Psychology

In Part 1 we introduced three fundamental strategies to set you on a successful course of action to master Stress Management. Here is a quick refresher: First, you determine your particular stressors. What specific things are causing you to feel chronically stressed every day? You can best observe this through regular journaling. Second, you identify any negative beliefs and values that may hinder your success in mastering Stress Management. We provide a list of common impediments. You determine these through consistent self-analysis. Third, you accept the reality that major changes do not happen in a day or a week. Mastering Stress Management is actually a lifelong practice. Stress Management becomes a way of life that helps you progressively improve your mental and physical health. As you create better beliefs, behaviors and thought patterns, the artful process of Stress Management reinforces itself.

In fact, Stress Management can be a fun game that you play with your inner self, as your consciously observe and remind yourself to implement these techniques. Today’s post centers on Practical Tips to help you master Stress Management. How to Master Stress Management Practical Tip #1: Try One, Try ’em All The fact is that there is no one “perfect formula” for fighting stress. The experience of stress is unique to you. The solution to stress is the one that feels right to you. Personally, I find deep tissue massage to be a very effective stress buffer. Somehow, stressful thoughts and feelings seem to float away. Stress buildup dissipates quickly and I feel really relaxed and good-spirited.  But that’s just me; deep tissue massage may not be so transformative for you. This is why it’s so important for people to seek out different methods to master Stress Management. Don’t limit yourself to only 1 or 2 possibilities.

If something is not working for you, it doesn’t mean that you lack the ability to manage your stress. It just means that you haven’t found the right combination of techniques to bring you to your desired level of relaxation and happiness. By the way, every blog post on this Stress Buffer website provides techniques, tips or tricks that have proven effective repeatedly in relieving and even eliminating stress. Check out our Categories, Posts, and Archives, in the side column, to discover golden nuggets that could change your life for the better. Practical Tip #2: Assemble Your Army, One by One Mastering Stress Management is winning a battle over bad habits and a myriad of stressors. What do you need to succeed in any battle? 004c An army, of course! But this is a peaceful army, your personal arsenal of relaxation techniques and behavioral modifications. You will learn these as you take steps toward your Stress Management success. Your personal arsenal must fit your lifestyle. If a technique just doesn’t fit, it won’t work.

So, you just adjust, discard and experiment with techniques to discover what feels like the right remedy to reduce stress in your life. Mastering Stress Management is essentially about you, for you and by you. Practical Tip #3: Keep Practicing! Remember, Stress Management is essentially a collection of skills that enable you to combat stress before it makes you permanently sick. If you want to master a skill, you must be willing to practice it until it becomes second nature. This Practice Tip may seem easy; but in reality, it’s one of the most challenging to fulfill. Why? Because old habits die hard. It’s easier to let a habit rule you than to overrule the habit. For example, say you’re in an argument with someone. Do you naturally fire up the fighter instinct? Is your natural inclination to outdo your opponent, even if it develops into a yelling match? If so, you might find yourself resisting change. When you want to change a habit, always be ready with the replacement.

This will minimize your resistance. A less stressful replacement habit would be, for example, just listening more. Just let the other person sound off. The positive effect of your poise will be astonishing! The truth is this: Staying cool and calm under pressure can give you the edge in any argument. So, in addition to teaching you new skills to manage your stress, Stress Management will require you to change your attitudes and behaviors toward your stressors. For example, you might like to place the poster above in a convenient spot where it will remind you and anyone of the easy, practical habits that reduce or eliminate stress. Also, in the previous blog post, I recommended that you start writing in a Cool and Calm Stress Management Journal. Now listen: Your Cool and Calm Stress Management Journal is more than just a laundry list of things to do. image Your Cool and Calm Stress Management journal is actually a verbal snapshot of how you respond to stressful situations — how you spontaneously think and behave.

It is your private reference and personal insight into discovering your true self. It is your pathway to reinvent part of yourself so that stress will plague you no more. Practical Tip #4: Don’t Forget “Me-Time’ In order to carry out your plan to conquer stress, you must create space in your daily schedule for time alone and your Stress Management checkup. Now, I think I hear the voice of many individuals: ‘The day isn’t long enough! I’m already overwhelmed with everything I need to accomplish in a day!’ Well, I have been through this and have witnessed countless time-squeezed people who have also been there. We wish there were just two more hours in our day. However, this is more a state of mind than reality. Here’s the reality: 12-18 hours of waking time suffices for most groups of tasks. Furthermore, within this time frame, there is also some opportunity for relaxation.

