You must have used this term numerous times in your lifetime. By now you must have also understood that comfort zone is a psychological state that you stay in and contrary to what the name suggests it should be Comfortable to stay there.

What is the meaning of Comfort zone?

Comfort zone is a State of mind in which things around you feel familiar and you are at ease and in control of your environment. Since you are in a familiar situation and understand how to deal with things, your anxiety levels and stress are low.
Isn’t that a great thing? Then why is it often used in a negative connotation? This is because in this psychological state only a steady level of performance can happen and progress is either not possible or very slow.

Let’s understand the mechanism :

Since comfort zone minimizes the stress, risk and provides mental security. You receive regular happiness, are at a low anxiety level and the stress is low. There have been many experiments in psychology about comfort zone. Robert M. Yerkes and John D. Dodson found that a relative comfort creates a steady level of performance.

A relative level of anxiety is required to maximize performance, which is a level of anxiety that is little higher than normal. It is also known as “Optimal Anxiety” and is just a little outside the comfort zone. Too much anxiety, on the contrary, drops our performance.

Pushing yourself outside the comfort zone requires effort but you can make amazing results. But push yourself too much and it will be affecting you badly. It will make you less likely to take challenges in future. The brain has a natural pattern of going back to the less anxiety provoking and comfortable situation.
Comfort zone cannot be bad or got, it is just a state of mind that is comfortable for most people. There can be both negative and positive effects of coming out of it. The space that we get in our head when staying in a low stress and low anxiety situation can be beneficial when you come out of it. Stay there for too long and your life will become monotonous.

How to come out of your comfort zone?

Do one thing differently:

Do something different each week. Wear an outfit that you normally don’t, cycle to work instead of driving, start gardening yourself etc.Benefit from the effects of change whether it be positive or negative.

Take one step at a time:

You are trying to come out of the comfort zone. That is already a brave thing! Do it slowly; you will still reach there. If you are anxious socially do not start to go clubbing every day. Find out what you exactly fear on work on it. Having too many expectations from yourself will make you feel frustrated.

Try one new thing:

Take a new hobby class for singing, dancing, cooking, collage making or whatever that you would like to try; Do not procrastinate failing, instead accept that you will fail and then build up from the start like a child.

Be positive about the changes:

Imagine the situation you will be in after you make the change. Try to see what emotions you get when you are there and make a list of all; Tackle each emotion gently and coach yourself out of the situation when you really face it.

Keep your mind open to change all of the time, Dale Carnegie advises. “Welcome it, Court it, It is only by examining and re-examining your opinions and ideas that you can progress.”

“Whatever  you believe becomes your thoughts,

What you think becomes your words,

When you speak  about your thoughts, it becomes your action,

What you act on them, it becomes your habits,

Whatever your habits are, that becomes your values,

Whatever your values are, becomes your destiny”.

                                                     -Mahatma Gandhi

That is the power of a habit.

So, what is a habit?

A habit is a fixed way of thinking; wanting or feeling acquired through repetition of a previous mental experience. A behavior that becomes a habit is not noticed by a person because the person does not require to get engaged in it consciously while doing them.

So, then what is a bad habit…

A bad habit has all the features of a Habit with just an addition of negative behavior, which affects our lives in ways that paralyze our life goals.

The habit Loop (Anatomy of a habit)

Trigger (Cues) —-Behavior (routine) —-Reward. Explaining it with an example, suppose your life goal is to become healthy but you are unable to manage your habits. You come home to sit in front of the PS3 and eat chips.

Trigger (Playing games)—-Behavior(Munching on chips)—-Reward(Feeling relaxed and satisfied).

Let’s put it into steps:

1) Identification of a bad habit is the most important step to changing it.

2) After identification, break it down in the similar way that has been shown in the example.

3) Identify the triggers that cause the behavior

4) Find out alternative methods of behavior that give you the same rewards.

This can be applied to form any good or bad habits that you might be dealing with. In spite of understanding the habits in detail, it is sometimes very complex to get over a bad habit alone. Do not shy away from seeking help if it starts to feel hopeless. Visit a therapist nearby.

