. In contrast, externals believe that the reinforcers in life are controlled by luck, chance, or powerful others. Therefore, they see little impact of their own efforts on the amount of reinforcement they receive.
Thus we come to the end of the blog.This blog is aimed at introducing the readers to the world of personality analysis.However one must remember that human beings are complex and not one theory explains all the human behavior.The readers are requested to read more articles about the same and fill themselves with knowledge.
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“The outbreak of novel coronavirus pneumonia will inevitably have a relatively big impact on the economy and society … For us, this is a crisis and is also a big test.”
With the whole Coronavirus pandemic engulfing the whole world in its clutches, there’s a thing or two humanity had to learn the hard way. Firstly, all strings are attached. If your neighbour’s house is on fire, then it is not the time to judge his doings, his karma, even shielding your own house isn’t advisable. Run for him, save his house put off the fire first. Secondly, invisible thing mess us up better, whether it is your so called almighty or a deadly virus. Third, public are the second priority for any government, obviously, first is their party. Lastly, home isn’t sweet home but a jail if you live locked in it for months. It eats you, it’s door is like mouth and you’ve walked into it yourself, and can’t find an escape route.
We, as people, have started craving human connection. What happened to conversations? We are all stuck in this same catastrophe, feeling like there’s nothing left to say. We focus on the weather, pretend its something new. There’s an elephant in the room that keeps us standing six feet apart. We all miss human touch. We now feel like an empty shell, once fuelled by love, now left to rot. It’s hard to speak these days. Respirators and cloth masks return our warm breath and words against our lips and cheeks. Many of us haven’t seen a smile in weeks. Even if our mouths weren’t covered, I’m not sure I would see a smile in these conditions. These are dark times. There’s a glimpse of light at the end of the tunnel. I’m so afraid we’ll all forget these lessons, as we open back up, and cause greater destruction. It’s really sad that coronavirus is creating a point of shared experience between the chronically ill and disabled and generally healthy people all forced to stay at home. And while it will be handy going forward to explain to people who think me being home on disability must be nice, I can now say “remember coronavirus?” But at the same time, people have died and are dying just so ablest get a taste of what disability living is like.
The pandemic has also taught us a few valuable lessons that can’t be ignored in the future.
• Foundational research may be expensive, but it is necessary.
• No country can deal with a crisis like this on its own.
• A strictly for profit health care system is not prepared to deal with a pandemic in any way, shape or form.
• Instead of equating wealth to success, as we have done until today, we will need to start equating positive contribution to society with success.
We can see some signs of such a motion during the pandemic in the praise that health-care workers receive for their efforts to help the often-unmanageable amount of coronavirus cases. However, we need to further internalize this redefinition of success, as our social connections, life engagements, work and social values all stem from it: There is nothing successful in being individually successful and wealthy at the expense of others. Success lies in creating a positively-connected society, where its members take responsibility and care for each other, contribute to each other’s well-being, and promote to each other the need for centering everyone’s focus on benefiting others instead of benefiting our individual selves.
The world is learning about the need to be more considerate of everyone, as we all depend on each other. However, I think that an extra “push” on our behalf to further implant this understanding will serve to better balance us with the tighter interdependence and interconnectedness that the coronavirus era has revealed to us.
Whatever silver lining we can find in this crisis will, however, always be tainted by travesties we had to endure, because we had the knowledge and tools to do a lot better and save more lives.
A key way to fight a pandemic is with positive chaos, to sew kindness and love into the fabric of society at every opportunity possible.
Human beings are social creatures who seek to be in community. Relationality is an important aspect of our selves as we tend to develop our perceptions of ourselves through others. However, that is not the only thing necessary for us to have a healthy conception of who we are and what matters to us. We currently live in a world where constant interaction is privileged over taking time alone. We are always called to act, to do things quickly, to be efficient, and to be productive. Add to this equation the phenomenon of social media where we are continuously being exposed to the lifestyles and opinions of others, it is certain that we are more socially connected than ever. Yet, we find that all this boom in productivity and immersion in socializing has not really helped us better our relationship and communication skills. Rather, it seems to have done the opposite with more people finding it more difficult to maintain any relationship and social media considered one of the loneliest spaces to be in. It is in this context that we have to regain the concept of solitude, of healthy retirement from constant socializing, and of learning to understand oneself.
People often tend to confuse solitude and loneliness, and that is a mistake we should not make. To put it simply, we can say that loneliness has a negative connotation and is to indicate a situation where one longs for company but is unable to find it. Solitude, on the other hand, is contentment in a state of being alone where one is not seeking for the presence of another but the presence of oneself. Taking time for oneself comes easily for some, particularly for character types like introverts who thrive in their own spaces and are able to channel their energies well without external interventions. It might be harder for others who are social butterflies and they might not even consider it necessary. However, it is important to realize that solitude is more of a discipline that has to be developed rather than an inclination, because it does have tangible effects. It is more than just liking to be alone which would differ from one person to the other, but the requirement of time and space for quietness and rest.
