About meψche

Howdy!

Welcome to your very own blog!

meψche (a blend of my & psyche) is one very tiny effort of mine to bring students’ commonplace issues to the table. An effort to talk about things which we usually ignore or tend to ignore amid various coercions!

Things which usually have critical effects on our day-to-day lives! Things whose roots are deep into subconscious, a force we can hardly control. Stress, depression, anxiety, performance jittery, exam-time blues, et al are no new things to the students across the world. 

Learning, or education, is a steep curve with many kinks in between the beginning and its successful end. This kinky journey is not a pleasure ride for everybody. For a handful of students only, the path seems to be okay with no frightening challenge(s) to the ultimate outcome.  

Even the students with fairly remarkable academic journey fail to understand what worked in their favor, or/and whatnot.

The power or capacity to understand those many factors which silently, invisibly decide the outcome of your hard work holds the key. Yes, if you understand the reasons why you fail or succeed in your effort, you’ll be able to eliminate many painful and challenging problems in your academic journey.

Only you know yourselves better! The journey begins there only – by untangling yourself.

Others may assist you in your fateful journey to success, but the story will start from you only, as its writer and main character.

For instance, I may be one of your assistants in solving one or more of too many riddles you are facing or may face in times to come.

So, the power to understand oneself, i.e. understanding one’s fears and strengths and accordingly work on both (to weaken the fears and strengthen the strengths) will unlock what you truly desire yourselves to be.

For example, I have (in my long association with students) known many common cases of time mismanagement and inability to complete syllabus, eventually leading to more serious cases of deep anxiety and panic attacks during examinations. Here too, one can easily manage to evade such a crisis by analyzing one’s strengths and weaknesses. meψche will be discussing this in detail and, of course, many more!

Then, there are deeper and long-standing questions of understanding one’s true self. The issue of one’s ideal self and real self! All things you must be versus all things you are or are going to be!

A student, during his academic journey, exists in dichotomy – between a version of himself he ideally dreams about and the version his real, existing course of action is going to take him to. meψche will also be talking about these deeper queries.

I saw a big gulf existing between how the real world moves and how a student perceives it. This faulty perception of the world and, in most cases, of oneself compounds the problem.

These problems start from small and add up to become so frighteningly big that our mind tends to ignore them. We always tend to ignore or evade arduous tasks; the mind is no exception when it comes to solving a complex mental puzzle.

By ignoring I mean, we don’t discuss them (problems) and bring to notice of either ourselves or others who may be wiser (wiser, simply because of more life happened to them).

You should open up more! Things will surely work out; there is a whole body of knowledge out there along with people working on your problems. meψche intends to be a humble one of those.

When we talk of the faulty perception, one thing is quite commonplace – we generalize things that should be treated as exclusive and make exceptions of things that should be general or common.

For example, you choose a particular subject or stream because you saw someone else doing it; this is generalization without any consideration to required eligibility. At the same time, we have often come across students who ignore learning a particular skill (like computer or language skills) by saying they don’t need it; this is treating those skills as exclusive to certain people or groups. In both cases, students regret the decisions later on.

In both the above cases, a tendency of the cognitive economy is involved. The cognitive economy is simply not putting mind to the case-wise analysis of things.

Always deliberate on all possible causes and effects of a particular academic decision! Causes involve your eligibility and social circumstances; effects are the results (success or failure) of your academic undertaking.

If you feel bewildered, there are people solely dedicated to the profession of guiding you to your right academic undertaking; why not ask them! meψche will be trying to be one of your career companions.

But, wait a moment! Do you think the academic, career, and deep metaphysical problems are the only problems in a student’s life? No, not at all!

The list of problems and worries are long (but of course solvable, all of them). A student is not cut-off from his/her family or society. S/he has a social-personal life which has a definite mark on her/his psychological-emotional well-being.

Besides his/her academic issues, there may be issues stemming from a deeply emotional and inter-personal background. These issues are the most complex ones and have adverse effects on academics and career (with the lengthiest resolution time). But here too, one needs to come forward and express.

Moreover, today’s younger generation faces difficulty in making the right decisions and correct choices also because the world is moving fast. They are surrounded by modern-day challenges like information overload due to the internet and the World Wide Web, mobile phone addiction, cyberbullying, social media trolling, stiff competition for a handful of resources, inability to focus on studies, parental pressure, peer pressure, high expectations from the society, etc.

At the same time, these problems are compounded with diminishing social support, contracting nuclear families, unattached neighbors, and shrinking personal space, especially in countries like India. All these factors don’t allow the youth to explore themselves or their potentials and abilities.

The outcome is that most of the adolescents are unhappy. This is evident from the soaring rates of suicides among the youth. According to NCRB data, 10,159 students died by suicide in 2018. As per WHO, close to 800,000 people die due to suicide, most of them being adolescents.

It’s shocking that every hour one student dies of suicide in India. This is the greatest loss for any nation. The statistics indicate that somehow we fail to guide our younger generation. Almost every youth is grappling with stress, anxiety, dissatisfaction from career, failure in examinations and relationships, and even lack of awareness and information.

But, all things said and done, the solution lies in bringing these issues to the discussion and finding their desirable and timely resolutions.

meψche is an initiative to focus on all those issues pertaining to the psycho-social and emotional well-being of the students. It is an attempt to create a biome of wellness and appropriate information for the youth and their all-round development. 

meψche aims to transform into a movement of students’ total well-being. It aspires to become a voice for student’s issues as well as a network of information sharing among the stakeholders – teachers, counselors, parents, etc.

So, in simpler terms, meψche is solely dedicated to the millions of students (youth) struggling to find meaning and identity in their life.

meψche is my psyche, your psyche, and the psyche of million others who are young, dynamic, and ready to bounce every time they fall or waver.

Do share your concerns. Reach out to me and I would love to write about it and share it with the world.

Thanks for all your love!