Evaluate how much time you spend on your different activities and try to create more balance within your day. If you cannot fit everything that you need to do within this amount of time, this simply means you need better time management skills — an essential component of stress relief. Check out our series of posts in this blog devoted to this topic and learn little-known techniques that work for the pro’s. You can also get guidance on an easy and efficient way to accomplish this in my FREE handbook, Stress Relief for Professionals, available for instant download here. This handbook contains a section on proven techniques that I originally acquired from experts and further streamlined over time. They work for me and many other individuals. I sincerely hope you will check them out.

Stress has a different meaning for different people under different conditions. The first and most generic definition of stress was stated by Hans Selye: “Stress is the nonspecific response of the body to any demand”. Stress is common in every college student’s life; not only because of the amount of course work or the expectations to succeed, but also because of their lives away from the classroom. Among college students, many pursue the following methods to decrease stress: effective time management, social support, positive reappraisal, and engagement in leisure activities. Despite knowing stress management techniques, many college students do not use time management and find themselves not making time for healthy behaviors which may relieve stress.

Towbes and Cohen (1996) created the College Chronic Life Stress Survey in which they focused on the frequency of chronic stress in the lives of college students. The purpose of this study was to determine what sources of stress are the most predominant among college students and to examine the nature of these stressors. They evaluated these stressors in relation to how many times a student had to deal with them on a weekly basis; interpersonal conflicts, self-esteem problems, and money problems. “while many specific events and situations have been implicated as stressors for college students, more research is needed to investigate the nature of these of these stressors for college students, and which stressors are most prevalent in college students lives.”

College students are more likely to work while attending school, and recent data indicate that approximately 57% of students work full or part-time. Students develop time-management skills and independence while being working students, as well as provide other skills that may be beneficial to their careers after graduation. Being an employed student has a very high chance of being problematic because some students may need to work an excessive number of hours to afford their courses, resulting in undesirable influences on academic success and health.

In addition, Misra and McKean (2000) concluded that women experience higher academic stress and anxiety, but they have more effective time management behaviors than men. It also was concluded that men benefit more from leisure activities than women. Little amounts of stress can be positive and motivating for some people, but an extreme amount of stress can be negatively associated with a student’s self-concept. A survey on stress at college and its effects on health habits, health status, and self-esteem found that stress was especially high among college females.

Academic stress describes the growing need for knowledge and, at the same time, an individual’s perception of insufficient time to acquire that knowledge. According to Shadi, Peyman, Taghipour, & Tehrani (2018) impaired thinking process, perception and problem-solving abilities as well as sleep disturbances and diminished decision-making power are all caused by elevated levels of stress. One of the most sensitive stages in life is the transition from adolescence to adulthood. As if that already isn’t stressful enough, young adults at this age are attending college which then increases levels of stress on top of the stress from figuring out their life.

The Image of the City was published in 1960 and written by Kevin Lynch. Kevin Lynch was an urban planner and author. Lynch studied and obtained a Bachelor of City Planning from MIT, where he continued to have a long career as a faculty member of the MIT School of Architecture and Urban Planning. (MITLibraries, 2019.) Lynch was one of the first to dive into the idea of imageability, mental maps, and how people living in cities engage with their city environment. At the time of its publication, he was a pioneer of sorts. Lynch mentions in his preface that while the detailed development was his own, he could not have done it without the conversations he had with professor Gygorgy Kepes while at MIT. The Image of the City was the first book he wrote at MIT, but Lynch went on to write many others.

The book itself dives into legibility and imageability by looking specifically at three cities. Lynch then moved into the city image and its five elements, which he spells out for the reader. These five elements are a core piece of Lynch’s design and he uses them in correlation with his process of designing. The final section of The Image of the City, called Appendices, contains a sort of wrap up of Lynch’s process. He writes about types of reference systems, disadvantages of imageability, the use of his methods for designing, ideas for future research, and a couple of examples of analysis. The Image of the City is considered a classic in the city planning community and is still quite relevant today. One reviewer even quoted: “As a toolkit for describing cities, Lynch’s elements are second-to-none. A general understanding among common people would certainly increase their ability to formulate their thinking about the city as an entity and the impact it has on their lives.” (

Lynch writes about cities as being legible. In the same way that people read books by looking at the words, people can read cities by looking at the cityscape, specific landmarks, and certain pathways. Cities are not just buildings to their inhabitants. The same way that people remember words they have read and perceive them in their own way, people read cities in their own ways and remember them as their own mental map. Mental maps are subjective, but Lynch breaks the concept down into elements to better understand them and how to relate to the inhabitants of a city. Lynch focuses heavily on the physical aspects of the environment. He defines imageability as, “that quality in a physical object which gives it a high probability of evoking a strong image in any given observer.” City planners are planning for the people, not themselves; so, understanding how people perceive the environment that they live in is very important in the world of urban planning.