Solitude is necessary for us to confront and process our own emotions as well as opinions and prejudices. It is easy for us to constantly move from one topic to another superficially, and thus be unaware of what we ourselves might be unconsciously endorsing or defending. It also limits us from completely placing our worth on something as fickle as the opinion of others or their treatment of us. It is vital that we spend time effectively switched off from the rest of the world so that we can choose how to spend our energies as well. Otherwise, we will burn out and be unable to contribute well to those around or be a good friend to someone who needs us. Solitude, since it allows us to acquaint with our own selves better, helps us in the way we are able to relate to others. Unless we know ourselves alone and who find ourselves to be, we will be less capable of meaningfully bonding with another. Thus, solitude has a dialectical relationship with community. It allows for introspection and thereby, better engagement with those around us, letting us see them in newer and deeper ways.
In a world where we are constantly bombarded by voices telling us to do and to be a million different things, the practice of embracing solitude is essential now more than ever. We have to find time to log off, to read, to sit in quietness, to think, or just be. This is an effective measure against being pressured into being what everyone else would want us to be and to realize who we are, where our interests lie, and what we care about, so that we can be more intentional and empathetic in our approach towards society and individuals.
Mental health refers to cognitive, behavioral, and emotional well-being. It is all about how people think, feel, and behave. Trying to tell the difference between expected behavior and signs of mental illness isn’t always easy, there is not a simple standard test to diagnose someone with a mental health issue. Having a gene with links to a mental health disorder, such as depression or schizophrenia, does not guarantee that a condition will develop. Likewise, people without related genes or a family history of mental illness can still have mental health issues.
Mental health conditions such as stress, depression, and anxiety may develop due to underlying, life-changing physical health problems, such as cancer, diabetes, and chronic pain. Each issue related to mental health has different symptoms but the common signs of disturbed mental health in adults and teenagers can be excessive worrying or fear, confused thought or problems concentrating and learning, extreme mood changes, avoiding friends and social activities, strong feelings of irritability and anger, difficulty in relating to people, change in sleep schedules or feeling tired all the time, change in eating habits, delusions or hallucinations, overuse of alcohol or drugs, suicidal tendencies, inability to carry out daily activities, and changes in personality.
Everyone has some risk of developing a mental health disorder, no matter their age, sex, income, or ethnicity. Young children can develop mental health conditions but their behavior and symptoms are mostly ignored. The most important thing is not to be afraid of reaching out to someone for help, acceptance is the first and most important step towards your mental health. Talk to people you trust.
Acknowledging the warning signs can help, getting an accurate diagnosis helps and for that seeking professional help is a good plan, to begin with. After a proper diagnosis, a psychiatrist can help develop a treatment plan which could be medication or therapy. Getting a proper diagnosis is just a first step, working on your goals is very important. Treatment varies from diagnosis and by the person, there is no fixed treatment of the same diagnosis, for some medication can help while for some counseling or therapy or social support can work.
Trigger Warnings (TW) are labels that we are well-acquainted with today. The term comes from the vocabulary of therapy especially for PTSD, where an individual who has undergone trauma is ‘triggered’ by something that they come across, creating a negative emotional response. It has been extrapolated into mainstream discourse as a measure to help in such situations. ‘Trigger warning’ is meant to be used before content that some may find distressing or triggering owing to their past traumas or experiences. It appears widely on social media platforms, spaces of activism, and even in classrooms to alert students about potentially distressing images or texts that may come up in class. These can include images such as those of violence or mutilation, discussions or descriptions of instances relating to racism, sexism, misogyny, discrimination, rape, murder, etc. , or any topic that is connected to traumas. Trigger warnings acknowledge the existence of trauma and give them legitimacy, allowing individuals to mentally prepare themselves should the content be triggering.
However, a careful understanding of the dynamics of trigger warnings is worth looking into in the current scenario since the term is a pointer towards a much larger framework of engagement. Particularly when cancel culture is in vogue and anyone who speaks against anything that is not agreed upon by those who control that space is “cancelled”, labeling what others say as ‘triggering’ can be used as a weapon to attack anyone who might disagree. It is important to note that this is not about legitimate concerns and harm inflicted, but about those who use such labels as a defense to escape accountability or use activism as a facade for their own ends. While there are always individuals whose experiences have made their apprehension of such content extremely difficult, there seems to be an increasing proclivity towards considering being triggered as providing legitimacy, especially if one’s voice is to be heard. A Harvard researcher opines that it only encourages people to see trauma as central to their identity. However, that is not healthy for them. There can come a point when any opinion that might be against or even deviant from the popular discourse among a certain group be considered “triggering”. It can be used to permit behaviors that focus on destroying rather than constructively criticizing. Mindful responses are given away in favor of immediate reactions, creating echo chambers where no one who might disagree is allowed to enter. This only leads to the deterioration of any movement or cause, since it effectively cuts off all engagement with another.
