Stay Positive

 I grew up in a teaching family. My mother, father, grandmother, and 2 more generations devoted their life to teaching school and college-going kids. Ever since I was age 4, I was told that “Pen is the strongest tool to mankind”, and “Pen is more powerful than the sword”. As a small kid, I used to wonder how come a small pen that is easily available, accessible, and usable has such a strong power that it can defeat a sword. Very soon, I realized what it means. The pen has the power to explain the most powerful thing in the world “Word”. Words are our greatest virtue. They have the power to construct or decimate. They can be helpful or hurtful. They can literally change the brain structure depending on the way we use them.

We often hear from life coaches, spiritual leaders, and our teachers the benefits of using positive words. In recent days, there has been a lot of focus on positive parenting, positive management, positive thinking, and overall positive well-being. I wonder, what happens in our brain when we use or hear positive words and how they can affect our personality?

Also, what about when we are not talking to someone but to ourselves! Self-talk – inner speech – recent studies say a lot about the advantages of self-talking. Are there any similarities between self-talk and chatting with others? According to recent studies, there are actually many similarities. Our brain considers that self-talk is very similar to talking to other people. When we talk, larynx muscles move. It’s been noticed that when we silently talk to ourselves there are noticeable movements in those muscle groups. Broca’s area (the area of the brain that is active when we speak loudly) is also active when we self-talk. In the case of self-talk, our body’s physical activity is similar when we talk to others. In other words, as far as brain activities are concerned, self-talk is not much different from talking to someone else.

Every day thousands of thoughts and words go through our minds. Most of the time we are self-critics. We often use negative self-talk such as “Why do bad things keep on happening to me?”, “It’s so difficult, I can’t do this”, “I don’t have time or experience to do all this”, “The traffic is really bad, I am not going to make it on time” etc. All these are fewer examples of our day-to-day negative self-talk which we use without even realizing the damage they are inducing to our personality.

I wonder how our brain reacts to positive and negative words irrespective of talking to ourselves or out loud?

According to the book “Words Can Change Your Brain” when we use positive words, we increase cognitive reasoning and strengthen areas in our frontal lobes. Over time the structure of the thalamus will also change in response to our conscious words, thoughts, and feelings. The longer we focus on positive words, the more effect on other areas of the brain would be noticed.

On the other hand, when we allow ourselves to use negative words, we increase the activity in our amygdala, which causes the release of stress-producing hormones - catecholamines such as epinephrine, and norepinephrine. These hormones circulate in our blood and increase our cortisol levels. According to authors Newberg and Waldman, “Angry words send alarm messages through the brain, and they partially shut down the logic-and-reasoning centers located in the frontal lobes.”

So, it’s clear that the use of negative words is harmful to our mental and physical health. While talking, we should focus on mindful and conscious words. As our elders used to say, "Think twice before you speak". We should give careful and clear consideration to every word before we speak, whether in our head or to others.

The use of positive words keeps our anxieties and depression away. It channelizes happy hormones, boosts self-esteem, enhances confidence, and brings out the best in ourselves.

Positive thoughts->Positive speech->Positive Action->Positive Outcome->Happy life.

Stay Positive!

 

 Thanks

Mridulika

Reference

1. What's Happening When You Talk to Yourself in Your Head - ATTN:

2. Words Can Change Your Brain (psychcentral.com)

Unravelling unknowns: A year of Henna’s new beginnings

We come to this world, with absolutely nothing, no knowledge or realization of who we are. Everything seems new, fresh, unknown, and unfamiliar. When we open our eyes for the first time, we see a complete new, untold, undisclosed, and mysterious world with so many questions popping up in our tiny little head. The sight of our smiling parents gives us the very first sense of existence. It is really bewildering to imagine the world from eyes of a newborn. Gradually we learn numerous new things, from talking to walking, all which were unknown skills at the beginning. We triumph over all the challenges phenomenally and make our path from our mom’s lap to this indubitable prodigious world.  This happens to all of us, every living being on this planet. This is very natural, correct! We are born curious. We are born to explore new things and the world around us.

