THE BEANBAG PSYCHOLOGIST 02

The Emotional Body and the Physical Mind

     What would you find in the snapshot of a doctor’s waiting room? Toothy smiles and hearty laughs are far from the picture, surely. Expressions of sickness, fear, apprehensive frowns and screaming kids (and the occasional screaming adult) seem to be a more accurate description of the scene!

     There is such a close relationship between our physical wellness and our emotions and vice versa. Many of us are the very picture of gloom when down with a fever, but a surprise visit from a close friend and fun conversations have the power to instantly make us feel better. This indicates the existence of a two-way passage of information from the body to the mind and the other way around too.

     How do our bodies tell us our mind is feeling something? Many of you must have heard the expressions “butterflies in the stomach”, “giddy with excitement”, “scared to my guts” etc. Through physical sensations such as sweating, giddiness, short and quick breaths, tightened muscles, blood pressure and even acidity, the body is constantly trying to get our attention to the state of our minds.

     Research confirms that our brain releases a hormone called cortisol at times of high stress. Cortisol helps us to gather more energy to either stay and fight or flee from danger. An increased secretion of cortisol takes place when we are made to endure prolonged stress. This can lead to many physical problems such as heart disease, aches and pains, reduced immunity to diseases, ulcers and even aging! This is the extent of the impact our emotional states have on our physical body.

     The good news is it is possible to control our emotional states through our bodies as well. A caring teacher may have advised you to take deep, calming breaths before attempting a difficult task. There is a fantastic scientific logic to this advice. When we are scared or nervous, our sympathetic nervous system is activated, making us breathe in short pants whereas a deep breath activates the opposing system called the parasympathetic nervous system, which reduces the production of cortisol and other stress hormones and thus induces a feeling of calmness and well-being.

     For an overall sense of well-being we should pay attention to the mutual influence of the body and mind on each other so we are better able to control one through the other and achieve balance!

SANGEETHA MADHU & JYOTHI RAVICHANDRAN, THE HINDU IN SCHOOL

THE BEANBAG PSYCHOLOGIST 01

It was almost 1 ‘o clock in the afternoon. Everyone had had their fill at Sunday lunch and was settling down for idle chat and some post lunch belly-rubbing in the living room. Kiran plopped on to his habitual perch, his purple squishy beanbag and lazily looked over at his family. There was Aunty G fretting over the extra salt she had added to the sambhar which had long since been polished off by everyone. Incessant worrier, this one! There was Grandmother R, forever patient and compassionate, listening to the woes of the extra-salt-adder, supplying reassuring comments. She always said the right things! Then there was Uncle A, making inappropriate jokes and provoking others. Moving on, we have Amma and Aunty S talking loudly over the other interspersing conversations, in their own world and so completely relaxed than they have been during the week!

     To Kiran, there was something at once puzzling yet arresting about watching a bunch of people he knew so dearly. People- watching was akin to reading a riddle to him! He loved trying to make-up hypotheses to predict others’ behaviour based on whatever he already knew about them. He enjoyed pondering over why people say the kind of things they said and why they did the kind of things they did!One of the most puzzling questions in his mind was related to what emotions were! Where do they come from and how come the same situation lead to varied emotional responses in different people?!

     Where could an inquisitive young person turn to find an answer to these questions relating to people’s minds? The immensely intriguing field of Psychology would be a great first stop!

     If you were to observe what words come to mind when you hear “Psychology”, you would probably say “human mind”, “behaviour”, “mental wellbeing” and “mental abnormality”! The last response is a particularly frequent association that people make with this field. Sure, studying in depth as to the abnormalities of the mind is a key focus of the subject but it would be completely remiss to make statements about what “abnormal” is without knowing the “normal”, wouldn’t you agree?