It is also important to understand that while we may be able to move away by seeing the label TW, there is someone, and often a group of people, for whom what we move away from seeing is their everyday lived reality. It is our privilege, to an extent, that lets us walk away. While we should not discount our mental states, we should not promote avoidance as a coping mechanism. Adoption of trigger warnings itself has been questioned by academicians who opine that it only leads to lower levels of resistance and consequently, a decreasing capacity to engage or bring change. It is interesting that therapy for those who have experienced trauma does not go the way of avoiding all triggers, but gradually increasing exposure to them under the guidance of an expert. Only then can we say that the person is on the road to healing. This is a difficult process but considered necessary. Otherwise, the patient will be a victim of the experience all through their lives. And a growing of body of research suggests that trigger warnings do not really help a person who faces such struggles. In fact, it might even have the opposite effect by making him weaker and more sensitive to anything that could potentially cause distress. Seeing TW itself can instinctively cause a negative reaction. This will also render him incapable of adequate response when he might be faced with such a situation in real life without any warning. Avoidance does not help with learning nor with the skills to properly respond. Being fragile in such respects is not something to be aspired to, but something to be dealt with gently for those who are struggling, and to be overcome with support and care.
So, while trigger warnings are useful, the manner in which we think about them might need to change. They should not be an excuse to leave every single time, but more of a “proceed with caution” sign. They should exist as a marker that reminds us of the need for change, and an opportunity to be mindful of how we engage with the content that is presented to us. We might not be able to deal well with all content overnight, but gradually we will be able to not leave the space but stay and meaningfully act in spite of our discomfort, and to provide encouragement to those facing similar struggles. It will also allow us to be better allies to those the mention of whose experiences we find triggering. Our mental health is important, but strength can be built over time with exposure, and we should consider if we are to privilege how something makes us feel over how that something is a lived reality that is affecting lives on the ground, and what we can do about it.
When we talk about the concept of “Gender Inequality” – It clearly states that sometimes men and women are not considered as equal. These inequalities has been passed on from ages and is still very much prevalent. According to the norms of society, There is a vast dissimilarity of how the men or women shall be treated. Either of the Gender gets harassed in one way or the other. Many people certainly don’t understand the definition well and they probably get the idea of Gender Inequality wrong i.e., only the harassments towards women are unjust. This is true that the women face a lot of discriminations on a daily basis across the country. They get abused in their homes then gets insulted in their workplace. This is way too shameful and is a criminal offence in the eyes of Law. Several regulations has been created to ensure the protection of females. But can we say such similar kinds of principles has been made for the Male communities as well? We don’t get to hear a lot about the pressure that has been burdened on Men from the very childhood. They also go through a lot of trauma, they too feel low or disgraced often. Why do men have to maintain an image of being “strong”? Why are they overloaded with so much of responsibilities and is meant to fulfil all of it silently. Why don’t they cry and vent out their sorrows.? Men tend to bottle up their emotions right from their adolescence and that is considered as a “Manly” trait. Society has decided that a Man shall remain silent and aren’t allowed to cry. A boy when gets hurt while playing, the mother hushed him up and said that injuries are obvious for the boys. Such is not the case with her attitude towards the Girl child , they can express their thoughts easily with their mothers. The struggle of a man while growing up remains unnoticed for generations and they won’t get to admit anything to their family. They just have to serve the family according to their whims and fancies. Women are expected to be emotional beings while a Man has to be the “Guardian of the Family”. They have to be successful in life and hence to work day and night for providing a better life to their parents, also to their wife or children. We rarely talk about the sacrifices our father makes for our livelihood. Maybe the “MAN” in our homes never expects recognition, he just goes on working selflessly. A child grows up in such a way that he keeps demanding everything from the father. If a Man cries it is considered to be “Womanly”. A man might not tell you but secretly he needs praises and guidance for his excellent work. Why does a man gets up every time to let a woman or a child sit in seat of a bus even if he is completely exhausted? What about our gratitude towards the Father or his never ending “fatherly love”?
‘Men only likes to count his troubles, he doesn’t calculate his happiness.’ – Fyodor Dostoevsky. In India the suicide ratio of a Man is much higher than that of a Woman, amongst all age groups. Why do the men have to take such a drastic step like suicide? As of 2015, almost two thirds of worldwide suicides (representing about 1.5 per cent of all deaths) are committed by men. This statistics clearly revels that man battles with a lot of depressions more likely, and talking about mental health this is much evident that the Male member in our family seeks support and guidance too. This is a serious issue, Just don’t ignore their problems, this will in turn make them more arrogant. This is the sole reason why the Men become more violent and frustrated, because their voice remains unheard most of the times. They feel hurt and betrayed because they have seen female counterparts receives much more care and concern, even for negligible reasons. Everyone is not greedy or needy, some can be a “Gentleman” too. It is wrongful to shame the whole Men community this way. What about the domestic violence that is happening to Men? Don’t we come across such cases almost everyday? When a man gets tortured or beaten in his own home, does he receives the same remedy a woman receives? Do Courts pay attention in hearing his part as well? Society plays a huge role indeed. There are a lot of cases in which the Husband’s family has been tormented repetitively by the wife and still he was unable to do anything about it? Many a times, there have been false accusations made against a man for any selfish purpose, or just to defame him. Even before the judgement, the man receives criticism and death threats all over the social media. He already becomes a culprit for the society, though nothing has been proved. This demolishes his entire carrier or forces him take away his own life.
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