Meditation and Mindset - Vaibhav Jaiswal

MEDITATION
Meditation is the way to make your life peaceful and strong. Leading with solid thinking helps you to strengthen your self-awareness. Meditation helps to reduce stress, increase your imagination and creativity, build your skills, and develop your abilities. The word meditation comes from the Latin meditatum, meaning to "concentrate" or "ponder." Monk Guigo II introduced this terminology for the first time in the 12th century AD.

MINDSET

When one changes one mindset, then only he or she can change his life. The beautiful meaning of this thought is that unhappy, frustrated people are unimportant and of little value. They feel frustrated and unworthy. They thought I was not good enough, so they lashed out at the world and engaged in behaviours that hurt themselves and others. They don't realize that they could be a prince or princes.

       

VAIBHAV JAISWAL 9D

SUNBEAM HOSTEL LAHARTARA 

Does believing help escape the person out of negativism? - Tenzin Norsang

Picture Courtesy: https://coralspringscounselingcenter.com/stop-negative-thinking/

A wise man once said, and he said it so well - 

“Believing in one’s self is the essential key and necessity if one wants to achieve and acquire higher and greater goals in one’s life.”

The person who believes in himself has the ability and the capability to conquer anything. Robin Sharma said, and I quote - 

“Your mind is a good servant but a tyrannical leader.” 

A person who has faith in himself is one who has mastered the art of controlling his mind. He who believes in himself - has been bestowed with the power that has the intensity to change the world.

What are negative thoughts?
Negative thoughts are thoughts which are pessimistic and demotivating in nature. Such thoughts create a feeling of unrest and doubt in oneself. 

When do such thoughts pop up in our minds?
Such thoughts cloud our minds during the disturbing and dark times in our lives. During such a phase in our life, we doubt our abilities, skills and capabilities, but most of all, we mistrust ourselves, which creates a hindrance that obstructs and blocks our way from achieving our goals. 

In this life course, if someone wants to overcome such thoughts, he should have faith and believe in himself. Many people in today's world are facing and going through tough times. 

When someone's life is shadowed by darkness, he has two choices. Either he could be the one who curses the darkness. Or he could be the one who lights a candle amidst the darkness. Here, 'lighting the candle amidst the dark' - is symbolic of self-belief and driving out all your negative thoughts and emotions from your mind and body. 

Thus, Believing in oneself means self-assurance and motivating oneself throughout difficult times. 

Self-belief transforms a person into being willing, pressure-resilient, confident, peaceful, and the master of one’s mind. He demonstrates the “Never give up” attitude till the end, whatever the unfolded result is. 

Believing in oneself automatically leads to the expulsion of negative thoughts and assists him in escaping out of it.

Tenzin Norsang

Pestalozzi Children's Village, India.

My First 'Venture' to 'My Good School'...- Unnati Dabral

Did I call it a 'venture'?

Indeed yes.

You might be thinking, "Why I wrote venture instead of putting 'visit'?" Of course, to make my readers wonder why? And to make them curious.

I was a creative and rough-tough kid since I first started schooling. But that doesn't mean I was confident back then. When it comes to vivas, although my 'Know it All' attitude used to kick in, I used to get nervous. I still do.

So, the first fellow to join 'My Good School' happened to be my friend, Geetankshi. She told me about this opportunity at 'The English Book Depot'. She told me to write about 'What it takes to spread the joy of learning at schools?', mail it, and then wait for the reply. At first, I procrastinated on the task for a few days. My friend told me to visit the place and meet the founder. I thought it was a good idea. I wrote a mail to the head body before leaving for the visit.

The moment I reached there, I fell in love with the place.

I pondered, "What a wonder it would be to work in such a peaceful and calming environment!"

I went straight ahead towards our founder to greet him. With the intention of an intellectual chit-chat as I go. Alas! I end up giving an interview for the post. I was in bewilderment. Sandeep Sir asked me about learning; how do children learn?; what is the joy of learning; what can we do to spread it in our schools?