Though, as we grow old, we tend to burden ourselves with routines and responsibilities; and forget about this basic curious nature of ourselves. We keep ourselves concealed in a comfort box. It might take a lot of courage and determination to come out of that box to try out new things. But, once we make up our mind to achieve something new, we become unstoppable. As Gandhi said, “Man often becomes what he believes himself to be. If I keep on saying to myself that I cannot do a certain thing, it is possible that I may end by really becoming incapable of doing it. On the contrary, if I have the belief that I can do it, I shall surely acquire the capacity to do it even if I may not have it at the beginning.” - Mahatma Gandhi

When I observe kids around me, I realize that kids are indeed a great inspiration for all of us. They don’t have the fear of unknown which we grownups start to carry sometimes. They motivate us to learn new skills, try out unknown things and embrace new challenges. They teach us to stop thinking about failures before starting any new endeavor. They encourage us to come out of our fears and comforts. They show us how to determine ourselves to keep digging and keep tasting the zest of unknown world. They influence us to be perseverant and fight all the obstacles which come along the way. It could be scary, but if we believe in what we are doing is right, the feeling of accomplishment is delightful.

In my book “Unravelling unknowns: A year of Henna’s new beginnings” Henna, an 8-year-old girl is an explorer, adventurous, nature-lover, kind, enthusiastic, challenge taking and precocious girl. In just one year of her life, she had a great deal of remarkable experiences. Experiences, which she never had before. She explored wondrous, prolific, majestic glory of nature. She assimilated significant new skills and triumphed over all the hurdles.

Through this book, I would like my readers to visualize and unravel the hidden 'Henna' in them. Somewhere, in all of us, there is a little Henna, who wants to fly high in the open wide sky and accomplish something new, something which gives a sense of existence of oneself. It just needs a little courageous step to unravel the unknowns!

The book is available on Amazon in eBook and Paperback format. Please check out the link below and enjoy reading😊:

https://a.co/d/i95MUWN

Thanks

Mridulika

Phenomenal aspects of handwriting

"Please hold your pen correctly"," Try to write your letters beautifully", "You need to focus on your handwriting", "Could you share your handwritten notes please". Do you find these phrases familiar? Back in our school days, writing with pen on paper was the only medium of saving and practicing our learnt knowledge.  We had the habit of taking class notes with pen. Surprising it is, but because of handwritten notes, we used to remember quickly and prominently. In all our examinations, whether they are school tests or college entrance exams, we always used pen and papers. Computers got introduced to us as a separate stream to learn. It is peculiar but true that we used pen and paper for our computer exams too. We used to handwrite algorithms of complex problems and manually test their efficiency and correctness on paper, all using pen!

Writing with pen was essential and significant part of our school days. I remember, we used to gift each other special pens and notebooks on birthdays, teachers' day, holidays etc. We used to feel immensely happy crafting our thoughtful words and capturing our precious moments in our special diaries with our exclusive pens.

Let's come back to our present day, we have multiple technologies for writing now: pen on paper, computer writing, stylus writing, writing on smart devices etc. It is a technology-friendly, digital age and somewhere writing with pen on paper is becoming obsolete. Even kindergarten kids are familiar with digital devices. Computers, which got into our life as a subject to read and understand, is now prime part of our kids' life. Computers have become a significant part of their learning life, especially during Covid time. I observe that today's elementary school kids use power-point, MS word, google slides to write their school reports so brilliantly.  Maybe kids are born with a pre-stored digital knowledge in their head! They do such a fantastic job in learning digital technologies, which we sometimes struggle to understand.

