The Mental Compass

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...

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...

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...

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...