A light in the darkness

The life of a teacher is full of challenges. Right from the beginning of the day, she has to plan ways to make students learn what might become essentials in their later lives. Many times, even after doing so much, it yields nothing. The output from students is zero. Such moments are shattering. Finding encouragement amidst such moments is very difficult.  One such moment was when my students said, "It is not a university exam." They never studied for those subjects.  Those are the moments when the leader can work miracles. I am lucky enough to have met one such leader in my life. My principal, Madam, is one such person. She knew how students had mistreated me. She planned out the programme well. I organised an AI workshop for those students and made them present, and the students were excited to do that presentation. Yes, a few of the students found it challenging to present the material; they all did. There could be no better moment than this to see your students trying to

Credit: Noupload, Pixabay My school days had been full of the Nancy Drew series. Those were really awesome days. My reading quest received support from my brother. When I gave my tenth board exam and was at home, my brother would issue these books for me and bring them to me. I read them like my coffee and tea.  I liked the good romantic relationship Nancy and Ned shared. For adolescent age, that painted a very trusting and nurturing relationship. I think that was the best portrayal of love and romance in adolescence. The thing that I liked was how Nancy was always interested in solving the mysteries. In every series, she was involved in a mysterious case, and she was very comfortable sharing her mysteries with her boyfriend Ned. He never rejected her or restricted her; in fact, he always showed interest in helping Nancy solve the problem. In other words, he showed how much he trusts her capabilities and how much he wants her to do what she loves and wants. This attitude of a partner w

I generally take good care of myself and try to safeguard myself against any possible hurts, but as you all know, hurts don't come with prior alarm. It just happened, and that makes our lives miserable. Something similar happened with me yesterday. I was otherwise very good, but then there was a quick turn of events, and everything became blurred and gloomy. My whole weekend turned out to be a waste, but that did something very good. This event took me back to introspect and re-explore some of the issues in my life. This will not be part of my online write-up ever. The second were the emotional symptoms. The devastation took place yesterday night, and when I got up today, I realised something was not so well with me. I tried to explore why I was not feeling the way I used to feel all other days and discovered the following symptoms: A) Social withdrawal and loneliness The first thing we all do is withdraw ourselves from our friends, families, and loved ones because we see them as h

This season, I happened to study peace. As I was looking for peace, I came across forgiveness. When I explored forgiveness, I found many things that I always wanted to remember and follow. So, I started writing this. Today, I happened to see this  post ; it was enlightening.    Hurt is something we do not want. Love is the essence of life. We all want love in our lives. A little deviation from love makes us land in the land of rejection, hurt, and pain. So, as I was analysing these issues, I found that love and hurt always hive together. A little imbalance, and we are right in the hell of hurt. Further, it is always found that the one we love the most is the one who gets hurt the most. This always happens. Consider, for example, that a husband and wife share a love relationship, yet when a loose word spills, hurt builds. Let us look at the relationships among friends. They can do anything for each other, even safeguard secrets. A mismatch of words, and all is over, and all is over only

Unfairness is not uncommon in our lives. Not necessarily that it is done intentionally; many times we become egocentric and only see our own perspective and feel hurt by unfairness.  We are not unaware of the bitterness caused by unfairness and how it spoils our lives. Still, unknowingly, it rules our lives now and then. So, some people have tried to overpower this crippling power. They are no better than those who couldn't override the unfairness. They are not people who simply accept the unfairness and keep walking ignorantly. Rather, they develop these qualities within them to deal with the unfairness presented. A) Control over emotional response These people are aware of their moment-to-moment emotions every time. So when an incident triggers their emotional response, they know something has gone wrong and try to understand it rather than allowing it to obsess them and overthink. Instead, they allow this emotional response to express itself, feel it, and end the process there r

 As we have discussed, unjust hurts or pains. Some of these unjust pains leave the marks of deep hurts that require forgiveness to heal. Deep hurt is something that penetrates your soul and shakes you like a milkshake, turning life upside down. Deep hurt is offensive and makes us sick. Smedes (1984) pointed out 3, with which I also agree. A) DISLOYALITY When a relationship is being shared, we vow to each other to keep the promise of being loyal to each other. This is the building block of every relationship: trust. When this trust is broken, it pierces like a dagger into our souls, causing us to feel a crush that is beyond bearance.  As I was discussing this issue and analysing the various situations I have faced with disloyality, two perspectives came to mind. One in which I am disloyal and hurt others, and the other in which someone else was disloyal with me. I never thought of this in this manner before. This insightful perspective helped me gain emotional intelligence.  My hear

As I was pondering over pain and how it has transformed me, I learned a very good lesson. As life brought challenges and I met failures in my life, my outlook towards life was blurring every now and then. It was impossible for me to trust that something good could happen to me now. I was shattered and broken.  This was the time I met my God. I started looking away from my failures and setbacks towards God. This transformational shift in my thought transformed my victim thought into a victor thought. It instilled in me new hope and channelled my thought process towards a positive outlook. From there on, I never took the path of negativity. I always try to keep my thoughts on a positive track, even when life says you are a big fool. I say to myself,Let us see what comes out. This positive outlook has been very helpful to me in making my life look beautiful and good.  Today, when I look back on all these pains, I feel they were all important for me to shape me into what I am now. Now I em