The Mental Compass

Written by Mr. T Mugunthan Chari,  Counselling Psychologist & Social Observer,Chennai India—Bharat—is a vast and vibrant nation with a population exceeding 1.4 billion and a median age of 29.2 years. With a workforce comprising approximately 69% of individuals aged 15 to 64 years the country encompasses a mosaic of faiths, including Hinduism, Sikhism, Buddhism, Jainism, Christianity, and Islam. By and large, society thrives on peace, togetherness, harmony, and dynamic living. The Agrarian Roots of Celebration:  Historically, as an agricultural economy, Indian festivities evolved directly from farming practices and natural rhythms. Agricultural routines revolved around the monsoons—spanning field preparation, sowing, transplanting, weeding, cultivation, and harvest. To supplement farming incomes, rural families engaged in cattle rearing and poultry farming, empowering women to achieve self-reliance and contribute to household finances. While Hinduism represents the largest ...

When you start getting exhausted by comparing yourself to people daily, you might start sensing self-doubt and feeling like you are a fraud despite your notable achievements, despite people congratulating you on your many triumphs. This psychological experience is known as Imposter Syndrome or Impostorism.   Imposter syndrome starts evolving because socially comparing yourself to people around you, whether online or offline, starts becoming a habit. The thought of “I am not doing enough, but I will try” starts turning into “Yes, I put in a lot of effort, but I didn’t achieve any of this in comparison with my peers, and my boss was too kind to give me a promotion.” It’s when you constantly start weighing your worth on the scales of others’ achievements.  All this can impact you in many ways, like feeling anxious about your life, procrastinating because you think you do not have the knowledge, avoiding major opportunities, feeling sad and incompetent, straining relationship...

Image by Education Edge Global Written By : Ms. A. Gayathri Special Educator and Academic Consultant A. Gayathri is a seasoned education professional and special educator with more than two decades of experience in inclusive education, learning disabilities, counselling, and psychotherapy. She has served as a special educator, NIOS consultant, lecturer, vocational trainer, and educational consultant across reputed schools, universities, and trusts in Tamil Nadu. Her work reflects strong expertise in special education and teacher training. She has been honoured with multiple state and national awards for her outstanding contributions to the field of education. The Indian education system is undergoing major transformation through the New Education Policy (NEP 2020).  Today, CBSE and other educational boards are introducing flexible learning methods, competency-based education, skill development programs, multiple exam opportunities, and student-centered learning approaches. Interest...

Image by Counselling Directory Have you ever checked your phone repeatedly, waiting for someone to reply to your message? Have you felt a sudden wave of insecurity when a close friend started spending more time with someone else? Or perhaps you have found yourself saying, “I’m only doing this because I love you,” while secretly hoping the other person would behave exactly as you wished. These experiences are common in human relationships. We want to feel loved, valued, and connected. Yet, sometimes, the very desire to hold on to someone can make us anxious, fearful, and emotionally exhausted.  Indian psychology offers an interesting way to reflect on this tension through the ideas of Sukhanushayi Rāga and Anāsakti,  two concepts that can help us understand the difference between loving someone and becoming attached to the happiness they provide us. In the Indian philosophical tradition of Yoga, particularly in Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras , Rāga refers to attachment or attraction...

Image by FamilyDoctor When Aarav was four, Meena noticed the way he lined up his toy cars instead of playing with them, how he avoided eye contact, and how loud sounds made him cover his ears in panic. In a house where boys were expected to be “strong” and “normal,” these small differences were dismissed as stubbornness. Her in-laws called it bad parenting; her husband believed Aarav just needed stricter discipline. But Meena felt something deeper, this wasn’t defiance, it was distress. At the clinic, a doctor finally gave her a word she had never heard before, ASPERGER’S, now understood as part of the autism spectrum. In simple terms, he explained, it meant Aarav’s brain worked a little differently. He could be intelligent and capable, but might struggle with social cues, communication, or handling changes and sensory overload. “He doesn’t see the world the way we do,” the doctor said gently, “and that’s not a flaw, it’s a difference.” Meena held onto that sentence like it was someth...

The easiest child to praise can sometimes become the hardest child to understand. The “smart one.” The “good one.” The “mature one.” The “talented one.” These labels often begin with affection. They are ways adults express pride and appreciation. But when a compliment is repeated often enough, it can become more than praise. It can become an expectation and eventually becomes a role the child feels responsible for maintaining. The child who is known for being intelligent may begin to fear situations in which they could stumble. The child who is always praised for being good may hesitate to disagree or express anger. The child who is admired for being mature may feel that they are no longer allowed to be confused, dependent or simply childlike. The label may sound positive to everyone else. But for the child, it can gradually become a standard they feel they must never fall below. When praise becomes an identity Praise is an important part of childhood. A supportive environment can help...

When people imagine fame, they usually picture what it gives you: recognition, opportunities, influence, maybe even a sense that your life has become bigger than it used to be. From the outside, it looks like an upgrade, like everything has expanded. And in some ways, that’s true. But what’s harder to see is what it changes, because fame doesn’t just add attention to your life. It changes the way your life is experienced, especially the way you experience yourself. At the beginning, attention can feel simple. Someone notices you, appreciates what you do, maybe even admires you. That kind of recognition feels good. It gives you a sense of direction, as if what you’re doing matters. But attention doesn’t stay neutral for long. It starts to build expectations. People don’t just see you; they start forming ideas about you: who you are, how you should act, and what you represent. Some of those ideas might be close to the truth. A lot of them won’t be. But once they exist, they don’t disappe...

Have you ever looked at a familiar brand logo and felt absolutely certain that something was different about it? Perhaps you remember a particular character wearing glasses, a logo having a specific colour, or an advertisement ending with a line that everyone seemed to know by heart. You would bet money on your memory, only to discover that the detail you remember may never have existed in the way you imagined. If this sounds familiar, welcome to the fascinating world of the Mandela Effect, where a group of people shares a similar memory that does not match the available evidence. The term became popular when people reported remembering Nelson Mandela dying in prison during the 1980s, even though he was released in 1990 and died in 2013. The phenomenon is not proof that reality has changed or that everyone is remembering an alternate timeline. Instead, psychology offers a more grounded explanation: human memory is reconstructive. We do not store every experience like a video recording...

We all must have studied how centuries ago people would travel large distances just to get a piece of information about something they were curious about. Either by spending time in libraries or by learning under the guidance of a scholar, they were somehow able to gain knowledge, to become well-learned.  Nowadays, however, we have access to all kinds of information.  Thanks to the ever-advancing technology. Either everything we need to know is just a click away or is already floating on our screens, trying to grab our attention. Does compressing in-depth information into a fast-food-like snippet genuinely help us? It probably does help us when we don't stop there but take it as a cue for exploring further. If, however, we feel suddenly enlightened or well-informed by the new piece of information, in that very moment and don't consider looking past it or realizing that we may need to know more about this, we are perhaps only letting the feed decide what we know.  When was...