While Lynch was from Chicago, his book The Image of The City focuses on three other cities: Los Angeles, Boston, and Jersey City. Lynch ran an analysis on these three cities, in which he observed two main things. First, a trained observer would walk on foot through the city; making notes along the way of certain elements, their visibility, and anything remarkable about the city, whether negative or positive. Second, a very detailed interview was given to 15 – 30 inhabitants from each city. The inhabitants ranged from long-time residents to people simply employed in the area. They were asked questions specifically to evoke their own mental map of the city. All three cities inhabitants had different lifestyles and different views of the city they lived in.

Lynch included the analyses of these cities to show the different ways people orient themselves in different cities. All of these cities were laid out completely differently and had certain key visual points that the residents recognized in their mental maps. To truly read and understand the city, one would need to view it as an inhabitant would. The inhabitants typically have a mental map that they are accustomed to and comfortable in. Lynch notes that people living in a large city rarely feel lost in the modern age. He references way-finding devices, such as: maps, street signs, bus placards, and route signs. This was especially interesting to me as a reader because in the true modern age that we are living in now, we have access to so much mapping technology that people rarely feel truly lost.

Most people own phones with GPS technology that can tell them turn for turn where to go whether by driving or walking. Lynch wrote this book nearly sixty years ago and while technology has advanced, his statements are still true. Lynch saw the direction technology was heading and even made a very accurate prediction regarding mapping technology! While referencing some new, at the time, technology being used in New York, Lynch wrote that, “While such devices are extremely useful for providing condensed data on interconnections, they are also precarious, since orientation fails if the device is lost, and the device itself must constantly be referred and fitted to reality.” This sounds awfully familiar in comparison with today’s convenient GPS technology on modern cellphones and devices, doesn’t it?

Lynch noted that mental maps consist of five different, but overlapping, elements. With a firm grasp on the five elements creating a mental map of an area, a city inhabitant could feel more at ease. A good mental map can lessen feelings of anxiety that can arise from being in a big city. Paths, edges, districts, nodes, and landmarks are the elements he went on to describe. Lynch noted that paths were extremely important, as they pertain to mobility in an urban environment. Paths could be anything used to get one place to another; from a roadway for vehicles, a sidewalk, or even a shortcut through some buildings. Edges are the boundaries between two phases, such as shores, railroads, or walls. Districts are medium to large sections of a city that a person can mentally “enter”, such as a downtown area! Nodes are like focus points in districts that can serve as a crossing or junction.

Finally, landmarks are primarily viewed as an external feature that can be used to recognize an area or signal direction. (Lynch, 1960.) To give examples of these elements specifically from my small mental map of Auburn, I would start with naming Magnolia Avenue as a path. An edge for me would be where the railroad tracks run through, and almost separate, Auburn from Opelika. The “downtown” area of Auburn would be considered a district, while an example of a node would be the large intersection in front of Toomers Corner where many people cross the road. Finally, a landmark that I’m familiar with would be the Seal in front of Langdon Hall. While everyone’s would be different, my mental map of Auburn is concentrated to a smaller area because it is what I’m most familiar with!

Lynch’s five elements are a great way to describe a city and break it down in a simple observable form. However, taken at face value, it can be too simplified. In my opinion, this is the only weakness with Lynch’s book. Designing a city is an extremely complex process and while viewing it from an inhabitant’s standpoint and observing its legibility are important, a complex city comes with complex problems and, occasionally, complex solutions. This book itself is not meant to see the whole picture, but readers need to keep in mind that while it is a great learning tool, it definitely needs to be paired with more information.

I think this book is still very relevant in terms of identifying what a mental map is and how it is useful. However, it makes me wonder if people’s mental maps have improved or lessened over the years. I think less and less people actually have a good mental map of the areas they live in today. Technology has made it so easy for people to just plug in their desired location and follow a map, that they do less exploring on their own and just know specific locations. While I personally know many specific locations and landmarks in Auburn, if I was asked to draw a draft of the mental map I currently possess I would have many gaps that I am unfamiliar with. Areas that I drive through every day would be a struggle to pin point.

