Anubha Sood

Last class we were talking about success and sharing our success stories.
We had a discussion on Richard St. John’s eight secrets of success, which are:
Serve
Passion
Work
Focus
Push
Good
Ideas
Persist
These are the big eight things which lead to success.
We viewed Raghava KK’s idea “Shake it” an art project, a children’s book for the I Pad. It’s about the fun things children do with their parents. The Different or the new idea here was that if you don’t like it shake it, the story and the perspective changes. It’s about shaking your perspective a little bit starting with children.
Later we were talking about what makes each of us successful? There was a lot of singing, dancing and sharing of ideas and work.
In the second half of the class we viewed Mallika Sarabhai’s Dance to change the world. Mallika a dancer/actor/politician tells a transformative story in dance -- and argues that the arts may be the most powerful way to effect change, whether political, social or personal. The Planner’s of this world have treated Art as the cherry on the cake it needs to be the yeast.
she challenges the traditional ending to fairy tales which have always been rather chauvinistic.

To be or not to be.

Most of us love to hate someone.
But hate is a powerful word.
I say I hate someone because I cannot tolerate that person.
and so there may be various reasons for different people to say that they hate someone.

Why do we hate someone?
It is because of the body language or tone of their voice or some outer or inner characteristic?

We spoke about a daily acquaintance of many.
What is so unique about him/her that he/she manages to create a dislike for him/her in people?
Is it the style of communication, because we all are saying something which does not go with one culture which creates a gap.
That person might not fit into our cultural values and we might not fit into somebody else's.
Then why blame others for being in the arena of hatred where at some point we might belong there too.

We believe we have the authority or sometimes we assume or pretend to have the authority to blame/dislike someone. This authority is our rank.
I know I have a rank in college because I can paint good and comfortably with all kinds of medium.At the same time I know I face difficulty in writing, so I take extra efforts but I pretend in class as though it was easily and simple.
Thus when we know that we are at a lower rank than a person/group we are more conscious and if are at higher rank we might not take extra efforts to be recognized.
Thus we need to analyse others in a situation and talk accordingly and represent ourselves in a certain manner for our benefit and for others too.

30^th September

In previous class we all decided for one on one with facilitator, to know ourselves in different context. While one on one talks were going on, rest of us were assessing our selves. After self assessment we all discussed it in groups of three.

She also gave us an exercise to know how successful we were in past 24hrs and will be, in next 24hrs, 3yrs and 10yrs from now.

It was hard to think but in the end everyone got their success successfully. The assignment was to know that success can be small. “Whatever makes you happy is success for you”.

16th september 2011

16^th September 2011-09-27

We started our class with listing our privileges and talents. We directly did not discuss what privileges and talents we had listed for ourselves. We again talked about our consensus and non consensus reality which opened our discussion to RANKS. What is rank? We had many opinions over the same. Some said that it is in relation to someone else; some said it relates to power. This led to jotting down the various roles we play in our daily lives and tried giving them ranks. We realized that some ranks are earned while some are unearned. The best example which was discussed was that of a girl becoming eligible for getting married. The roles she needs to play for fitting into that particular role. Earned ranks & Unearned ranks--Earned ranks were education, domestic activities etc., while some unearned ranks were astrology, genes etc. Some were very subjective which were earned or unearned depending upon the circumstance. Through this exercise we also realized how we ‘objectify’ ourselves. How we mould ourselves according to the needs of others. Objectification- looking at our nature, personality, values etc.

               We objectified ourselves under various categories like social, economic, physical, educational, psychological, and spiritual. We were then asked to revisit our talents and privileges we listed and classify them according to the above mentioned ranks. When we did that we saw a common pattern. Most of the things we listed were very much related to our personality, nature and psychological side of us. We also discussed how a person is larger than the role. Sometimes people are unconscious of the ranks which irritates others. The example was, a person is not fluent in speaking, in spite of knowing the fact, people are ignoring it and forcing the person to speak.

               All the different roles we play also suggest how many different perceptions we have. How things cannot be looked from one point of view every single time. What is right in one country might not be appropriate in another. The best example is the clothes we wear in India and anywhere abroad; people have different opinions about it. The idea of this exercise was that we should not be rigid and should not come to a conclusion because what might seem right today might not be the case tomorrow. It also told us that our work should always have different perceptions which could always add layers to our work and make it interesting. In every class we are asked to speak for ourselves, in a louder voice and connecting to our body which we always tend to forget.

We ended the class by watching a Ted Talk by Raghava.

9th September, 2011

On Friday, the 9^th of September 2011, the first “task” we were given was to spend some time running around in the studio space in N3. Needless to say, we didn’t treat it like a jogging exercise, but converted into a full-blown game of Lock-and-Key (which I think most of us hadn’t played since school). The yawns and drowsy eyes disappeared after that and we began class.