This disorder commonly known and abbreviated as ADHD is a disorder that is common in children. According to the Diagnostic and statistical manual of disorders; 99 percent of ADHD cases are below age 16. Let us look into this disorder in detail to diagnose it at the early stages. The problem with all mental disorders is that the symptoms are also a part of normal behavior and hence it becomes difficult to draw the line when it becomes a disorder. It is more so if it is in children.

By definition, Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is marked by a persistent pattern of inattention and/or hyperactivity-impulsivity that interferes with daily functioning and development. This could lead to unstable relationships, poor work performance, and low self –esteem.

The most important words here are Inattention, Impulsivity, and Hyperactivity.

Inattention;

It means that the child might be lost from the task at hand, hence is not able to persist for long at one task. Is not able to focus for long and is unorganized. While these problems are not due to the child’s failure of comprehension or disobedience.

Impulsivity;

They are not able to delay gratification. So, they Do not think before they take actions and often lands in risky situations because of the same.

Hyperactivity;

Restlessness, over talkative, fidgety and tends to move a lot. Is in constant activity.

Inattention symptoms that can help you diagnose the disorder Include:

1) Procrastinates: does not complete his tasks and moves from an activity to another and leaving all of them incomplete.

2) You may find the child to be disorganized and is not able to focus on the task at his hand.

3) They work without paying attention to details and hence make silly mistakes.

4) Cannot stay on one topic during conversations, do not follow instructions.

5)They forget things easily

Hyperactivity/Impulsivity may often demonstrate in ways like

1) Fidget with toys or articles on the desk

2) Are restless most of the time i.e., climb s or runs around at add times

3) Unable to remain quiet or engage in silent hobbies

4) Is constantly moving, talks non-stop.

5) Interrupt the conversation without waiting for their turn.

These are signs that should raise a concern in your mind; Hence, only a mental health practitioner can diagnose the symptoms of the disorder with accuracy.

Happy Women’s Week to Everyone!

Women are breaking barriers in every sphere of Life. They are taking care of finances besides looking after the household. I have an analogy that needs to be shared when talking about Limiting Beliefs. It is more applicable to women.

Do you know how elephants are trained to stay in control of their master in spite of being such gigantic creatures? This is how, When elephants are just born, they are tied to a rope to keep them in the vicinity of their owner. The baby elephant cannot free itself from the rope because they are fragile but Slowly and steadily these giant creatures come to their full size. The strange thing is even when they grow up they never think of breaking off the rope which is as easy as standing up and starting to walk for them. Why? Because they think the rope cannot be broken as that is what they had believed all along since they were born. They are tied down by their negative beliefs about themselves.

Women often behave in a similar way like that of a giant elephant; unaware of their potential. Often ignorant that the time has changed and they can move out of the rope!Let’s take a lesson from this and take the first step to believe in your own self and be everything that you are and leave everything that you are not. We will get into it step by step:

Step 1: SWOT ANALYSIS

Knowing yourself is the first step to any change that you wish to bring in yourself or your life. A shortcut to that is through SWOT. Locate the traits in yourself that you might label as “Strengths”, and “weaknesses”. And find out your “opportunities” and “threats” in life at present. This will give you a picture of the mountains you have still to climb and the resources that will get you there.

Step 2: Identify your negative thoughts

Journal on a daily basis for a week all those negative thoughts and things you say to yourself. Write down verbatim in your journal and try to find out a theme, you will find a thought that dominates you in most of the sentences. Think critically about these recurrent thoughts. Are they true or have they been taught to you by the society and family? Always check what you speak to yourself.

Step 3: Evaluate the negative thoughts

Once you have identified the negative thoughts, evaluate them under the categories of real and imagined or perceived threats. Some of your negative thoughts are actually your weaknesses and simply motivating yourself will not help. You need to do some rectification.

Step 4: Take small steps

Now, that you know what rectification you have to make; take small steps towards the new way of behavior and thought. Take calculated risks in areas of your weaknesses and increase the degree of difficulty progressively. For example, If You find it difficult to travel alone, start taking solo trips to a place that is 50 km away from you and then increase the distance and go!