However, oppositely, there are likely people who use these technologies and are even more able to draw a mental map than they would have been. Perhaps being able to say exactly how many miles and turns we are away from the nearest Taco Bell has made us more knowledgeable of our area and more able to reiterate that when asked to. I think it boils down to how the individual perceives their area and what elements they actually take note of in their head. Overall, this book has had a large impact on the planning community. I believe Lynch’s work would be beneficial for anyone with an interest in city planning to read. This book could even serve as a starting point for someone completely new to the idea of urban planning!

While it was written nearly sixty years ago, his breakdown of mental maps can still be applied to any city and its inhabitants. It’s a good place to start and be reminded of why cities need to be planned. They need to be functional and accessible to the people living within it! Towards the end of The Image of the City, Lynch mentions the importance of the observer once more. He notes that planners need to take inhabitants into account as what they themselves are used to could be specific to their local culture. “He can be a prisoner of a regional way of thought or, particularly America, of that of his own class.

If cities are to be used by many groups of people, then it is important to understand how the different major groups tend to their surroundings.” (Lynch, 1960, p. 156) I think this is especially important to take note of. Designers need public input to successfully plan for the cities current and potential use. Lynch’s elements theory unlocks a good starting point for planners to obtain insight into what makes a city what it is; the lives existing in it. As I read this book I found that nothing around me had changed, but my outlook did. The simple idea of reading a city as more than just buildings, but instead seeing paths and recognizing elements around me has changed how I view urban planning.

I stand in front of the class, knees locked, and palms sweating. My eyes gazing around the room, blank faces staring back at me. The room is silent. As I am about to speak, my mind goes blank. My thoughts form into a cluster of chaos, I try to reorganize it, and then I speak-but it isn’t the normal English language coming out of my mouth, more of a spew of gibberish, and when I am done, I sense no one understood a single word I said. I dash back to my seat, thanking God it is over. I can never successfully give a speech without the anxiety of getting nervous easily, having to memorize it, and having myself speak in front of an audience.

One defect that keeps me from being calm in speeches is becoming easily nervous. I become nervous about a lot of things. Although, speeches are not the only thing I get nervous about. Science fairs, book reports, or any other tests and school projects can also make me nervous. Over thinking is a factor that may make me nervous. When I over think it results in a nervous body resulting in shaky legs, sweary palms, and a jittery mind.

Another reason public speaking gives me anxiety is the fact that I almost always have to memorize the speech. When I mean “almost” I mean every time. Some teachers will say “Oh just put some notes on index cards for help” or something to that effect. However, I do not think index cards help at all. When I am standing up trying to remember what I am talking about, I slowly look down at my index cards befuddled by the notes I gave myself, making my mind even more flustered.

Memorizing speeches also makes me end up talking at a hyper speed level. Since I would have to memorize my speech, my brain involuntarily makes me talk faster resulting with the audience all puzzled. When learning speech by heart, I have a tendency to want to talk a lot about a subject, resulting in a lot to remember. If I were to just have the whole speech in my hand, it would be easier and far less confusing to give.

The worst and most obvious reason for my anxiety on public speaking is it’s in public. When I talk in front of an audience, I feel awkward. It may be because everyone is listening with blank faces, and not giving me any feedback, I feel as if the audience is asleep or not engrossed in my speech. I also do not like crowds of people. I feel comfortable talking in front of a group of friends, but when it comes to speaking on one certain topic to a bunch of acquaintances or strangers, I feel awkward and pressured by the audience. I already feel stressed in giving my speech to the teacher, but adding strangers into the audience can add more pressure and a higher chance for me to mess up. This is implanted into my brain. No matter how big the audience, I cringe in terror knowing I will have to give a speech in public.

Speeches, skits, oral reports, oral demonstrations, or whatever people want to call it, public speaking will give me anxiety. Anything that deals with my nervous mind, the requirement to memorize its contents, and the obligation of speaking it in front of an audience will give me stress, worries, and anxiety. The anxiety will just bring out a nightmare of standing in front of the class, knees locked, and palms sweating. My eyes gazing around the room, blank faces staring back at me…

Think about your day. How much time do you spend on your cellphone? If you’re like most of us technology is progressing from a helpful supplement into a necessity. So why is this an issue? What was the person you passed on the street today wearing? Chances are you can’t answer this, because your attention was on your phone. You might want to argue that you can multitask and use your phone and walk or do many other things at once, but sadly this isn’t the case.

People cannot completely multitask, and to think one could is dangerous. Our cognitive processing is decreased to about only 60 percent on average when we attempt to multitask. This is due to our brains having to constantly switch between active sets of neurons. Think of the human brain as a circuit breaker, every circuit is a different stimulus. When you want to place your attention on something you have to turn on the circuit, but you can only turn on so many or you will trip the breaker or in other words not be able to recall anything.