The first exercise felt like part 2 of standing-on-the-table-and-repeatedly-shouting-our-names. We had to use our name and add a tune to it. We were given ten minutes to figure it out and then sing it in front of the class. Each person sang her song alone once and everyone else started singing it too after that. It made us feel really good (like rockstars) and most of us had a huge grin on our faces. There was a lot of variety in the tunes that were created. Some people used their full names, some used only their first name. Some used fragments of their name in different combinations and others repeated their name over and over again, in tune. Classical twists, cheerleading chants, slightly haunting tunes were some of the themes for the day. A few were quite catchy and played in my head long after class was over.

After sharing our songs with the class, we had to create a dance to our song (or create another tune) as well. It was fun to see what everyone came up with and each was different from the other. While some were slow steps, others were really fast and difficult to follow. For some you had to jump to your feet, for a few you had to lie on your back. Some were carefully choreographed and others were quite random. Some seemed to finish almost when it started and others seemed to go on and on. And then there were those in the middle.

The last exercise before we broke for lunch was to think of 3 distinct character traits in ourselves and enact it, making everyone else guess. We were supposed to act out things that others didn’t know about us, but that didn’t work out too well. While each of us displayed our three traits, there were a few people who were familiar with atleast a few, if not all, of them and other who didn’t know any. That varied from person to person.

After lunch, Kalpana suggested the running-around exercise, which we enjoyed so much in the morning. But after lunch everyone was too full and lazy to move so we moved on to the next exercise that she had planned. We had to think of a time that we surprised ourselves, and how we felt before, during and after that moment. We spent about twenty minutes thinking and then opened the discussion. It appeared that there were different emotions that were involved in surprising oneself- for some it was an outburst of anger, for others it was when they burst into tears. The exercise was interesting, as we ended up finding something new about ourselves as well as those around us.

To follow that, we paired ourselves and told the other person something that we thought that they wouldn’t know about themselves. While most of us deviated from the actual topic after a while and generally started chatting, there were some really serious and intense conversations going on. We were required to close our eyes after hearing what the other person said about us and feel what our body was feeling. Usually one never really follows what their body is thinking or what it goes through so it took a lot of effort and concentration. Listening to what each person experienced was really interesting because all the reactions were so varied. While some people felt really happy, and felt it in their knees, other felt suffocated and the feeling was there in their throat. Each person’s body language displayed what she felt- while some looked down and smiled, others maintained eye contact and frowned. While some accepted what they were told, others denied it. It was nice that through the conversations, most people opened up to the possibility that maybe the other person was right, whether it was positive or negative.

We ended the class by having an overall discussion on what we felt about the class that day. Everyone seemed satisfied and was happy to have found something new about themselves and about those around them. I think everyone is looking forward to next week’s class :)

19th August

19 August

We started our class by warming up. We walked in a room with our own speed. Then we played a game “wiggling warms”. In this in a circle we were suppose to hold opposite person’s hand. Our hands were tangled and we had to untangle them and form a circle.

Then we did meditation where we scanned our body from head to toe. In this we concentrated on each and every part of the body and tried to feel that part. Then we concentrated on only one part of the body and we tried to understand what it is trying to tell us.

Then we came up with a dream that we can recall. We tried to find the relation between the body part and the dream. We called it ‘free associations’. Surprisingly they had some things in common.

The theory of consensus and non consensus reality-

Everyone has his or her own identity. This identity is the consensus reality. That is the primary process.

The unknown reality is non consensus reality. That is the secondary process.

These realities are constantly changing. There is a dividing line between these two realities. That is called the ‘edge’. It is the inner critic. The edge protects from the unknown reality. We need the permission to go beyond the edge.

Our creativity comes from our dreaming reality. Our dreams are unacceptable part of our self.

Everything in this world has a structure. We can’t stay in a structure. We need a box to get out from the box. So get out of your strong primary identity. And start dreaming!

26 August

Looking back at the course outline which is process oriented psychology for success, we started off by discussing a recent story that defined success. For example: Somebody lost her cycle and found it after a few days in a small cycle garage nearby. This happened partly because of her dad’s persistence and partly by her luck. These two factors were essential in making it successful.

We all must remember to make eye contact while telling our name. One by one, we stood on the table and said our names with proper pronunciation, boldness and eye contact.

Consensus and non consensus reality was discussed in previous class, this time we talked about the third existence which is the ‘essence’. Essence neither falls in consensus nor non consensus, it’s mainly the fact that something has to happen and nobody has control over it. You can describe it as fortune. 

In France, people might take off their clothes as soon as sunlight appears and they won’t care about the people around them. But the same thing cannot happen in India. In the both the places people know about their morals unconsciously. Morality becomes a ghost when the context is mentioned.

