What’s your perspective on happiness, how crucial do you feel happiness is for maintaining mental health? What are the little things that bring happiness to you?
I think happiness is equal to mental health. There’s no mental health without happiness, it is the ingredient which makes life worth living. If you really want to differentiate between living a life and just letting it pass by, just know that one can only live well with happiness or else, you're simply existing.
How do ensure that the school environment remains stress-free and positive for all?
I believe school has to be a happy place for all those who are a part of it in any way and so we keep doing various things here at the Palace School to ensure that our goal is being achieved. When the school reopened post lockdown, we realized that teachers were also going through so many stressors as a result of the Pandemic. We wanted to create a platform where not only the students, but everyone gets a space to be happy, while keeping in mind all the curricular loss that has taken place over the past two years. We started small and encouraged the children from the primary section to indulge in activities meant happiness to them, be it singing or dancing during their brunch tome, and their response was infectiously enthusiastic. We could see that there was so much joy all around and that’s when our counsellor Ms. Mansi Sharma came up with the idea that we should take it forward as 'Happiness Concert' on the occasion of Mental Health Day.
We also organized a donation drive, made successful with the joint efforts of our students and teachers. The students realized that there’s so much joy in giving, and I feel happiness and joy not only comes from within but are learned skills as well, that one can choose to exercise.
How do you face the challenges that these tasks pose and how do you take care of your mental health?
I believe challenges are a part of life and of course, there are times when I’m absolutely drained, but then I just remind myself that this too shall pass. Undoubtedly being a Principal is no easy task, but then it’s not just me who’s working; I have a team that never shies away from taking that extra step to do something in a better way. I'm not only grateful to them for sharing my load, but they also inspire me to be better!
To keep my mental health in check, I practice meditation everyday, as I believe I get nowhere without it. I also try being mindful and aware about my emotions, noticing how I feel in a stressful situation or if I am cool or anxious about something and keeping track of these.
How do you think that the challenges and issues faced by teachers, as well as students today, have changed or evolved with time?
One can see huge changes! I think now the education scenario is so dynamic and we are actually standing at the threshold of massive changes coming in the teaching-learning process. When I was a teacher, things were much simpler but now, there’s a lot of change in the working style, and with blended learning there’s more pressure on teachers, so the teaching methodologies and pedagogies have changed. We are now moving towards interdisciplinary teaching and there’s a lot of focus on competency based education, experiential learning, which require massive planning and collaborations.
In your journey as a principal, what are the solutions that you have come across to these challenges which can prove beneficial for everyone?
You just have to take care of your own self. If each one of us takes the responsibility of taking care of ourselves physically, mentally and emotionally, I think the world will be a better place and we’ll be better equipped to deal with anything that comes our way. We need to be adaptable, flexible and ready to change, and that’s what the pandemic has taught us. I believe that when you work there’ll be problems and whenever there are problems, they need to be discussed and resolved before we move ahead.
Would you like to give any message to fellow administrators, principals or even teachers and students?
I think one has to take the onus of one's own stability and happiness, until and unless you're not personally happy, you won't be able to create a happy environment for others. So everything begins and ends with the person. Only when I am at peace and happy with myself, can I create happiness and peace around myself. Only I am responsible for every good or bad thing that happens with my life. We should understand that it’s okay to fail and it’s okay to make mistakes. We need to be gentle and kind to ourselves, rather than being judgmental. In a tough situation, it is easy to throw the blame, but if you merely keep blaming people around you, you’ll end up facing the same situations again and again. So, sometimes to move forward, it’s important to take a step back and understand what went wrong. Only with acceptance, can we work towards improvement!
- In conversation with Ms. Nivedita Rajawat & Ms. Gargi Surana (For Pratinava)
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