Week 13 Growth Mindset: Harnessing Stress

This week I took a look at the article: How Harnessing the Positive Side of Stress Can Change Student Mindsets by Katrina Schwartz and also the TED talks video: How to Make Stress Your Friend by Kelly McGonigal.

The subject of stress and how I deal with it is very interesting to me. I find that I can become paralyzed by large amounts of stress, which negatively affects my academic performance. I have always been led to believe that stress is damaging to our health, but after reading this article and watching the video I came to realize that stress can be used as a tool to rise to a challenge.

It is believed that just changing your mindset about stress can help you to live a longer, more fulfilling life. People that view stress as bad for their health showed a much higher risk of dying than people that viewed health as a tool.

I have dealt with various levels of stress throughout my time in the Army and through sports, but the times that I overcame the negative effects of it were when I felt confident in my abilities to address the situation. I was able to harness the rush of adrenaline and make clear headed choices and actions. The countless hours of preparation gave me confidence.

For some reason, harnessing stress in the world of academia is not as easy for me. I know I spend a lot of time studying, but every now and then I freeze up due to anxiety. This article and video gave me some great advice on how to think about my responses to stress when I feel the negative effects consuming me.

By changing my mindset about stress, I believe that I can more effectively deal with my anxiety and perform at my best, even in the most stressful situation. I highly recommend reading this article and watching the video. Below I have embedded the video. Check it out!

How to Make Stress Your Friend by Kelly McGonigal

Week 13 Reading Diary: The Mahabharata by Peter Brooks

This week I chose to watch The Mahabharata by Peter Brooks. I began watching this film at the start of the war. The links to this film are not accurate, but I kept thinking it may have just been a change up from the original story. I turned out to be wrong, so I watched the second half instead of the first half. Either way, I am pretty familiar with the Mahabharata from the previous readings.

My favorite part of the Mahabharata actually happens to be the war, so this was a welcome surprise. I was thinking the whole time about a story that would involve the loss of someone close and the effects that it would have on someone. Arjuna turns is infuriated and the loss of his son motivates him to carry on with the war, but Drona is just told that his son has died and he is unable to go on with life, let alone the war. Bhima also loses his son in the war and he grieves for a time, but then it just shows him going on like nothing happened. I suppose people grieve in different ways.

I also really like the character Ghatotkacha, who was Bhima's half-rakshasa son. Ghatotkacha has many powers and that make him a huge threat to Karna and his side of the war. Ghatotkacha would have won the war if Karna hadn't been forced to use his invincible dart that was given to him by Indra. I think I would like to write a whole story just about him.

Source: Ghatotkacha being killed by Karna

Growth Mindset: Multiple Intelligences

I have encountered the concept of multiple intelligences before, but it was refreshing to see it explained through a comic. After watching the short video about Multiple Intelligences by Marek Bennett, I learned that Howard Gardner and other researchers pioneered this concept. They concluded that there are 8 different intelligences, which include: linguistic, logical-mathematical, visual-spatial, bodily-kinesthetic, musical, interpersonal, and naturalistic.

Multiple Intelligences by Marek Bennett

I have often heard that people learn in different ways and I always thought that I am more of a kinesthetic learner, meaning that I like to be hands-on. My favorite part of the video was the quote "While the linguistic and mathematical intelligences are important in their own right, they function most strongly in combination with other intelligences." I feel like a premium is placed on these two intelligences in the academic setting, especially in my chosen field of study, and this decreases the proficiency in the other intelligences. This video was a great reminder that we should focus on expanding and using all intelligences and not let certain ones dominate our lives.

Learning Challenge: Single Tasking

This week I did a Learn by H.E.A.R.T. challenge that focused on attention. Multitasking seems to be the norm, and sometimes expected, for people these days. I always find myself working on a wide assortment of things at one time, and it can turn out to be pretty stressful. After watching the funny video Single-Tasking is the New Multitasking by James Hamblin, I found a great way to focus on one thing at a time. The narrator said he used "Tabless Thursdays" to focus on a single task and not be distracted by other things. "Tabless Thursdays" work by only having one tab on your browser open at a time. I think this would be nice to try every now and then because I tend to switch between tabs a lot and end up not getting much done. Even now I have six tabs and a few PDFs open! Maybe this technique will help me finish a task and not get so distracted.

 

Interior Life by Grant Snider

Week 12 Storytelling: Valmiki's Explaination

“It wasn’t even my fault”, sighed Sita with her head falling to her hands.

“I know my dear child, but you have to try and see things from his point of view”, replied a stoic Valmiki.

“And just what point of view is that? A coward’s?! Someone who cannot listen to his heart for fear of ruining his reputation?”

Sita is shaking with thoughts of the wrong that has been done to her.

“I proved myself to have remained faithful to Rama already. I allowed a fire to engulf my body to show my devotion to him. Agni did not allow the fires to harm me, because even he agreed that I had unwaveringly remained true.”

Source: Sita protected by Agni

Sita was now pacing back and forth, tears beginning to well in her eyes. Valmiki slowly rises to his feet and embraces the distraught girl in his long, wiry arms.

“Calm down Sita. Rama must provide leadership for the kingdom above all else. If his people do not respect him, then he cannot be an effective leader and the kingdom would surely fall into chaos.” 