Then we were asked to think of something that irritates you. Each of us discussed our irritations to find a solution for it.

P.S: We still need to plan a field trip.

Our Passions and Us

It is imoprtant to be passionate about something to move forward towards it. It may not be very important in our life, it may not be a big thing. As a person's passion depends upon his or her own self. I believe that our lives are completely dependent about being passionate. If we stop being passionate about one thing or other, we may not find our aim of living.
We were supposed to make a presentation on the thing we were most passionate about.
The topics chosen were eyes- by Pragya Joshi
photography- Vishakha Jindal
interior design- Aditi Goyal
sketching-Rutuja Patil
animation- Sadhana Prasad
street dogs- Tanya Pande
coconut leaf weaving- Surabhi Joshi
Calcutta food- Sreeja Basu
water- Shrujana Niranjan
Everybody talked about their passions and we noted, how much each person knows about their passions. How was their attitude towards it by looking at the way they talked about it. We looked at their body language that how enthusiastic towards it.

From this exercise, we concluded that to reach a certain goal a passion towards it is very very necessary. To polish the tarnished mirror of our life, we need to be passionate and walk towards it and polish it every day, so that it it shines in our life.

The Vagina Monologues

http://www.script-o-rama.com/movie_scripts/v/vagina-monologues-script-eve-ensler.html

The Vagina Monologues

http://www.scribd.com/doc/57510488/Eve-Ensler-Vagina-Monologues

This is the link to the script of the play The Vagina Monologues by Eve Ensler

5 successful Women and 5 successful Men

Class Assignment:

1) Name 5 successful men

2) Name 5 successful women

3) Try to understand and define the characteristics that make them successful in our eyes.

This particular assignment required a lot of brain storming. Everyone came up with their own set of popular and everyday heros. This assignment led to discussion about what really success and career meant to each of us? There were many prejudices that led us to think of success as being rich; by the end of the discussion we realized that to some people their career is the only thing in their life and their will to be successful in their career is NOT a shallow concept.

The entire discussion then steered toward successful women. The multiple roles that both men and women have to play was discussed. When we discussed our roles, the role of being a woman stood out. The entire discussion then tool a very feminist track.

Film Stars and their success was also discussed. While some of us thought that the success that celebrities enjoy is extremely superficial; some of us thought that it is a well deserved success because of the hard work and passion that goes in to creating such big names for themselves and the work that they do requires a whole lot of effort and is important to them.

5th August 2011

We started off with discussing about how many women talk in a soft and low voice. We talked about the way in which society conditions us to talk politely and softly, since few of us disagreed with this point; we tried to enact the way in which men talk but couldn't pull it off. Hence, to find out for ourselves we went outside to know who really makes all the noise? Many of us found that when girls are in a large group we 'screech' especially when there are boys around. We found that boys talk loud but clear and the only time we found girls talk loudly it was in the form of screeching and screaming. Boys who were standing and talking outside classrooms were not audible to us but the boys playing on the football field were loud since the sport required them to communicate loudly.

Assignment 1

Group Assignment:

1) How would you define success?
2) Who according to you is a successful person?
3) Talk about someone you consider role model of success. What are the certain qualities that make them the role model? Why these specific qualities?

Demonstrate these qualities as a group.

Individual Assignment:

1) How successful are we?
2) Describe your success.
3) Why is it a success?

(Respective groups answer as a new post)

Is it Give and Take?

"The high destiny of the individual is to serve rather than to rule."
-Albert Einstein 


How often do we serve others?
A service is something that starts from the basic.
Be it helping others,
or giving moral support,
Feedback,
Acknowledgement andListening.



Whom did you serve the last time today?
(Please post your answers as comments to the post.)

Tips to Success

http://www.ted.com/talks/richard_st_john_s_8_secrets_of_success.html

An interesting talk by Richard St Johns about the 8 secrets of success.
An important point he mentioned which most of us related to was "Push yourself through self doubt. And knowing that at times it wont be easy, god created mothers."

Here comes the idea of an 'Internalized Mother'. One who 'pushes' you to do what you need to without an existence.

First contact

Who am I?
How do I define myself?
What decisions influenced me to be what I am today?
Who governs my choices? How does our brain work?

Does my self-believe motivate me ?  or
Do I have self-doubt?  Whats the solution?
Is it a hindrance or a critique?
Am I persistent in what I believe? How long does it last?
Am I demotivated easily?
What is right or wrong?

These are some of the questions that are unconsciously present in our mind.


Process Oriented Psychology: Understanding The Reasoning for Success is a course that gives us an answer to these questions.
As an individual, we question ourselves, we analyse as we know and then discuss the various reasoning's as a class.