Pratima Shah

   Ninety nine times before today when I equipped myself to begin writing; little did I know that I would continue to write with utmost discipline. Today as I write this hundredth blog I am filled with gratitude. I wonder how did I do this, when did I get the time to write and what did I lose in the process.    Truly speaking, whenever a person begins a new venture and continues with it, lot of discipline and diligence is required and he / she has to abstain himself / herself from so many things to focus on the new venture. A painful yet fulfilling experience. Sometimes it becomes difficult to cope up with the noise - physical / psychological that arises in you. One requires immense perseverance to remain glued to what one started. There were times when I was busy throughout yet could not sleep as I had not written my blog for the week. But I was determined not to quit. I was intrinsically motivated and that helped me to continue with this journey of blogging.    There were frien

     We humans are all conditioned to live a life with the same age old beliefs, rituals and a herd mentality that makes our mind function on a set pattern. Our education system is a good example of this because the knowledge that is imparted from generation to generation is barely modified / updated. The conditioning which are within us never give us a holistic perception of our existence due to which we live a fragmented life wherein we have compartments. These compartments are never in sync with each other but always in opposition to the other compartments. The result is that every human suffers from opposing thoughts and emotions due to which our decisions oscillate between extremes. The conditioning has deformed us in many ways.    Instead of oscillating between extremes why don't we try to understand the push and pulls of life. To dissolve confusion and gain clarity we need to have an understanding that helps us discern right from wrong. This discernment in turn will giv

     High achievers are those who are highly disciplined and have a daily routine. Their secret of success lies in waking up early, exercising to take care of their health, being well informed - through reading / internet and organizing their day. High achievers follow their routines with utmost discipline and feel guilty when they are unable to do so. According to sources, all the topmost successful personalities on this earth meditate, exercise and read in the early hours of the morning. This gives them the boost and energy to go about peacefully, cheerfully and positively with their daily routine. Rising early and performing such a routine gives you the confidence and strength to face anything negative that comes your way. These habits will leave you rejuvenated after the night and help you to focus on the activities which need to be performed during the day. Inhale every joy that comes your way and exhale it with loads of gratitude to God.    To live healthy one must ensure to

   One must learn to respect / love / care for that special person who never lets you down despite what the person is going through.  But humans as we are; we always take that special person for granted. We do not have time to talk to that person, we do not pay heed to what the person wants nor do we have gratitude in our heart for having such a person who always stands by us against all odds.    There are people who take the special person so much for granted that they keep on pushing that person away from themselves. I wonder why people like this have no consideration of any kind for a person who does everything to make them happy. What can the other person do in such circumstances? I suppose that if treated this way any person will naturally withdraw and suffer within. This suffering suffocates and is never ending.    It's one life we have - either we make it or we break it. Why not enjoy the blessing of having someone who cares, respects and above all loves you immensely.

   The socially expressive component which is associated with emotional intelligence speaks about the way humans should emotionally communicate with people around them by showing empathy, sympathy and care - concern for others. If we do not possess these traits it is rather difficult for us to survive in this world. These traits are very important features associated with being socially expressive.    These traits have an importance because our non verbal behavior - like posture, gestures, facial expressions and vocalization depends on them. If we are angry / upset / depressed / bored it can be easily noticed by the person with whom we live or communicate. Showing empathy towards others when required speaks about the height of understanding you have despite the ill behavior of the person. We are sympathetic to situations / people / animals but rarely do we show empathy towards others.   One needs to have a balance of emotions even though things are not favorable in life. The soci

   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