The Mental Compass

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Understanding Over-Awareness: How to Find Balance and Peace

Our brains are naturally wired to be aware of what's going on around us, so when we experience feelings of danger or importance, our brain works at full capacity to be conscious of those things happening around us. When we start to experience over-awareness, having too many details around us and being too critical about every social cue in our environment, this causes us to perceive ourselves, interact with others, and live our lives differently than we'd necessarily like. What is Over-awareness? Having over-awareness essentially means having a heightened level of awareness of your environment or feelings. This can include constantly having thoughts about others’ perception of you, obsessing over mistakes and conversations, and having a heightened sense of vulnerability in social and solitary situations. Although having some level of awareness is beneficial to an individual’s mental and emotional health, having an excessive amount of awareness can lead to extreme fatigue and lo...

Where there’s a feeling most of us carry without ever really stopping to look at it. It’s quiet, almost automatic in the sense that things are getting better with time. That the world is moving forward. That somehow, even if life feels messy in the moment, we are still part of something that is slowly improving. You don’t usually question it. It just sits there, shaping how you see everything. When people talk about the future, it often sounds hopeful. When they talk about the past, it feels distant, a little rougher, a little less developed. So somewhere inside, it starts to feel obvious of course we’re advancing. Of course things are improving. And when you look at the surface, it really does seem that way. Life has become faster. Easier in many ways. You don’t have to struggle for things the same way people did before. You can reach anyone, learn anything, do things that once felt impossible. The world feels more capable, more connected, more efficient. So it’s natural to call that ...

Looking Beyond Reactions to Understand What Anger Is Really Trying to Tell Us Written By : Ms. Gurneet Kaur Jaitley, Counselling Psychologist About the Author Gurneet Kaur is a Counseling Psychologist and Psychology Educator dedicated to emotional well-being and self-awareness. With over 16 years of experience, she blends clinical insight with real-life understanding to make mental health simple, relatable, and meaningful. It’s rarely just about the moment. The raised voice, the irritation, the outburst often carry emotions that have been building long before. We’ve been taught to control anger, suppress it, and avoid it. But what if anger is not something to fear, but something to understand? She sat in the room, composed yet quietly burdened, and said, “I think I have anger issues.” It is a statement many individuals carry, often with guilt, confusion, and self-doubt. Anger is frequently perceived as something to control, reduce, or eliminate. It is labeled as a flaw, a weakness, or ...

Notice a few things: How traffic lights are circles, warning signs are often triangles, and most app icons appear inside rounded squares. At first glance, the use of certain shapes for different things seems practical and aesthetic. However, psychology suggests that these design decisions also have emotional associations. Long before we understand words, we begin responding to visual cues. The brain processes shapes and forms rapidly, often before we are consciously aware of them. Research in behaviour and decision making suggests that even simple geometric shapes can shape our emotions, influence what we trust, and affect the choices we make. Here are some shapes and their common psychological associations. Circles and Curves Shapes like circles that have curves feel very harmless and pleasant. Bar and Neta (2006) found that participants consistently preferred curved objects over sharp-angled ones, even when the shapes were abstract and unfamiliar. The reason behind this is that ...

Mirror is the behavior in which a person subconsciously or consciously imitates someone’s body language, such as gestures, speech, and attitude. Mirroring often occurs in family and close friends gatherings, often unnoticed by others. The mirroring behavior begins often in infancy, as the baby unconsciously imitates others and tries to empathize with their emotions and feelings by imitating them. In an initial stage, building rapport for the child with mirroring behavior is considered difficult. Mirroring is also known as isopraxism or the chameleon effect. Body language and non-verbal communication play a vital role in 80% of communication. While mirroring behavior seems like mutual attraction, research reveals that mirroring can also serve as a tool for seduction. The “mirroring effect” theory explains that we are more likely to attract people who reflect our own behavior. There are some types of mirroring behavior in children, such as: Emotional mirroring: The child starts to mimic ...

In family dynamics, the balance between parentification and responsibility is a delicate one. Parentification occurs when a child is forced to assume roles and responsibilities typically associated with adult caregivers, often leading to emotional trauma and an imbalance in family roles. On the other hand, fostering a sense of responsibility in children is essential for their development, teaching them accountability and life skills. The challenge lies in discerning when the expectation of responsibility transitions into the unhealthy territory of parentification. Parentification can manifest in various forms, from emotional support to younger siblings to managing household chores. Children may feel compelled to step into caretaking roles due to a parent's inability to fulfill their responsibilities, whether due to mental health issues, substance abuse, or other challenges. This reversal of roles can lead to significant stress and anxiety for the child, who may feel overwhelmed and...

“I go breathless, I talk to someone they would say I am senseless, But I am not able to perform, I can always bring a reform, A change I can bring, For support I can ring, It's okay to be worried, Even when things go too hurried, I can't keep you buried, Because you, my anxiety, will eat me day by day, But I shall find my own way, I will dial for help, Resist that mythic gap, I will be healthy and fight, You are just a condition, right? I am strong and will not let you harm, Keeping the same charm.” Many times we are pained, yet again acceptance is difficult. Well, dude, it's not just for you; acceptance itself is very difficult many times, maybe in a simple situation like getting low marks. Of course, some people might hide or not hide their marks, but what they hide is their emotions. The sadness, the worry that leads to symptoms from laziness to sleeplessness as primary conditions, but also more physical symptoms such as dizziness and laziness. You become anxious when y...

These days, if you scroll through social media platforms such as Instagram, YouTube, or even X (formerly Twitter), you would see an emergence of something called a “Flow State”. Where people are basically super invested/locked in the task they take up, and hence are productive. This isn't something new. There has been a significant rise in productivity culture, and social media always capitalizes on such phenomena, producing mass content on the same, through vlogs, short-form content like reels and short videos. Flow is shown as something that can be easily achieved, with the right tools, habits, or mindset. But in the process, a complex psychological concept is being simplified into a performance trend, blurring the line between deep engagement and curated productivity. Flow: A Misunderstood Term Flow as a concept was first coined by Psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, who described flow as “the state in which people are so involved in an activity that nothing else seems to matt...

In today’s highly networked and interdependent world, the latest developments in digital communication have transformed the ways in which we connect and communicate, as well as the ways in which we express ourselves. However, alongside these highly beneficial developments, an increasingly disturbing trend has emerged, one that has captured the attention of psychologists, educators, parents, and policymakers worldwide: cyberbullying. The Meaning of Cyberbullying Cyberbullying is defined as the use of electronic communications, such as social networking sites, text messages, emails, and online chat rooms, to harass, threaten, or intimidate others. It is distinct from traditional forms of bullying because cyberbullies tend to engage with victims through a computer. Cyberbullies can target individuals from anywhere in the world at any time, often using fake names or pseudonyms to conceal their identities. Definition: Cyberbullying includes behaviors such as sending h...

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The Mental Compass

Posts

From Cool City to Constant Heat: How Bengaluru’s Weather Is Quietly Draining Us

Understanding Over-Awareness: How to Find Balance and Peace

The Illusion of Progress: Are Humans Advancing or Just Changing Directions

Beyond Outbursts: The Hidden Message of Anger

The Power of Shapes: How Design Influences Our Minds

Mirror, Mirror: The Psychology of Imitation and Why We Copy Others

Parentification vs. Responsibility: Finding the Balance for Healthy Family Dynamics

When You Don’t Know You Are Anxious: An Unrecognisable Pause

Flow State: What Social Media Gets Wrong About Being “In the Zone”

Understanding and Addressing Cyberbullying in the Digital Age