Amidst answering a few of them, I went blank for a few minutes. Firstly, I had no clue that I would be at the trigger point for the interview. Geetankshi told me otherwise. Secondly, It was an interview. Jeez, my heart was palpating. I was feeling so nervous. One could have seen my arm-hair twitch. 

The interview was over. I felt the sluggishness under my skin. Sir told me about 'My Good School', its vision, Learning Forward India, etc. And soon after, I found my heartbeats slowing down and healing. It was Sandeep Sir, and what he said at the end, "So, this is what we do. Now you are a Fellow at My Good School. Welcome. अब तो मुझसे डर नहीं लग रहा, ना?"

I called the visit 'A Venture'. 

And what a venture it was!

Have you ever 'Bungee Jumped'?

The nervousness and the feeling of hollowness in your stomach you get before jumping off the cliff is what I felt during the interview. And the power you have felt in your gut after accomplishing the task, that same power I felt after his words. And thus, I felt at home at that moment. The acceptance I got as an individual on my own was so pure. I was so happy, felt so content and thankful to god. The feeling was unforgettable.

I have always thought of being a part of such a generous vision. And getting an opportunity to work for 'Joy Of Learning' at 'My Good School' with such a fabulous team is the most 'beatific feeling' I had in so long.

I feel I am in the right place. 

Thank you so much, Sir. 🙏

~Unnati Dabral 🌻

(Fellow at My Good School)

Honesty - Arav Agarwal

Honesty for me means being authentic and being who I am.

Whenever I feel that I should not tell the truth, I just ask myself, do I want to live peacefully or in fear. If we say a lie, we feel regret, and then our minds cannot live peacefully. Being honest has helped me get many opportunities for my growth because of my teachers, coaches, friends, and parents' trust and confidence in me. I also get a good feeling and calmness in my mind by being honest.

I have listened to many stories on honesty since my childhood and many parents' experiences where being honest has helped them in life. Even my experience of being open and getting appreciation from my teachers and parents has made me more confident and courageous to always be truthful and honest in life.

So, we should always keep in mind that practising honesty will take us ahead in the future. By being honest, we are only being true to ourselves.

Name: Arav Agarwal
Grade: 5C
Billabong High International School, Thane

Experience - Jyotirmay Nag

When my teacher told me to do a short role-play of our real hero and a great freedom fighter Chandra Shekhar Azad to celebrate our 75th Independence Day, I became very excited as he is the true example of freedom and inspiration of millions of Indians. 

We can never forget his sacrifice for our country. He loved his country more than anything. I was glad to play a short role-play with such a great person. I learnt the dialogues and practised with my teacher through voice calls and video calls.

My grandmother and my mother helped me to dress up and to make the video. It was such a wonderful experience for me. We all should remember the sacrifices of our freedom fighters as because of them, we are enjoying our freedom today.

We should never do things that harm our country. We must think of how we can make our country more beautiful and a peaceful place to live.

Jyotirmay Nag

Class V

The Fabindia School

Holding on my Head - Meenakshi Choudhary

I am holding on to my head

Mountain of expectations

Walking on the path of my life

With boundaries of relations

My balloon of love was ruptured

By religion and culture

My life is pointless and boring

With nothing to nurture

The world is running

For the rain of the fame

For their own mistakes

They just want someone to blame

I just ignored them all

When I should have fought with them

But I wasn't knowing

They play this filthy game

Within no time

I was now left in shame

No one even bothered

To come and feel my pain

Now I am jobless

Waiting for a hopeful ring

What's left in me

Is just a confused being

This world to me

is like a roofless home in summers,

At nights I feel peaceful,

and whole day sun hammers

It has windows, walls doors

To divide me from others

Nothing we talk rather

Then just useless matters

With jealousy of others

my windows shatter

I don't have a lover,

so I don't care about the haters

I end my beer bottles

Till I burst my bladders

I sing all songs in blabbers

Coz for me, nothing matters.

Meenakshi Choudhary

Class - XII Science     

The Fabindia School