In a world of ignorance, we strive ahead to move towards the unknown. This path leads us, comforts our footsteps and give us a new meaning. We work so hard in piling up our materialistic passion that we forget to look into our shadows. The shadow of our conscience, thoughts, emotions, social bonding, happiness and our self-esteem. Amidst all the hassles that the world faces now, we wonder whom to blame. Whether it’s the fault in our stars or our actions. There is everything surrounding us, those that we desired and finally achieved, but there is also a calm silence that’s shouting and pleading us to reflect.
In this home bound state, it’s time we value our thoughts, mould the flow of our actions and energise our skills, only to bounce back with all our humane strengths. It’s time we ponder over our emotional and social skills of intelligence that remain innately grounded within us. This time that we got as a gift from nature, let us spend it more with our children, peers, family and most importantly ourselves. It’s the hour to think collectively with our unique individual capacities and mediate our emotions, thoughts and behaviour.
Various theorists have consciously penned down their findings, where they focussed on the relevance of having deeper affective experiences and conversations with the ‘self’. Petrides & Furnham (2001) in their work elaborated on the importance of adjustment, emotional perceptions, self-expression, affective regulation, self-awareness, motivation and self-esteem. All these attributes become relevant only by blending them with our humane personal development.
Individualistic thinking has become so powerful that it manipulates our survival instincts of receiving and we neglect the joy of giving. We are so engrossed in flourishing our accomplishment skills that we negate our humble capacities to love, appreciate, and strengthen our interpersonal relationships. This model guides us through a journey of recognizing certain emotional cues from our environment that leads us in forming experiences in understanding ourselves and others. Based on these emotional stimuli our responses get grounded which reflects in our self-awareness.
For example, in the present scenario when there is the action of hoarding resources to the point of making them extinct, there is also the behaviour of sharing the same to the weaker sections and building communion. Through this affective stimuli people are able to identify and express their emotions which as a result shapes interaction with ourselves and the environment. Reflections on self-knowledge, positive and negative aspects of our personality, aspirations and emotions develop self-awareness skills. This model directs us in formulating feelings of worthiness and integrates capacities of self-acceptance and emotional control into the personality traits.
The art of reflection is a universal gift that we have achieved at the moment and it orients us to take perspectives. Our children, family, peers, colleagues and all those who are close to us are battling with mental health challenges in coping with the medical trauma from the outer world. As educators the greatest gift that we can give to our children is the skill of ‘self-reflection’.
But before we transfer these capacities it’s important that we value this trait and gain mastery over its characteristics. Innovators in the field of psychology have come up with certain positive psychology interventions that promote the component of liberal teaching while dealing with the millennial’s generation.
Our children and youth are struggling with their tolerance, attention span, emotional and social skills in this restricted world of technology that is booming through globalization. We are unable to give our children the freedom to think, opportunities to explore, to touch the grass, dive into the deep waters, to walk barefoot and blend with the community. Hence, reflecting on newer practical pedagogical capacities as educators and caregivers is the new task in this calm and isolated scenario.
To prosper liberal understanding and learning for our teenagers, Thomas (2014), invented a dynamic model that is a three-year curriculum method which integrated the motive of goal achievement among teenagers, thereby empowering them to succeed. The motive is to make our children realise the importance of their dreams – that in itself is a liberation. This initiative was termed as the D.R.E.A.M.S. Model and is an acronym for Desire, Readiness, Empowerment, Action, Mastery for Success. The program is implemented by the community that contains experts, volunteers, senior mentors and those who wish to render their unique expertise to guide learning from varied perspectives.
Desire was connoted as having a fascination towards a goal that leads to realization of the desire and internalization of the same ambition. It guides youngsters in thinking about ways to achieve their aspirations. Empowerment intrinsically motivates taking action and thus mastery of this behaviour develops success. Therefore, the action gets reinforced and strengthened and governs the character strength of the learner. This is a success model that is implemented through summer camps where the teenager learns through sensory experiences that establishes personal, interpersonal and leadership skills. Personal development through D.R.E.A.M.S. Model blends activities to modify the teenager’s identity, awareness and increase their knowledge about their abilities. This encourages spiritual and psychological growth.
Holistic development of children and youth is necessary and this method starts from teaching self-reflection strategies. The moral responsibility of caregivers and educators lies in guiding the young to learn and practice psychosocial and interpersonal skills through community that includes peers, mentors and trainers. This model works on these characteristics that channelizes the learner to reach one’s potential through their unique abilities that result in value development. Similarly, individuals with a sense of belongingness should create programs that cater to our children and youth and centralise themes based on their needs and abilities.
Informal techniques in educating the young about the varied developmental changes in the environment would strategize their curiosity which further internalises the experiences and externalises actions. Building a chain model that is based on service and strength is relevant in channelizing the skills into an empowering experience. Here the role of adults becomes important in teaching the learner to develop personalised skills that enable exploration of sensory modalities and enhance experiential learning. Thus, for instance, if the child is good with musical skills, guidance in using the same ability into situations like creating a note that explains the barking of the pet would enhance understanding both verbal and non-verbal communication and progress self-development.
Thus, personal development through reflective strategies necessitates in bringing a change in the thinking pattern of the society that is sometimes perceived to be toxic in its development. Incorporating changes in our individual selves would lead us to perceive situations differently and positively. Referring to one’s self-concept by thinking, evaluating and perceiving our actions regulates personal acceptance. Practicing the aspect of receiving and sharing the same with the community is the integral concern. In a negative context learning the art of perceiving the positive and displacing the same to our future generation would orient them towards community building. Adopting a school in guiding the underprivileged with alternative voluntary services through our youth, providing expertise to the geriatric care through workshop and sharing new skills or teaching the young to write a compassionate letter to mother earth and expressing gratitude and concern would develop empathetic skills and build a unique community.
The society is coping with the turbulent medical state and there is howling of pain, loss, fear, suspiciousness and rage. Amidst all the isolation and segregation there is a ray of new sunshine that diversifies our attention towards emotions like joy, love, hope, faith and gratitude. Studies show that fear is the most powerful and dominant emotion and it lasts longer and is of strong willpower. It is also found that the only emotion that makes fear subordinate to its strength is acceptance. In this beautiful journey of life where there is discomfort, sadness, guilt, apathy and despair, there is also serenity, amusement, inspiration, interest, awe and love. The environment in its existing form is witnessing a challenging battle that has shut countries, put capitalism at stake and made individuals stream into isolation. But the positive side of this battle has brought us together as a community to energise and rejuvenate through our capacities, reflect on the undoing and liberate our interpersonal associations.
Nature has given us a boon to form ties again with our closed ones, to connect and govern relationships with newer aspirations. The world is healing itself to empower its people who are reminded of protecting the environment with compassionate gestures and build a collectivistic forum where there is collaborative learning, youth development and orientation of skills through personal development. If we know our individualistic strengths and weaknesses and accept the same then acceptance of the surrounding with its positives and negatives become an enriching experience.
References
- Drigas, A. S., & Papoutsi, C. (2018). A new layered model on emotional intelligence. Behavioral Sciences, 8(5), 45.
- Thomas, L. (2014). Evaluation of the DREAMS Program: An Intervention Model for The Success of Low Performing Middle School Students. University of Louisiana. Monroe, USA.
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