Thursday, July 24, 2014

Getting Under The Skin Of A Persona With Maheshwari Jani

On Saturday 5th July 2014, Maheshwari Jani, experienced behaviour analyst and master of Neuro-Linguistic Programming, presented her ninth session at SHAFA HOME, Delhi. Today’s session aimed at eviscerating the inner bowels of the human psyche to explore the formation of individual’s multi-faceted personality.
We were asked to consider what ingredients go into the blend of personality formation. From dynamic discussion we learnt how our temperament and behaviours are shaped by various intrinsic and extraneous factors like our environment, our upbringing, social role, our personal judgements amongst a multitude of other factors. We discussed how in active addiction, we had made corrosive and poisonous judgements of ourselves which had a knock-on effect on our personality. Since we rendered ourselves as ‘parasites of society’; we were unable to muster up courage and faith that we could behave positively. Addicts have a “broken” personality; but rest assured this can be rebuilt with self-love, time and dedication to behave differently.
Maheshwari Ji entered and briefed us with the day’s topic. Many residents were obviously quite pleased with the subject. At SHAFA HOME, our personal growth is heavily linked with personality development. Armed with their memories of the past, every resident had a roundabout idea of their working points; the clear majority knew what needed to be brushed up, modified and enhanced. The key question was did they currently possess the discipline, patience and heartfelt commitment to take the necessary steps? Yes, it seemed so!

Ms. Mahi fronted us with a fantastically odd question...were we monkeys, lions or owls? This was the first exercise of the morning. Based on a 1950’s psychological model of behaviour response, this task focused our residents to find similarities of character with the traits of these three animals. The key message conveyed was that an appealing personality type balances and harmonises different contrasting traits The purpose of this task was to consider the strengths and working areas of our current personality in order to acknowledge what areas can be improved.
An effective personality not only works on internal balance and adaptation of personal style. It also works on such principles such as ‘emotional intelligence’. We need to become ‘emotionally savvy’ i.e. being emotionally intelligent to express ourselves without offending others. Individual needs to balance their level of enthusiasm without bordering on hyperactivity, seriousness without bordering on misery etc.
After considering winning personality traits, we were then asked to consider society’s best orators. We discussed celebrities, politicians, actors, authors...and realised that whatever spark Narendra Modi, Chetan Bhagat or Rakhi Sawant seemed to possess inside them, we surely had too. The only issue is that it was simply a matter of rummaging inside ourselves to unearth that pizzazz. Social orators go through daily practise to hone their communicative skills. Ours were a little rusty to be fairly honest...nonetheless; it was nothing that a little practise couldn’t fix!
Roll on the second activity of the morning – The ‘Thematic Appreciation Test’. This test is used by Human Resource personnel in the recruitment process for the military, government factions, world-wide business conglomerations. Our residents viewed a series of six monochrome images depicting different scenes of life and different emotional states. They then individually volunteered to come before the rest of the residents and present a five minute discourse on what they felt was being expressed in the picture.
This fantastic exercise tested our resident’s speaking skills and creative ability. The way some of our boys eloquently expressed themselves honestly blew us away...many of them are astoundingly sharp, intellectual and highly inventive fellows indeed. Whatever they had learned in previous sessions regarding successful communication was certainly incorporated today. Their ability to engage and entertain us all was superb. Hats off to them!                   
From everyone at SHAFA HOME, our ongoing thanks goes to Ms. Maheshwari Jani for presenting another superb session for our residents and staff members!




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