Feedback Thoughts

As I read Using Harsh Feedback to Fuel Your Career by William Treseder and Why rejection hurts so much-and what to do about it by Guy Winch, I understood how feedback really changes the way a person receives it. Most of us love positive feedbacks, but when we get negative feedback we feel aggressive or attacked. It is common to feel such way at the beginning. Treseder shows us how to take in the negative feedback and use it for the growth. First thing a person should do is Embrace the emotions you feel when you receive the feedback, then think about it calmly to see how it could benefit you, and then commit to the changes you have to make. I like how Winch also explained in his article of why rejection hurts us so much. It was an interesting read especially since we all face rejection, whether it is our personal relationships or professional. He says not to over criticize yourself, boost your self-worth by making lists of things that you have to offer and to boost feelings of social connections. However, I do not think that it works all the time. I think if you criticize yourself, then it helps you to work harder. It makes you want to change, whatever the thing you have been critiqued on. Boosting your self esteem defiantly does help you from hurting, but you have to think that pain is temporary and growth is forever. It does hurt when someone makes a negative comment on you, especially when it comes from your loved ones, but if you do not improve then what is the point of making a list of all the qualities you have to offer. The pain is going to hurt, but if  you work on your weaknesses it will only help you grow and get further in life. Lastly, he talks about making social connections when you feel left out, like if you are not invited to an event that most of your friends are invited to, go with other group of people to different events. As humans I agree that we all do have a need "to belong"whether that's with friends, colleagues, or family. However, we are not always guaranteed that especially if the person is anti-social or if they only have few friends. We do feel neglected when the closest to us deceives us, but to solve that I think you should distract yourself from hurting by picking up different hobbies, that can help you improve. Calmly examine the situation to see if it's worth fixing it and just try making new friendships by joining different clubs.

Positive outlook on negative comments 

Image: Cheezburger

Topic Brainstorm

Lord Krishna with his mother 

Image: Commons

Reincarnation:

This topic would be something that I would be interested to write about. Throughout the epics of Hinduism, we learn that many gods and goddesses are reincarnated from previous lives. For example, many believe that Lord Krishna and Lord Rama are all incarnated form of Lord vishnu. I would like to understand the cycle of rebirth and how it all relates to the Karma, Moksha, Samsara and Nirvana. I have basic understanding to the theory of reincarnation, but I would like to further ponder on why it's part of the religion. 

Mahabharata:

I have previous knowledge of Mahabharata, which makes me more interested to read and write about the fights and wisdom that is given inside the book. Lord Krishna's birth and his childhood is one of my favorite stories from here so I would love to understand more about it and make my project over it. The war is also one of the most important epic battle for Hinduism, how Krishna guides Arjuna through out it really interesting. I have forgotten some details about it so I would love to refresh my memory over it.

Saraswati:

Saraswati is known to be a goddess of wisdom. It is said that she was created by Lord Brahma from a river. I do not have that much information on how she got to be known as the goddess of wisdom and learning. I would like to read about the birth and how she was known to be by doing the research. It will not only help me gain some knowledge, but also get me to write about my findings.

Food and Festivals:

Hinduism has lots of festivals, some that even last nine days. I can talk about all the festivals and the foods that are served with them. Also, help give meaning behind why the foods are related to the each particular festival. I celebrate almost all of festivals here since I am from a Hindu religion background. This project would be fun to correlate it with my experiences for each festivals. 

Week two story: Two athletes and a Freshman

A football player showing his next move

Football Image

It was time for college to start again and all the upcoming freshman's were excited to experience their college life. One day, one of the freshman was lost looking for a Dale Hall and ran into two football players. He overheard many people talking how great it is to be a student athlete at the University, how they get access to anything for free so he tried asking them questions about the university and the classrooms. Which eventually lead to asking questions about student life and the night life.

"What is there to do at night around here" said the Freshman.

"There are lots of interesting scenes around here, if you want to meet lot of higher end people you need to go to an all exclusive party" said one of the football player.

"We will invite you to this all exclusive party full of athletes, you might be able to meet your dream start there too" said the other football player.

"There is one restriction, you have to keep this low and not tell anyone" said the first football player.

"I promise, I will keep it low, thank you for the invite" said the freshman.

"When you come to the tower, just call us to get you inside the party and make sure you do not tell anyone about it" said the football players. 

It was the first week of college, and the freshman was excited to get an all exclusive invite to an awesome party. He could not wait to get to the party. Slowly it was getting to him from keeping down his excitement. By the end of the day he had told his whole floor mates about the party and many more. The news was spread to so many people that there were around thousands of people trying to go to the party. 

The freshman showed up to the party and just few inches behind him there were many others.

"We told you to keep this all exclusive party low" said one of the football player 

"You are not allowed to get in anymore" said the other freshman 

So at the end all the freshman's started going home, but that one freshman, who told everyone about the party. The freshman went to the party again and met up with the football players to say sorry. The football players were so angry that they just beat him up and the freshman returned to his dorm with a black eye.

Author's Note:

This story was based of The Turtle and The Geese, which was about the turtle being able to fly. The story started with the geese inviting the turtle to the dinner and the turtle asked them how he was going to get there since he can not fly. The geese told him, we will make it possible but all you have to do is keep your mouth shut. The turtle agreed, however he opened his mouth when others were making fun of him so he fell to the ground and died. I wanted to recreated the story but in a different perspective so I made it more college related.

Bibliography: "The Turtle and the Geese" Jataka Tales  by Ellen C. Babbitt, Text

Reading Notes: Rabbit and Cranes

I read all the stories in Jataka Anthology, the ones that I liked the best were The Foolish, Timid Rabbit and The Cunning Crane and the Crab. I liked them because they were short stories that had many insights to it. In my first choice, that one rabbit is dreaming about something he does not want to happen and then when he hears a coconut fall he believes the world is falling apart without even checking what is happening he runs and pulls other people into his belief until he is stopped by a brave lion. It was an interesting story because we all have fears and think about what would happen if the fear came to reality. Many people do not pursue their dreams due to the fears and they come up with many absurd reasons for not doing so. Some people believe their reasoning and then the one, who is brave shows them that their analogy is wrong and stir them into trying the things that they feared. In the second story, the lesson was not to open your mouth too much. The turtle wanted to fly and cranes were helping him, but all he had to do was keep his mouth shut. However, when he hears other animals talking bad about him, he opens his mouth and falls to the ground. The story tells us not only to think twice before speaking, but also to block out all the negative comments we get from around us and truly enjoy the things that makes us happy. 

Turtle living a carefree life 

Turtle

Reading Options

I am excited to read the comic folktales mostly because I used to read them when I was little and really enjoyed them. The one that excited me the most was The Giant and the Dwarf and The Gentle Wisdom of the Jataka. Those comic books look interesting because they seem familiar and also because most of them have an underlying meanings at the end of the story. It is fun to read the folktales and see what wisdom you can learn from it. Another book that I am excited to read about is Mahabharata, because I have seen the whole series before and it intrigued me. I like the stories of Lord Krishna and how he lived his life to guide others to the right path. I am excited to explore more into the stories and learn about them.

Folktale
Amar Chitra Katha