Reflection-Story-telling

Challenge and selection:

Story-telling suits my profession very well. I work as the  Head of Department for the  National scouts and guides  (for boys and girls) which is  essentially know for its excellence in  moulding the younger generation into quality development  and contributing  to education  of youth through a value system based on prepared laws . My profession is to motivate and  inspire students to be a part of this and a few times it requires us to fill the students with  motivation and dig up the areas which prick their confidence. Eventually  taking  responsibility for the processes, accommodation, looking after student activities , teaching  them disaster management, making tools through forest resources,   is my job .I meet  thousands of students every year.  Story telling technique always works best for this case  since students can relate themselves with it and find their dose of encouragement through  the characters in the stories. Often students come up with problems which they are hesitant  to share with their parents and strive to gain independence  and fall in to doubts . Through  stories , a bond with students is created through which they open up and revert back to  being well rounded individuals.

Application:

I have had experience about story telling. In discussing career options and goals and trying  to make them open up to explore new branches and opportunities  by setting up  workshops, its important to impose special attention to their personal problems and know   what’s making  them  diverting  themselves (be it wontedly or unwontedly , by force or  consent ) from their dream. I always used to list out inspirational stories of people who were  successful in life through their talent and dedication. One of the students was always rigid  and serious with his behaviour and was quite silent .  He  looked like he was hiding a huge  amount of pain. I reached out to him. I spent many hours giving him company and  understood what kind of pressure he is facing from his parents who expect more and more  from him , eventually discouraging him, even for his achievements since they are not that  huge when compared to his friends. He was devoid of encouragement when he scored  second in his class and his parents were unhappy with him for the fact that he wasn’t the  first ranker and many cases which are similar to this . He expressed the fact that he didn’t  wanted to be a part of the scouting and guiding program , but still his  parents wanted him  to be here. He was in vain that he would never be able to satisfy his parents. I wanted him  to feel me as a friend so that he could dig up the pain and release it from his heavy heart.

Insight & Approach:

It was emotional . Clearly , I understood that he would feel better if he had known that he is  not alone. Hence I came up with my friend’s experience which was of similar result. I told  him how frightening it was when my friend went through anxiety attacks when her parents  wanted extreme best from her. I explained him how my friend went  quitting her food to  save time for her academic life was saddening. I told him that  when things escalated to  extreme , she had to be in hospital for the stress and low sugar-blood levels (due to quitting  food) which  shattered her parents life immensely. I told him that the consequence of  expecting more from a child, was very well understood by her parents after a detailed  counselling by the therapist .I concluded with the fact that her parents understood that  wanting their child  to over-achieve, was a fault  and after that , they  stopped doing that  and encouraged their child’s natural speed. After knowing this, he was happy and satisfied  to realize that he got saved from the consequences.

This story gave him the push  to be himself and not be influenced by people’s expectations  and relieved him from his sadness. I also talked to his parents and told the same story. It  was all good and happy.

Sometimes stories help us feel that we are not alone and implicitly give us solutions to our  problems  and allow us to take guidance from the experienced.

After that , I used to tell my students about this scenario  and make them feel  comfortable.

I explained this whole scenario  in many events and workshops in latter  courses and also  continued the approach of personal attachment by assigning a counsellor to every 10  students . This propagated better attachment and  reduction in vulnerability , eventually in  my succeeding camps.

When the case is about attachment and understanding  ,  story-telling is the best solution.  When the problem is not emotional  and related to forming innovative ideas, other  approaches like mind-mapping are applied.

I’am great full for the fact that my students approach me to find solution to a problem and  my responsibility of being  the head of department has been always exciting .