     Psychology concerns itself with the scientific study of mental processes (thinking, emotions) and behaviours in both humans and animals. There are some fascinating branches which concern themselves with specific aspects of the mind. Here’s a list of a few of the branches:

1. Experimental psychology for designing research studies to prove or disprove theories of behaviour
2. Physiological psychology to study the role of the brain and other bodily processes on our mental lives
3. Social psychology to study the behaviour of individuals in a group setting
4. Evolutionary psychology to understand how memory, emotions, language and other processes developed as an adaptation to our changing environments
5. Abnormal psychology to study mental disorders, their causes and treatment!
6. Cognitive psychology that exclusively studies higher mental processes such as perception, attention, memory, reasoning, language etc.
7. Developmental psychology to study the psychological development and changes a person goes through from infancy to old age!
8. Neuropsychology to understand the structure and function of the brain in relation to behaviour

     Psychology is not an mysterious subject that is far removed from our everyday lives. We are all psychological beings and the very capacities that we enjoy such as our attention, perception, memory, emotions, social and intimate relationships, motivation and what else have you, falls within the ambit of Psychology!

     If we can open our minds and other senses to observe our personal and social worlds, we can recognize the relevance of psychological principles in our own lives and you could well be on your way to becoming a beanbag psychologist!           

SANGEETHA MADHU & JYOTHI RAVICHANDRAN, THE HINDU IN SCHOOL

YOUNG MINDS 13

On Green Fingers and Pink Hearts

     The glorious vacation time is here! Particularly if glorious means face-melting temperatures and the threat of another long academic year lurking on the other side of the summer. But we’ll deal with potential threats later and possible alternates to have fun this vacation now! Many of you would have a long list of activities planned while some others would simply be looking forward to watch the fan spin its motor off all day. 

     While there are a lot of enjoyable things to do over the vacations, the least considered candidates often would be activities that contribute in some way to the community we live in. Not more than a few students would have planned to be a part of a pro-environment group or a bird-watching group. Why is that so? Simply because playing video-games on the cool floor trumps picking plastic off the hot sands in the beach any day!

     Getting involved in activities that give back to society in some proactive way does wonders for your mental health! Wondering how? For starters, such activities are quite a change from the kind of things many people (adults included, of course) usually engage in. Imagine that you decide to teach the letters of the alphabet to a boy selling sundal on the beach. The novelty of such an experience contributes to expanding your comfort zone. You may learn to speak in a way so that not just your English-speaking, school-going friends understand you. 

     Dialogue with different members of the society will contribute to your understanding of their rather different life situations. With time, you will see that not only will your adaptation to new situations and ideas be a lot easier, but your very perception of people and life will widen, making your mind more open and accommodating of difference in thoughts, opinions and ways of living.

     Suppose you want to get involved in a pro-environment movement. You will get to meet experts from various related fields such as trekkers, scientists, photographers, doctors, educationalists, and what else have you! You will see that your list of interests grows with the number of new things you decide to try, not to mention your repertoire of knowledge and information pertaining to different issues. You ability to connect what you learn at school to community issues you care about will also develop.

     Surely you have heard many professionals who work for the betterment of their community say that the work they do gives their life so much meaning. Such a sentiment stems from the fact that when we reach beyond our private cocoon to other people we feel a strong sense of connection and belonging to a larger human network. We find that we are able to understand others’ emotional and social circumstances better. Such an involvement can inspire us to learn more, give more and do more, which can be a much stronger driving force in our life and careers than simply being ambitious to be the best in something. Imagine the level of service an engineer can offer if he woke up every morning with the drive to create technology that advances living sophistication to all in his country rather than simply wanting to bag an interview in a big magazine!

     If you have ever raised your eyebrows sceptically when an inspired soul said “Nothing is impossible”, you will see that they slowly come back down once you realise that every problem has a solution if you want to solve it passionately enough.

Take ownership of the planet you live on and responsibility for the people you live with. Read to an illiterate, go walking with an elderly person, plant a few trees, and leave out water for the thirsty birds to sip on. The list of small, random acts of kindness is long and its power, immeasurable. Happy holidays!  

SANGEETHA MADHU & JYOTHI RAVICHANDRAN, 

 THE NEW INDIAN EXPRESS- SCHOOL EDITION  

YOUNG MINDS 12

Well, there’s always tomorrow!