Step 5: Extrapolate

You are aware of your inhibitions now and are also aware of the fact that most of them are just negative beliefs that you fed. Do one thing each week that you just believe that you can never do. Put this newly learned lesson to all areas of your life; Personal and Professional.

We are facing a lot of advancements in our Society. Change is inevitable but it is happening too fast. If we look at the last ten years there have been enormous changes in the way we deal, think and progress in life. We as adults are facing a lot of trouble and overlooking that our kids are also suffering with us. There are few mental health issues that particularly affect the younger ones in our vicinity. Mental health can be very critical to the overall wellbeing of the kids. It similar to poor performance in exams due to fever or any other physical illness. As teachers, educators and parents let us be on the watch out and look at it in greater detail.

Most Common mental health issues in children are:

Anxiety:

In anxiety, a person experiences tension and fear without any specific reason. Anxiety is one of the most common mental health problem experienced by children. This is demonstrated by students keeping away from classes for the long duration of time. They are unable to finish their assignments on time due to fear of failing in exams. In anxiety people overanalyze everything. Keep a check on the expectations that you put on the child and understand when the burden is getting unbearable.

Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder:

The warning signs for this include, short attention spans, easy distractibility, hyperactivity, and talking too much. This disorder has a devastating impact on the students’ ability to learn and remain in the classroom. Educators should refer the child’s condition to the parents and mental health practitioners at the earliest.

Autism Spectrum Disorders:

This includes a range of disorders. The symptoms range from difficulties in social interactions, repetitive behavior, inability to understand verbal or nonverbal communication etc. The child will generally be withdrawn and aloof. This can range from mild to severe such as, Asperger’s syndrome.

Depression:

Symptoms include absenteeism, a general decline in interactions and a lack of motivation. Family members should look out for symptoms, like isolation, sleepiness, excessive or decreased appetite and suicidal tendencies.

Oppositional Defiant Disorder:

Students show signs of hostility, negativity, aggression towards teachers and other students. They often tend to challenge classroom rules and blame other classmates. Anger is a major symptom and often unpredictable.

These are only a few of the issues that children face. But, There are much more;  we will be covering them in the next blog on the same topic.

With the intrusion of technology in our world be it business, media, or education; the way we perform has changed. Technology has perforated to the level of booking taxis, ordering food, buying clothes, furniture, or even virtually touring the world. No wonder the term ‘global village’ has become so common in our vocabulary.

The ways of education have been transformed from what you had been taught a few years ago in leaps and bound. Technology has changed the way you teach the students and the way they learn it. There is an application for any subject that the student is interested in. Knowledge is becoming redundant in this age of the internet. Everything and anything is available with the click of a mouse. Hence, gone are the days when teachers could postpone a students question until the next class; this requires more preparedness and the expansion of horizon for the teachers. Since your old school beliefs of education are being challenged;  the gap between you and the student has widened. Not only this, there is also the problem of generation gap to add to it.

As teaching is becoming  more challenging for you, keeping a few things in mind can help you stay afloat:

Meaningful conversations:

The technologically wired generation is cut off from the real world and it is very crucial to bring them to terms with what is happening around them, sensitize them about issues that matter to the collective society. Meaningful conversations help students remain grounded.

Avoid Performance pressure:

Avoid negative thoughts. It is normal for a person to not know everything under the sun. The role of a teacher is to impart as much knowledge as they can and as much as they have. Do not become burdened by over expectations from your own self. Apart from being a teacher, you are a human being who is still learning. Avoid feeling powerless and learn from them what they know better.

Make them curious:

Learn what interests your class. Feel the pulse of the students and customize the pedagogy according to their needs. The main idea is to engage them i.e, do workshops, schedule interaction timings, one to one sessions, classes to foster creativity by applying what they learned in real life scenarios, etc.

Apart from these show them positive regard for whatever they have created, added value to. Motivate them intrinsically letting them work on subjects that interest them and show them what they can achieve by doing what they do well. Set goals and show the roadmap to reach there.