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When Praise Becomes Pressure: Let Children Be More Than Their Labels

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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...
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The Psychological Cost of Extreme Fame: Identity Fragmentation and Social Isolation

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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...
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Wait, Wasn’t the Logo Different? The Mandela Effect in Branding and Advertising

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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...
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Info Dump from the New Encyclopedia (a.k.a. Reels): Deep Dives turned into Fast Food

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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...
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Emotional Creativity: When creativity extends beyond Art!

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A new concept emerges:  Emotional creativity sounds like a unique term to read about. All our lives, one has associated the ideology of creativity with art or science. When you witness the Monalisa painting by DaVinci, you comment on the creative potential Da Vinci has meaningfully presented.  But what if I tell you that creativity, always known as a higher brain process, can extend beyond art and to the emotional responses one is able to feel, which are strangely always termed as the residuals of evolution. Many argue that creativity does not need a reserved brain region; rather, it can be unlocked through memory, perception, and emotional experiences.   “When a person has an inborn genius for certain emotions, his life differs strangely from that of ordinary people.” – William James  Before jumping into decoding this quote briefly, we need to understand what being emotionally creative is.  Emotional creativity is referred to as having the ability and pers...
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Listening to Lived Experience: Building Inclusive Mental Healthcare

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Written by Mr. T Mugunthan Chari, Chennai Every year, the World Health Organization (WHO) celebrates World Mental Health Day on 10 October. A specific theme is chosen, and the WHO’s work throughout the year focuses on that theme. In 2024, the theme was “Mental Health at Work”; in 2025, it was “Mental Health in Humanitarian Emergencies.” This year’s theme is “Lived Experiences Heard: Real Voices, Real Changes.” This year’s focus is on PWLE, people with lived experience. Although a theme is chosen and addressed throughout the year, related activities do not cease abruptly. The 2025 theme of humanitarian emergencies remains relevant. Given the many emergencies caused by war and natural disasters, including recent events in Nepal, continued attention is warranted. This year’s theme is highly relevant, considering the need to safely integrate people with mental health conditions into mainstream life. Sadly, social taboos surrounding mental health issues make it difficult for people to do so...
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Too Far to Turn Back? The Trap of Sunk Costs

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A specific kind of decision gets harder the longer we stay with it. You know the course you chose is no longer serving you. The relationship has become exhausting. The friendship no longer feels right to continue. Yet, instead of asking whether you still want any of these things, your mind returns to a different question: But after everything I’ve already put into this, how can I just walk away? Sometimes, the hardest part of letting go is not losing what we have but accepting how much we have already invested. This is where the sunk cost fallacy enters the picture. When the past starts making today’s decision A sunk cost is something we have already spent, like money, time, effort, or emotional energy, that cannot be recovered. Rationally, once something is gone, it should not determine what we do next. The useful question is supposed to be what the available options look like from this point forward. Psychologically, however, the past does not disappear so neatly. Research by Hal Ark...
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How Fast Fashion Is Destroying You (And the World)

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1,73,000. No, it is not the average urban youth’s daily screen time, a complex figure in India’s GDP report, your favorite fashion influencer’s follower count, or the price tag on a luxury designer handbag. It is 1,73,000 kilograms or roughly 173 tonnes of municipal solid waste produced globally every single minute. Within that massive waste stream, the fashion industry plays a devastating role: a garbage truck full of textiles is landfilled or incinerated every second. Wait, what? Read that again. In the time it took you to unlock your phone and scroll through my opening lines, the world discarded truckloads of low-quality clothes in incinerators and dumpsites. Yet we treat haul videos and impulsive shopping carts like harmless habits. We have all felt the thrill, right? It starts late at night, when you see a pop-up on an ultra-fast-fashion app like Meesho advertising a cheap linen co-ord with a ticking timer: “Flash Sale: ₹299 for the Next 12 Minutes!” Your finger twitches. You ad...
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THE NIOS NAVIGATOR - Navigation Journey Phase 5 : Guidance for Parents Navigating School Support Systems for Children with Learning Difficulties

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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. Every child learns differently. Some children grasp concepts quickly through reading, while others understand better through visuals, activities, repetition, or practical experiences. When a child faces learning difficulties, parents often feel confused, anxious, or unsure about where to begin.  The most important step is to understand that learning difficu...
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