Noticing the increased use of digital devices at the early school age, makes me wonder, are we missing something! Let's just stop and think for a while. Have you noticed, people who use pen and paper claim to remember most of their written work! They can even give lecture on their report without even referring their notes. They have better problem-solving skills and have extensive vocabulary. Whereas people who use computers for writing usually struggle to remember what they wrote. Well, it's true for me for sure. I tend to forget my scripts more easily when I write on computer compared to paper. On the plus side, computer writing definitely gives substantial amount of fancy features which makes the written work more polished and presentable. Spelling suggestions, grammar corrections and all sort of helping features to improve our writing, are given to us by our "know-it-all" box. But are they really "helping" us! Let's think about it.

According to neuropsychology, a lot of things go in our brain when we write with hand. Our brain performs a heavy workout when we write holding pen on paper. No wonder, we feel exhausted after hours of handwriting. 

There are significant differences in handwriting and typewriting. Those differences strongly suggest that handwriting facilitates memorization of letters and helps in critical thinking.

Handwriting takes place in a small space.  Our attention is limited and concentrated. When we write by hand, our focus is onto endpoint of our pen. Whereas when we typewrite, our focus gets divided into 2 different spaces, screen and keyboard. Our concentration continuously shifts between keyboard and screen, makes us less focused and creates difficulty in memorizing.

In handwriting, the writer needs to visualize the letter, and form the shape of the letter by hand on paper. Each letter has a defined set of hand-moves to give them proper shape on paper. On the other hand, typing doesn't involve this. It involves hitting keyboard keys to form letter on screen. It also doesn't matter the way you hit the key. The same letter can be typed by hitting keys using different force, different motion or even by using different hand. Thus, typing has a very little to do with visual cortex.

Handwriting is slower than typewriting. But due to its slowness, it requires more thinking and analysis than typewriting. When we handwrite class notes, we process what our lecturer explains, analyze, and then write in our own words. It helps in memorizing and improves critical thinking.

In general, handwriting involves activities in multiple regions of our brain which typewriting does not. It involves motor cortex to manually write, visual cortex to visualize the shape and form of letters, and different neural networks related to language, spellings, grammar etc. All these neural connections, collectively work to help memorizing and learning. Handwriting is an essential part of our learning process and cognitive development. It should not be underestimated.

Thanks

Mridulika

 

References:

Neural substrates of sensorimotor processes: letter writing and letter perception

Why writing by hand makes kids smarter

Digitizing Literacy: Reflections on the Haptics of Writing

Mumma, I want to become a famous cricket player

Remembering those days when our dads used to watch or sometimes listen to commentaries of cricket matches. As a curious kid, we used to ask our dads how this game being played, what are few rules, and we tried our best to understand player's strengths and strategies. Soon this world-famous sport became our most loved family-sport to watch, learn and play. Most of our childhood spent playing cricket in our block with our good friends. A lot of us carried a delightful dream in our eyes to become cricket sports person one day and some of us accomplished this too.

The similar curiosity and wish to learn about cricket take place in Aarya's mind. A 5- year-old boy Aarya watches his dad playing cricket. Numerous questions arise in his growing mind. Alot of them get answered while watching the match and learning from his parents. Aarya is a bright, observant, deterministic, hardworking, enthusiastic, perspicacious and inquisitive boy. He loves watching and learning this sport. Soon Aarya starts imagining himself playing international cricket one day. Carrying these lovely and glorious dreams in his eyes, he deterministically works towards it.

My book "Mumma, I want to become a famous cricket player" is about Aarya who get inspired from his dad and work to fulfill his dream of becoming a famous cricket player one day. 

The intention of this book is to familiarize our young kids with basic cricket rules and opening doors of their wide imagination to encourage them carrying a prodigious and beautiful dream. After all, every achievement, every innovation, start with a big dream in one's mind and heart. As it's quoted “The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.” — Eleanor Roosevelt

The book is published in kindle and paperback format on Amazon and Barnes and Noble.

Here are the links:

Amazon:

Mumma, I want to become a famous cricket player (Amazon)

Barnes and Noble:

Mumma, I want to become a famous cricket player (Barnes and Noble)

Please check it out!

Thank you

Mridulika