Valmiki leans Sita away from him in order to look into her tear-filled eyes.

“Wouldn’t you say that all the lives in Ayodhya outweigh the hopes and wishes of one individual?”

Source: Ayodhya

Sita wipes away a few tears that have made their way down her cheek.

“I suppose you are right, wise one. But why did he even come to save me from the evil Ravana if he was just going to treat me this way? It seems like he went through all of this trouble and sacrificed so many lives to retrieve me from my captor, and yet he cast me aside like I willingly betrayed him!”

Sita is sobbing uncontrollably now. Nothing Valmiki says or does has any effect on the hysteric girl. 

Finally, Valmiki shakes Sita with a quick jolt and shares with her a secret.

“Have you ever wondered why the gods look so favorably upon Rama?”

Sita is puzzled by this question. She had often wondered why Rama always seemed to have the grace of the gods. She gave the only answer that she could think of:

“It is because he has led such a virtuous life, and the gods respect a man that can put others before himself.”

“This is partly true, but the real reason the gods love Rama is because he is a god himself. Rama is actually a reincarnation of Vishnu!”

Sita dropped to the ground in disbelief, but it all seemed to be so clear to her now.

“Yes, your dear Rama is actually the supreme being in human form. He came to Earth to guide us mortals to a more prosperous future. Who are you to question the actions of Vishnu? Are you so certain that you know better than the god of gods?”

The shock always remained with Sita, but she had finally found solace. 

Bibliography:

Sita Sings the Blues by Nina Paley (2008)

PDE Ramayana

Author's Note:

Something that really bothered me about the Ramayana was how cold Rama was towards Sita in the end. He went through so much trouble to get Sita back from Ravana, only to doubt her purity. Sita even goes through a trial by fire to show that she was devoted to Rama. Agni does not allow the flames to harm Sita, because she was indeed always faithful to Rama. Even after this, Rama's subjects do not believe Sita and say that she is tarnished by living in another man's house. Rama banishes Sita to the forest to save face with his subjects where Sita meets up with Valmiki. Apparently Valmiki writes the Ramayana based off of the stories that Sita tells him. 

In this story, I wanted to show my frustrations with how Sita was treated by Rama by having her question his ethics. Valmiki plays the role of mediator and tells Sita the truth about Rama's origins. This was the only logical explanation I could come up with about why Sita would ever be ok with how she was treated. After all, who can question the supreme god?

Week 12 Reading Diary, Continued: Sita Sings the Blues by Nina Paley

For this post I finished the film Sita Sings the Blues by Nina Paley. This was much shorter than the first portion of the film, but it was still interesting.

I continued to enjoy the humor that was randomly injected into both the narration and the animation. I finally came to realize that the break-aways to Dave and Nina were supposed to be a reflection of how Sita gave her all to Rama but he still rejected her. I was pretty sad for Nina and I hope this did not happen to her in real life.

Anyways, Nina found comfort in reading the Ramayana because such a similar situation occurred to her as did to Sita. I may have forgot, but I think I learned that Sita told the stories of the Ramayana to Valmiki when she came across him during her exile with her twin sons.

The best story to come out of this portion was the one where Sita asks to be reclaimed by the Earth if she had always been true to Rama. I just cannot believe that Rama, who was supposed to be so virtuous, always doubted his one true love. Sita was reclaimed by the Mother Earth because she, as any rational person would know, had been always faithful to Rama. Rama was deservedly crushed by losing Sita once and for all.

I'm just baffled that Rama went through all the trouble to get Sita back if he was always going to distrust her. Seems like a lot of trouble to be that cold-hearted in the end.

I think a good story would be to use this doubtful attitude towards a loved one followed by that person losing them forever.

Source: Sita with Valmiki

Week 12 Reading Diary: Sita Sings the Blues by Nina Paley

This week I started watching Nina Paley's film, Sita Sings the Blues. This was an animated film that focuses on the Ramayana.

I really enjoyed the narrators arguing and trying to remember certain stories about the Ramayana. It sounded like each of them had been told these stories while they were growing up, but they could not remember all of the details about them.

It has been a little while since I have read the Ramayana, so this was a good refresher for me. The best part of the film for me so far was the retelling of how Hanuman went to Lanka to find Sita. I learned that Hanuman was actually a reincarnation of Shiva, sent to help the reincarnation of Vishnu, Rama. The story didn't mention the part where Hanuman burnt the city of Lanka with his burning tail, but it did show Hanuman doing so in the animation.

Source: Hanuman burning down the city of Lanka 

At this time I do not know why the film keeps cutting back to the couple with the cat. The guy moves away to India for a contract job and the girl leaves their apartment to go live with him. He acts very cold towards her when she arrives. I'm not sure how this is going to tie into the Ramayana, but I guess I will figure that out in the second half of the film.

There were plenty of gory scenes where Rama decapitated and dismembered the rakshasas. Rama shot arrows at two rows of rakshasas during one of the songs Sita was singing, which caused fountains of blood to cascade around them.

I really like the humor that is going on throughout the film so far. The dramatic music playing with Ravana's mouth gaping after Sita says she will never be his wife and Rama was going to come and kill him.