The Mental Compass

You don’t really leave the classroom when you grow up, you just change seats. The blackboard becomes a presentation screen, uniforms turn into formal wear, and report cards quietly evolve into performance reviews. But something else makes that transition with us too: the way we form impressions of people, often quicker than we realize, and far more decisively than we’d like to admit. I have often seen this play out in both academic and professional spaces. A student who speaks fluently in class is assumed to be more intelligent overall. The neatly dressed intern is seen as more capable before they’ve even contributed to a project. Somewhere between these everyday observations lies a powerful psychological bias that shapes decisions, relationships, and opportunities, the Halo Effect. The Halo Effect, in simple terms, is a cognitive bias where one positive trait of a person influences our overall perception of them. If someone appears confident, we may also assume they are competent, tru...

When people look into a mirror, they usually think they are seeing the reflection of their body. In reality, the image we see through our thoughts, beliefs, emotions, and the expectations of society. This internal interpretation is known as body image, and it plays a powerful role in shaping how people feel about themselves. Body image is not just about physical appearance. This picture includes how a person believes they look, how satisfied they feel with their body, and how they think others perceive them. Body image can sometimes be very different from reality. ( i.e., two people may have very similar body types, but they may view themselves in completely different ways. One person may feel confident and comfortable, while the other may feel insecure or dissatisfied). Many psychologists say body image is learned over time. Children are not born worrying about how they look. These ideas develop slowly as people grow and interact with the world. When someone repeatedly thinks negative...

There’s something quietly unsettling about the idea that every meeting could be the last, and yet, most of us don’t think about it until it’s already too late. We’ve all had those moments: rushing out of the house without a proper goodbye, cutting a call short with a casual “talk later,” or leaving a conversation mid-argument, assuming there will always be another chance to fix it. Life, after all, feels long when we’re in the middle of it. But then, one day, it isn’t. And what lingers isn’t always the big memories, it’s the small, unfinished ones. The words we didn’t say. The emotions we postponed. The closure we assumed would come naturally. A few years ago, Aarav left home in a hurry after a small argument with his mother. It wasn’t anything serious, just one of those everyday disagreements about him not calling enough. “I’ll talk later,” he said, half-distracted, already checking his phone as he stepped out. That “later” never really came. Days turned into weeks, and life got busy ...

You’re scrolling through your Instagram feed when you see that someone made a post that reads, “Only three hours remaining to get this offer!” This is accompanied by a countdown clock, plus several hundred comments indicating that others have taken advantage of the offer. You then see a post from a verified news site offering an update on something, and finally a post from someone using the phrase “most experts agree.” None of these feels like attempts at persuasion, but is nonetheless persuasive in its own way. Persuasion, in the context of social psychology, refers to an instance of social influence in which attitudes, beliefs, or behaviours are altered via communication and not coercion or instructions. Persuasion influences the way that information is perceived by manipulating cues within the brain during decision-making processes. Persuasion typically involves the use of mental shortcuts, which lead individuals to pay attention and make choices based upon these processes without t...

Most people see that moment as failure. But if you look at it a little more closely, that exact moment is doing something important inside you. There is a small moment that almost everyone knows, even if they don’t talk about it. Maybe you say something wrong, solve something incorrectly, or just don’t get the result you expected. The brain is not built to grow when everything goes right. It grows when something goes wrong without you noticing, your brain is always trying to predict what will happen next. It uses what you already know about your past experiences, patterns, and memory and quietly forms expectations. Most of the time, these predictions happen in the background. You don’t feel them. But when something unexpected happens, your brain reacts. It notices the difference. You expected one thing. Something else happened. That gap between what you thought would happen and what actually happened is where learning begins. Scientists call this a prediction error, but it doesn’t have...

In a time when notifications, endless scrolling, and the need to stay connected all the time are all the rage, quiet hobbies are making a surprising comeback. Young adults and professionals are now turning to activities like knitting, gardening, and journaling to escape the craziness of modern life. These activities were once thought to be old-fashioned or only for older people. Not only are these hobbies fun, but psychological research backs them up by showing how they can help mental health. They promote being present, being creative, and living at a slower pace, which all help to balance out the overstimulation of the digital age. The Science of Slowness Psychologists say that one of the main reasons these hobbies are so popular is that they can put people in a state of flow. When someone is in flow, they are completely focused on a task and lose track of time. They feel both challenged and capable. Planting seeds, knitting a pattern, or writing down your thoughts in a journal every...

Why does our heart beat for people who don’t know we exist?   Have you ever felt a deep affection for someone you see on screen, someone far removed from your reality? Do you find yourself prioritising them above all else in your own life? Have you witnessed others fiercely supporting celebrities who are, in essence, out of reach? This begs the question: is the celebrity "war" even necessary when these figures don't even know we exist?   Do the lives of influencers seem like a perfect fairytale, something you yearn for?   These feelings are all examples of parasocial behaviours, which have grown alongside technology. We begin to believe in one-sided love for people who are unaware of us, yet we still champion them, pray for them, and adore them wholeheartedly. So, what exactly are parasocial attachments?   They're the illusion of closeness we feel towards celebrities, influencers, or fictional characters. Unlike real relationships, these bonds are...

Culture is the system of shared belief, value, behavior, and artifacts followed by the group of people. Culture refers to lifestyle, society, customs, heritage, and social habits. Culture defines what type of lifestyle we lead. Culture identity is dynamic, evolving and multilayer processed by which an individual and group define themselves based on shared belief, value, and behavior that makes sense of belonging to an individual. It is not a fixed trait, ongoing process, interaction between personal self – perception and external society. Cultural identity influences mental health by shaping perception of an individual, seeking help, perceiving distress, and experiencing belonging that makes a person to enhance this self-esteem, and resilience. However, culture conflict, stigma or discrimination can lead to stress, anxiety, and depression. Culture identity influence mental health, that involves, Interpretation of illness:  Culture dictates whether mental health is viewed through me...

By Gurneet Kaur, Counselling Psychologist “95%… and she sat across from me, disappointed.” Not because she had failed. But because it wasn’t 98. Or 99. As a child and counseling psychologist, moments like these stay with me. A young student once walked into my room, visibly anxious, struggling to hold back tears—not over poor performance, but over scoring 95%. Her words were simple: “I could have done better.” At first glance, it sounds like ambition. But when you look closer, it often reflects something deeper—a growing inability to feel “enough,” even in success. This raises an uncomfortable but necessary question: Where are we heading, when children scoring 90% and above still feel inadequate? The Weight of Achievement Let’s acknowledge this first—as a psychologist, I genuinely applaud the effort, discipline, and consistency it takes to achieve high scores. These accomplishments deserve recognition. But here’s what we must hold alongside that truth: every child is different. Each st...