It’s that time of the year again when even the most seemingly hurricane-torn room magically rights itself and the smallest requests made by a parent, neighbour or even the staunchest nemesis is met with an eagerly helpful attitude. Anything to get away from the impossibly lofty stack of books and notes, right? Every time you think the most pressing matter at hand is to hover around your father and help him wash the car or to make a detailed time table to help you tackle the exam portions when you eventually start to study rather than actually studying, you are engaging in what is called procrastination, the bane of any student’s life! 

     Procrastination is an act in which you utilize the time you have in completing tasks of low priority in place of tasks with higher priorities or more immediate deadlines. We put off working on some things for a variety of reasons: the tasks in question can be so boring as to induce a state mimicking brain death, or too difficult that you may not feel like you have all the resources to work on it at the moment. There could be reasons for procrastination which lie within us too such as when we get overwhelmed by the task itself because it is too important; disorganised individuals, who have not worked out the tasks to do into an order of importance and immediacy, tend to procrastinate as they may not know where to begin. Many times as you are about to begin work, has it so happened that your parent reprimanded you for not having started yet? As a result of the scolding you received when you were actually getting down to business, you may think “You can’t make me study! Shout all you want, I am going to turn a deaf ear!” This is another contributor to procrastination: rebellion!

     Fear of failure is a large cause of procrastination. A student may feel that no matter how much effort they put into studying, they will end up forgetting or making a mistake in the exam all the same and thus end up putting off preparations. Some students, on the other hand, may feel that if they succeed in this exam, pressure on them to perform well in all other subsequent exams will increase and hence put off studying! 

     One other important reason can be ill adjustment in school. When a student feels like he doesn’t belong in his peer group or doesn’t like going to school, his motivation to work in a timely manner will be low. Likewise, little or no interest in a particular subject leads to a student engaging in any other task but homework pertaining to that subject.

     There are ways to overcome procrastination and one of them is to quite simply visualise in your mind the unpleasant consequences of putting off preparations to the last minute. It is such a cumbersome experience to cram late into the night. There are other opportunities available to witness sunrise than while staring at your textbook with loathing and fear! Simply imagine yourself completing revisions at a reasonable time and enjoying your bedtime by unwinding to some music after a hard day of work and get fitful sleep. Please remember that sleep helps in retention of memory! It helps strengthen and consolidate the facts and concepts that you have learnt through the day. 

     Prioritise your workload by putting them down on paper and tick them off as you complete them. Remember to reward yourself with a little downtime after each task: a small, healthy snack is a great pick-me-up, as well as one great song or a small conversation! Having a studious friend’s support to complete work on time can be helpful. Minimise all distractions, believe in your capability to rise to the occasion and do what needs to be done without anybody’s interference and dictates. All the very best, everyone!

SANGEETHA MADHU & JYOTHI RAVICHANDRAN, 

THE NEW INDIAN EXPRESS- SCHOOL EDITION

YOUNG MINDS 11

Eight is Always Better than One!

     Intelligence is not a single entity but a multi-faceted one. Look through the types of intelligence that people usually possess and figure out your strong areas.

Linguistic intelligence refers to our ability to use spoken and written words to achieve a particular goal. People who are high on this dimension have a great capacity to pick up languages, love reading books, enjoy solving word games and puzzles and have a fondness for sticking their heads out of the car window to read all the advertisement hoardings along the roads. 

     Such linguistically gifted students benefit greatly from story-telling, lectures and debates, brainstorming sessions, writing activities, and extemporaneous speaking.

     Then there are the children of logic! They love asking lots of questions to figure out how something works and how to calculate, quantify and measure objects and ideas. They understand cause-effect relationships between phenomena and reason well. These students possess logical-mathematical intelligence. They will benefit greatly from scientific demonstrations, logical puzzles and problem solving activities, mathematical exercises and sequential presentation of ideas.

     If you were asked to imagine a prism in your mind and rotate it by 45 degrees clockwise, what would you say it looks like? Some people can only answer this with an expression of mild pain but some others can explain wonderfully what this rotation looks like. Such students have spatial intelligence. They enjoy reading maps, solving jig-saw puzzles, drawing and geometry. They may be great at figuring out directions even in a new place. Students high on this dimension will benefit from learning through graphs, diagrams, maps and charts; visual puzzles and mazes; 3D construction kits; picture metaphors; telescopes, microscopes, and binoculars; painting, collage, visual arts and visual thinking exercises.

