“Never underestimate yourself”- 13 November 2016.

XYZ

Q. I am a 44 year-old woman. I work as a high school teacher and I’m wanting to do M.A. in English literature. I’m facing the problem of lack of confidence maybe because of my age. But there is also a factor from my past-My parents said that I was dull and couldn’t make any progress in studies, they put such things in my mind. It still has a strong impact on my mind. Although I’d completed my first post-graduate degree with First Class in my youth, I can’t seem to have gathered the confidence yet. I was unable to pursue further education before this due to certain reasons. Please suggest some tips regarding memory boosting and improving my self confidence.

Ans. You are at a matured age and should have developed your confidence by now. Education is each one’s prerogative and nobody can be denied it. If you see around you will see people enrolling in further studies even after retirement and starting a new activity with it. Please go ahead and enrol yourself in the M.A English literature course and start studying it. If you find difficulty at some level you can take coaching or tutoring from a good teacher and proceed ahead. Giving it a good try is always worth it. Sitting at home and fretting at it and thinking negative will not help. You say that you passed with first class in your earlier post graduate programme. It seems you are underestimating yourself and brooding on negativity. Calm your mind, think positive about your talent and abilities and go ahead. The proof lies in doing it and judging yourself and not on the opinion of others even if it is your mother.

AB

Q. I have been stressed out for the past few days and I don’t know what to do. I can’t concentrate on my studies and I have even stopped eating. At times I feel like committing suicide too. I keep getting lot of bad thoughts which I shouldn’t and I’m really stressed out about it and at times I just feel like I should die. I am not sure about anything in my life anymore. I’m not even interested in my stream and want to change my course. I don’t even have many friends cause I’m scared they will make fun of me. Please guide me and tell me what to do.

Ans. This is serious and my sincere advice to you would be to seek counselling immediately. Take help of a friend or a relative and go for counselling. You seem to be depressed for some reasons. You have negative and shameful /troublesome thoughts and are stressed due to it. Your studies are affected as well as your appetite which is a bad sign. You also mention suicidal thoughts that keep flooding your mind. Please do not delay and take help as soon as possible. You will feel good and will recover fast.

SG

Q. I am in the final year of B.E, now I want to carry my masters Degree in the field of psychology. Is it possible madam? I like helping people and they confide in me. They trust me very much and I enjoy doing it in college. I have heard a lot about you and your work as an inspirational leader for many of us.

Ans. This is a strange case of misguided career making. Alternately it is also nice to know that you have found what you enjoy doing and want to take a degree in it. There are colleges that allow post graduation in psychology after graduation in any field. This means that even without psychology at the undergraduate level you can enrol for the PG course. According to my knowledge the colleges that offer quality education in psychology do not offer this facility of enrolling for PG without UG course in psychology. Distance education centres offer PG in psychology without psychology in UG. You could try IGNOU or YCMOU and judge the quality for yourself. Another alternative could be to do an MBA with HR or a diploma in training and development which has large components of psychology. The choice depends upon your specific goal in the field of psychology- to keep it as a hobby or make a full time career out of it. That would decide how you proceed.

 

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *