About Srijan (Psychology) of Aryabhatta College
SRIJAN, the student association and academic society of the Department of Psychology, Aryabhatta College was inaugurated on the 5th of September, 2016. The name was derived from the Sanskrit word “Srij” which means “getting to the root and creating something unique”. The association is a platform to create opportunities for self-development.
Since it’s inception, the society has made a point to celebrate Mental Health Awareness Week (MHAW) in October every year to spread awareness about mental health and an annual PSYGALA event, a departmental festival to celebrate the discipline of Psychology. The Department also comes out with an annual magazine “SRIJAN” which consists of curated works by students and faculties. Under the Faculty In-charge of the society and along with the elected student officer bearers, the society conducts various scholarly and extracurricular events in and for the Department of Psychology like seminars, webinars, workshops, freshers’, farewells etc.
SRIJAN also stands for leadership in spreading awareness about mental well-being by truly endorsing the value of a healthy mind. It will continue to work with the same spirit of enhancing the image of the department based on inclusive leadership, strengthening identity of the discipline, and overall dedication to human development.
EVENTS
WEBINAR SERIES ON MENTAL HEALTH DURING COVID 19 LOCKDOWN
The department of psychology, Aryabhatta College, University of Delhi, organized a webinar series for the students and faculties of the college to help them through their journey to keep check of their mental and emotional health.
1. On 20th May 2020: “How to manage your emotions in lockdown” by Dr. Garima Srivastava – She emphasized on giving space to all emotions during her talk and also discussed the uncertainties and trauma brought by Pandemic. She also pointed out that we need to manage our life and our emotions, not control it or get rid of it. We can’t do that as they are a permanent part of us. She divided the methods to manage emotions into two categories- internal and external. Internal techniques mainly include breathing and Stop technique. External techniques focus on methods like scheduling your time including even time for thinking and talking about situations among other activities, exercises, and making gratitude jar to remind us of the thing we are grateful for in our life.
2. On 21st May 2020 – “Boredom and Our Selves Amidst Lockdown” by Ms Thankgbiakching – She started the session by talking about Self and as we knew about it. While we consider ‘self’ as something we know about ourselves, she mentioned that all of us carry different ‘selves’ inside us and show them in different situations at different times. This lockdown altered our regular lifestyle, something we were really habitual to at a time and the sudden, surprising change caused a great deal of stress on people’s mental health. She emphasized that the various selves existing in a person were affected by it because the work and activities that used to keep them occupied throughout the day found them suddenly useless.
3. On 29th May 2020 : “Psychological restoration” by Ms. Soshomi Makang – the session – began by stating that restoration is something that happens to us regularly. We tend to recover from relationships, from our anger, illness, trauma, addiction, and literally everything. She explained that restoration is the process of renewing our physical, psychological and social resources that diminish when we try to adapt with daily needs. She highlighted that there are resources in us that lie dormant, because we are bound by routines. She explained through her lecture about the three areas where restoration can be applied – environment, brain and morale.
4. On 8th June 2020: “Engaging the Shadow in Times of Corona” by Ms. Nitika Kumar – The session began with a story and the relevance and importance of stories as a symbolic medicine for our psyche. She weaved the explanations and importance of shadow work into the session. Shadow, a cardinal aspect of Jungian psychology, associated with the concept of“wholeness” of humans, was an extremely intriguing concept; just like everything luminescent casts a shadow, similarly, humans with their light of consciousness also have shadows and that’s what makes them whole— the light and the shadow.
5. On 4th July 2020: “Its my Life” by Dr Vinay Kumar – He focused on three important aspects that are life, liberty and pursuit of happiness. He also pointed out that if we all do our duties then we won’t have to talk about ‘right’ to life because it will be automatically available to us. He talked about how we’re entangled in the cultural structures and how the“It’s my life” theory has made us self-centered. He related it to Narcissistic Personality Disorder wherein people have an inflated sense of self- importance. They tend to give a lot of importance to their own thoughts and sayings and may complain about not getting enough attention and admiration.
6. On 11th July 2020: “Mental Health and Wellbeing: Current Concerns” by Prof Girishwar Misra and “Pandemic an opportunity to rethink self and social identity” by Prof. Anand Prakash – Prof. Mishra enlightened the participants about the mental health concerns concerning the current covid 19 situations from a social and cultural psychology perspective. The two webinars were seamlessly woven together as the topics were of similar nature. Prof. Prakash explained different gradual stages of reaction to the situation, as at the beginning people were in denial. Later it changed to a state of anger and now we are in the state of negotiation, where we are learning to live with it in a balance. He explained the perspectives of the inner and outer world through a mythological story of race between Ganesha and Kartika to revolve around the whole world three times.
7. On 15th July 2020 – “Post COVID-19: EQ Paradigm”, Prof. N.K. Chadha – The discussion revolved around the topics of anxiety, feeling of restlessness and constant worry due to the lockdown and seeing the rising number of cases all over the country. Professor N.K. Chadha explained about times of hardship, not just financial and economic challenges but also personal. Prof. Chadha briefed the students about the strength of Emotional intelligence – the ability to judge and understand your own emotions, know their strength as well as understand the emotions and feelings of other people.