     Every group has at least one clumsy character, the one that always drops things or walks into objects. These people are the ones that can do with a little training in bodily-kinaesthetic intelligence. People high on this dimension can handle objects skilfully; are very good at sports and dancing; and most importantly, have very good muscular memory i.e. remembering things through movement like how dancers, pilots, and surgeons do. They may benefit greatly from cooperative and competitive games, physical education activities and field trips.

     If there is a hummer in your class who likes to burst into song often, you know what musical intelligence is. Such people are sensitive to rhythms, sounds and music, have the ability to master musical instruments and even compose their own tunes. They will benefit greatly from music appreciation activities, group singing and learning musical concepts.

     What will we ever do without that one social butterfly that goes around the class in the morning greeting everyone boisterously? These students have interpersonal intelligence which refers to their ability to interact effectively with people and to understand others’ motivations, desires and emotions. They may benefit greatly from peer teaching/ group studying, conflict resolution activities, involvement in social and academic clubs and cooperative games.

     If you are the kind that likes to sit by yourself and spend quality time with your own thoughts and ideas, you possess what is called intrapersonal intelligence, which refers to your capacity for self- awareness. You use introspection to know who you are, what you can do and what you want to do. Such students can benefit from learning through self teaching, independent studying, journal keeping and individualized projects.

     If you have ever had your ears blown off for littering or plucking a flower, you have been in the company of a person who has naturalistic intelligence. These individuals readily notice and categorize objects in the natural world. They enjoy the outdoors, and take great pleasure in caring for animals and plants. They will greatly benefit from planetarium visits, ecological awareness exercises, and exposure to animals and botanical species.

     There are so many wonderful career paths to choose from. Just keep your foremost passion in mind and take a pick. The world is your playground!

SANGEETHA MADHU & JYOTHI RAVICHANDRAN, 

THE NEW INDIAN EXPRESS- SCHOOL EDITION

YOUNG MINDS 10

Snip of the tongue

     If we were to imagine that our lives are actually in the format of a TV sitcom, the most heard sounds would be insane laughter from the audience and loud beeps at strategic points in the narrative for we have a great fondness for profanity. We have begun increasingly to resort to cuss words when faced with the task of articulating our emotions. We’d sooner blurt out an expletive in anger and frustration, in sadness, or even in appreciation of something, than find appropriate qualifiers of our experience. As much as swearing seems to offer relief from built-up tension, it can cause more harm than good when used in the long run.

     Throwing around foul words in school with the intention of causing humiliation to a classmate constitutes a nasty form of verbal bullying and can invite unpleasant consequences in the form of negative evaluation by teachers and maybe even suspension. Students can run the risk of being labelled with a negative tag if caught using profane language against others. Such isolated incidents are enough for many to run out of favour with teachers- even if one has an impeccable academic record. 

     Cussing creates a negative impression of the individual as they may be considered to be lacking in social skills. Very often we tend to swear when we are unable to stop and think when we are experiencing a strong emotion and instead react instantly. This difficulty with self-control can be misconstrued as lack of civility and surely we can do without the added burden of a negative assessment by our peers and teachers.

     If you have ever been at the receiving end of an insulting slur made by your classmates, you already know the toxic effects that swearing lends to the general school environment. A culture of cussing at friends and teachers creates a hostile, alienating and threatening climate and this greatly interferes with students’ peace of mind and eventually, the learning process. 

     One of the least desirable effects of swearing, however, is that one does not learn healthy ways to express their feelings and thoughts. Enriching one’s emotional vocabulary to verbalise negative and positive emotions can lend more meaning and significance to one’s experience. Use of inoffensive, alternative words to communicate why you are upset with a situation or a person can reduce the need to use expletives. Developing appropriate strategies to tolerate frustration/disappointment in difficult situations and to manage anger effectively can facilitate coping rather than cussing.

     Reach out to like-minded friends that you trust and form a “buddy system” in which each supports the other in challenging instances, such as when dealing with a difficult teacher or an annoying classmate, and keeps you from losing your cool and giving into cursing. Simply avoiding the person who is the cause of your anger is a great way to contain your bad mood. Art, music, dance, and even play have been proven time and again to promote a positive frame of mind and any kind of physical exertion helps dissipate angry energy.

     It is very important to remember that you aren’t told not to swear by your parents and teachers just because they enjoy doling out advice to you. Use of slang and foul language hardly seem like any crime to people who engage in it but for the person who is subjected to this, it constitutes verbal abuse, which is a serious matter that schools are aware of and increasingly becoming intolerant towards.

     Let’s make a commitment to contributing towards a safe, welcoming and healthy school atmosphere in which differences between people on the basis of backgrounds, opinions and ideas are celebrated and respected.   

SANGEETHA MADHU & JYOTHI RAVICHANDRAN, 

THE NEW INDIAN EXPRESS- SCHOOL EDITION

YOUNG MINDS 09

Why This? Why Now?

     Of all the questions ever asked, the most puzzling one would probably be “Why do people behave the way they do?”. Day in and day out we find ourselves mulling over puzzling remarks made by those around us and making judgments about their behaviours in an attempt to understand our social world. Let’s say that you judged your classmate to be lazy because he has been coming late to class every morning. What you have just done is engaged in a process called ATTRIBUTION where you have tried to reason out your classmate’s tardiness by blaming it on his personal quality of laziness. When a student confesses to hating a subject, he may attribute this to an inadequate teacher which is an external factor that excuses one’s personal responsibility in learning. 

     Attribution is a crucial process by which we attempt to explain our own and others’ behaviour so that we feel comfortable living our social life. It is also very important in determining how we act in a particular situation. In the previous example, you may act in a critical manner to your classmate because you judged him to be lazy. You may be more understanding towards him if you had taken into consideration his unpunctual auto-rickshaw driver who drops him at school late every day.

     There are several styles of attribution which we adopt in various situations. Suppose you were rude to your friend for no apparent reason. You may apologise profusely to her saying you were in a lousy mood because your sister had torn your homework which took 3 long hours to complete. By attributing your rudeness to external factors, you attempt to reduce blame on yourself. Imagine you were at the receiving end of your friend’s temper instead. You may not attribute it so readily to external events that may have forced her to shout at you and may simply label her a ‘hothead’. This negative attribution of behaviour to your friend’s personality leads to more bitterness and makes forgiving difficult than if you had dismissed her behaviour as caused by external factors like you did your own.

     Imagine a new student has arrived in your class. He likes to crack very poor jokes and none of your classmates enjoy them. In such a situation in which the majority does not see eye to eye with the new boy while he finds all poor jokes very funny, you are likely to attribute his silly behaviour to his personal characteristics of  immaturity and stupidity. Consider another situation in which the whole class liked a particular movie and the new boy does not like many movies but really enjoyed this one, you are more likely to attribute his enjoyment of the movie to the movie itself as opposed to his personal taste in movies. Our attributions thus depend on the view of the majority and the degree of likeness between an individual and the larger group, which makes it important that we stay fair while appraising others’ behaviour. Going with the crowd may not always be the right thing.

     As with any social process, we tend to commit many errors while attributing too. One of the common errors is to attribute others’ negative behaviour to their personal, internal factors while under-estimating the external, situational factors. We also tend to attribute positive outcome to our personal characteristics and negative outcomes to external factors. If you have ever boasted about your ‘A’ and your obvious intelligence to friends and indignantly retorted to your mom that half the class failed the test because the teacher is unfair while trying to explain away your ‘C’, you know what this error is about. 

     The most unfortunate error is when we attribute our failures to ourselves and our successes to situations. Such a style of attribution can greatly harm our self-esteem and cause us to become depressed.

     Keep an open mind about others’ life situations and positive personal traits before passing judgment. We would definitely like others to show us the same consideration, wouldn’t we?

SANGEETHA MADHU & JYOTHI RAVICHANDRAN, 

THE NEW INDIAN EXPRESS- SCHOOL EDITION