Monday, October 4, 2010

Discovery of self

Studying psychology helps not only to understand the psyche of others, but also your own self. I remember being very curious in the First year to interpret my results of the psychological test that we take in our experimental class. It helped me ascertain certain characteristics that I possess and confirm the rest. When I sat to take up the test this year, little did I know there would be a significant difference in the results. Have I changed in less than year? Yes I have.

It came as a surprise to me initially, but then with every day, I realized my views/opinions had changed over the year. I didn’t have to complete the test and wait for the result, I knew even while attempting to answer those questions. I was quite aware of my answers – how I picked a different option from the last year. The tests aren’t the same, the questions are different but they intrinsically determine your trait. I was aware of the transformational journey I am enduring but to capture it in form of empirical results was quite revealing! The change within triggered off when I attended Level-1 Clinical Hypnosis course early this year and from then have been experiencing new realms.

In one of the lectures, my professor shared an interesting observation. He said when people meet after a long while and exchange pleasantries, we take pride when the other person remarks, “You haven’t changed a bit, you are just the same even after 10 long years.” He told us, if one doesn’t change it only implies he hasn’t grown and is still immature. It’s definitely a point to ponder, I was able to relate with his observation, and most of us do feel good about staying the way we are. Why don’t we like to grow? We tend to equate not changing to not having acquired any bad traits. Negative co-relation of events is the way human mind works; we have programmed ourselves to be so. Having not changed also means we have failed to progress! The question of whether the change has done you good/bad is a different implication to mull over. The willingness to change holds the key to transformation.

1 comment:

Vishnu Srinivasan said...

I'm not sure if the example used is fitting here. when you meet someone after a long time and they say - you've not changed a bit, I guess that comes from the pleasantries that they've exchanged and not in a tone which assess the person. I feel that "not changed a bit" is fair enough. However, the point of "not changed a bit" in a general connotation and the points that you've written does make me think ! Probably - you're right.