The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Coimbatore News : ‘Learning takes place only when we are relaxed’

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Tamil Nadu - Coimbatore

‘Learning takes place only when we are relaxed’

Staff Reporter

Stress arises when our expectation and reality do not match, teachers told

Photo: K. Ananthan

Informative talk: Director of Relations Institute of Development C. Surya Prakash addressing a workshop on ’ Managing Stress in Classrooms’ organised by The Hindu - Newspaper in Education at CMS Higher Secondary School in Coimbatore on Friday. —

Coimbatore: “Learning takes place not when under stress but when we are relaxed,” said C. Suryaprakash, Director and Facilitator of The Stress Management Workshop conducted for teachers at the CMS Matriculation School here on Saturday.

Organisers

The event was organised by The Hindu – Newspaper in Education.

Teachers from Dharma Sastra School, APG Matriculation School and Kumaraswamy Matriculation School were also a part of this programme.

Mr. Suryaprakash pointed out that stress arises due to need of recognition and when our expectation and reality do not match.

Identity

He said, “Our identity is defined by our relationship. If we can improve the quality of our relationship stress can be reduced.”

He also mentioned about the positive, negative and no stroke; whereby stroke meant touch or words said.

In an interactive session when the teachers were asked to define stress, the common answers were work overload, difficulty in tackling problems and confusion.

Mr. Suryaprakash explained two kinds of stress: ‘eustress’ that is functional stress and ‘distress’ that is exceeding of stress.

Recognition helps in reducing the amount of stress that builds up. He came up with three principles of recognition, “We get what we give”, “Negative stroke is better than no stroke” and “Any behaviour that is stroked or recognized gets reinforced.”

Mr. Suryaprakash emphasized that the way to bring about change is by ignoring negative behaviour and encouraging positive ones.

The workshop came to a conclusion with an exercise for the participants on giving, asking and stroking yourself positively.

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