Self Help

A week into 2019 now – how does it feel? Have you noticed the newness all around?
Self help books, podcasts, online courses and videos, retreats that promise a better version of your self this year. I have been enrolling for many of these courses, where the content gives you few tips but then urges you to sign up (read ‘pay’) for the next level of training. Or, there are these five or maybe seven things you need to do every day to see results of whatever project you are working on. Now let me tell you this – it is not that these courses, posts, videos or books have not helped me. They have. Every time I read, it acts as a trigger to refine my thoughts. But there is also a sense of overwhelm. I signup for so many of these, that I sometimes only skim through the content.

I sign up for a 21 day meditation course that just requires 20 minutes of my time, but fail to turn up. Some how those three weeks turn out to be the most hectic, that whatever free time I get, I would rather curl up and sleep.

The reason I am sharing this? Well, as educators, we know that the year goes by as fast as we celebrate the New Year. Can we think of going through this year in a mindful manner? Was just reading about fixing our mind on one word – say “great” or maybe “compassion”.

Focus your mind on one word that you want in your life now. -journal jotting

You can then come back to this word whenever any event/situation/student’s behaviour upsets you. It’s been close to a week and it is helping me be a little less worried, and be more present with my students.

Find your inner voice – read/sign up for self-development if you want. Post that, reflect on any one positive quality that you want to work upon .Philosophers, saints, healers and management gurus stress that we offer our best, when we work upon our ‘self’.

And life need not be spent looking inward all the time – it is equally important that we share what we learn with peers, and our students. – journal jotting