Pratima Shah

   We humans are not able to digest if anyone around us gives us feedback - be it positive or negative. We always want to answer back or give clarification to the person regarding our failure to do something. Are we right in justifying when we have not been able to do justice to the task which we were supposed to do? During the Practice Teaching sessions today, one of the classmates after completing the lesson began proclaiming to the class - "Now let's see who gives me negative feedback? I am going to take revenge on that person when it is my turn to give feedback." I was shocked and asked the classmate - who are you to do this? He replied, it has to always be so; if someone is going to give me negative feedback I will do the same. I asked, " Why did you come here if you never wanted to learn from your mistakes?" He replied, 'I will learn but I will take revenge also.     If this is the mentality of a learner, how far will he / she go in life in

   All of us are so comfortable and carefree being in a comfort zone of our choice. This leads to trouble when we face adverse situations. No matter however adverse the situation is we humans are wired to tackle it and face it through a variety of jugaads. For some of us our home and our room is a comfort zone. Some are comfortable amidst their family members and feel threatened when with strangers or someone they know but are not friendly with them. My comfort zone is that where I am able to follow my routine and go about smoothly with my day completing each and every task that I do for me, for the home and for my family. Like all of us change is difficult for me to digest. I do not like changes in my schedule; be it my meal time, my work time or anything that needs to be done regularly.    But now that I am away from home in a hostel at EFLU, Hyderabad for the Post Graduate Certificate in the Teaching of English (PGCTE) Contact Programme of 1 month, I feel bewildered facing the

   What is inner growth? Is it being spiritual? The answer - Inner / spiritual growth is nothing but acceptance of the self by loving and accepting ourselves fully. If we accept and love ourselves fully then only we can be capable of giving love and acceptance to those around us - be it our family, friends, relatives or anyone who comes in touch with us. To love and accept ourselves fully we must keep in mind few things that will help us to achieve    The first thing that one must be careful about is the judgmental nature. Since birth each of us is being judged by parents, teachers and our peers. We create these judgmental perceptions by observing others who are being judged at home, school, college or at the work place where we see someone being praised or dismissed for a particular trait. This way a mind map is created in our mind which shapes our perception. Our ecosystem revers self confidence, extroversion and success. We judge ourselves against those traits and judge oth

   Good health can be had by balancing our hormone system which governs our whole body and its functions. The slightest imbalance of hormones in women leads to many health issues which can affect the mental, physical and emotional health. An imbalance is caused only when too many or too little hormones are produced in the body. This delicate balance can easily be disrupted by a wrong lifestyle. In today's age stress is the greatest trigger of hormonal imbalance. When the levels of the stress hormone - cortisol  rise; the release of several hormones like thyroxin, DHEA, testosterone and leptin is suppressed. Thus it becomes crystal clear that as the level of one hormone goes up, the levels of 4 -5 other hormones also falls.    An imbalance can occur due to stress, chronic anxiety, lifestyle factors like poor gut health, chronic constipation, excessive body fat that stores more estrogen, exposure to chemical through plastic, cosmetics, pesticides, usage of oral contraceptives, h

    The year 2016 which made my professional life zero was something out of the blue for me and my family.  I resigned from the institute where I had been working since 2005. It was a like a catastrophe which struck my world and everything seemed so blur. The reason for resigning were the rumors which had been hurled into the air of the place by a handful of persons who knew it in their hearts that everything was baseless. It was the time where I came to know who are my real friends and who are the fake ones.    We always live in an illusion when it comes to knowing the people around us. There are so many around us who show us that they are our friends but actually they are not. They are just taking advantage of your position and trying to please you through their words. They genuinely never ever feel anything for you nor get attached to you as a friend. I never realized this before I resigned in January 2016. The ones whose support I expected were there with me in my good ti

   The world would be like a mechanical contraption if there is no love around. Love keeps the world going and alive. But what if if most of the love we get is just attachment and not love? What are the ways through which we express love? We do it by taking due care of the ones we love, by making them feel unique and special in every way and always wishing the best for them. Words too are a means to express love and it is very necessary that we all express our love towards our near and dear ones through words. There are many of us who get relief just by words of our loved ones. There is only one lubricant for all our relationships - and that is love.    Love can get converted into an intense attachment towards a relation and attachment is negative. If my child is sick I tend to him till he becomes alright. This is love for my child. But even after he is alright I keep on worrying about him and fall sick that is my attachment towards the child. This is negative and cause problems b

   Being a mother has taught me so many lessons which I never paid heed to when I was a child. I have understood so many bitter facts / lessons of life after being a parent. I remember the time when I was a child and how stubborn I was. Brutally outspoken, full of life, very much pampered by all but I still remember that whatever the circumstances I was the darling of my mother. Neglecting everything I did, from ill treating her, retorting to her and doing everything to displease her she never left my side. I could feel her warmth and blessings in every pain, in every joy and in every moment of my life.    You never understand what it is to be a parent unless you become one. How tough it would have been for my mother to cope up with a child like me. I have many times spoken to mom about what I feel now after becoming a mother. You grow as a mother as the child grows and learn many things through this phase. But the quality of being emotional and affectionate towards the family som