On top of this, multitaskers are training their minds to switch so rapidly they are actually losing the ability to tune out distractions or stimuli. The lack of early selection in these people is actually being argued to be a cause of ADD. ADD is Attention Deficit Disorder, which can be rudimentarily defined as the lack of ability to focus on one thing for too long, and is becoming more prevalent in today’s society. There is even talk of ADD is not a real disease. This new hypothesis is based off of more elaborate understanding of how the brain attends to stimuli; it is hypothesized that ADD is actually just a lack of early selection, which is the first of the “filters” stimuli go through in the brain. This lack of function comes from lack of use caused by trying to attend more stimuli than capable at one time.

Human attention works by processing all of our sensory inputs and suppressing those that we aren’t focusing on. I currently playing music as I type this article; while I could tell you there is music playing I could not tell you what the words are. This is how your brain suppresses stimuli, it allows for you to be aware of a stimuli but not of the finer details. Think of attention as a finite resource you can spread some out here and there but once it is all occupied you need to take it and apply it to something else and abandon something you were already giving attentio.

In the Invisible Gorilla Experiment, first preformed by Daniel Simons and Christopher Chabris; participants are told to watch a video and count the number of times a ball is passed between a group of moving people, and at some point in the video a gorilla walks across the background and even pounds his chest. The experiment sets out to show that when focusing intently on something which requires a significant amount of attention, like a ball being passed between people moving in a circle, less relevant are ignored. So when a gorilla enters the screen and leaves it tends to go unnoticed.

There was a study where 300 students from middle school, high school, and college were observed for 15 minutes during their normal studies. The results were frightening; they were only able to focus for about 3 minutes at a time. So what does this mean? Their attention was somewhere else, most of the time on cellphones. So away from the general issue of limited attention, and getting more specific into the fact that people are losing their ability to control where their attention goes.

We are almost trained to drop everything and see what our phone is going off about. We have all essentially preformed Pavlovian conditioning on ourselves. Your phone rings you check it you get a funny text from a friend or a sweet text from a significant other> your brain releases dopamine>you become happy.

This process is repeated enough and eventually you hear your phone ring and you begin to get excited with out even knowing what it rang for or who from. This is detrimental to our attention; our cellphones are warranting more of our attention than any other single thing, which means when it comes to remembering things chances are you’ll remember that cute text but not what the professor said during lecture as you were reading it.

Driving is one of the most common places where misplaced attention is seen. Figures shows a negative correlation between the age of a person and the likelihood of getting into an automobile accident due to distracted driving. Consider this scenerio; you are driving you get a text, driving is a pretty automatic action at this point and you decided to check your phone: you look at it read the message and decide you’re going to send a quick reply; first you look up okay road seems all clear so you go ahead and start typing, next thing you know you’re driving off the road.

Why? Because you must be looking at the curve of the road for your brain to make the correct calculations to safely maneuver the turn. Okay you’re not a big cell phone person so you’re in the clear right? Wrong, radio in a car is just as dangerous. Your favorite song comes on the radio so you and your buddy next to you begin singing obnoxiously and you lose your attention on the road and rear end someone.

The issue with the research is that it is very general, and a lot of people like to think they are better than the general public. So when trying to apply laws based on the research for safety plenty of people will ignore it thinking they are capable because they are better than the norm. This results in an increase of accidents involving attention misplacement. My writing goals this time: To fix problems addressed in reviews, as well as change some wording and formatting of my paper to ultimately strengthen it.

Work Citied

1. Multitasking May Not Mean Higher Productivity. (2009). Talk of the Nation, National Public Radio. Found online at http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php? storyId=112334449
2. American Psychological Association. (2006). Multitasking: Switching costs. Found online at http://apa.org/research/action/multitask.aspx
3. Attention Alert: A Study on Distraction Reveals Some Surprises. (n.d.). Retrieved October 6, 2014. http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/rewired-the-psychology-technology/201204/attention-alert-study-distraction-reveals-some-surpris
4. ADHD Not a Real Disease, Says Leading Neuroscientist. (n.d.). Retrieved October 6, 2014. http://themindunleashed.org/2014/10/adhd-real-disease-says-leading-neuroscientist.html
5. Car Accident. (n.d.). Retrieved October 7, 2014. http://caraccidenteverday.blogspot.com/2013/11/statistics-for-car-accidents-caused-by.html

Nervously walking into the classroom, I glanced around. Today was just a mundane school day, nothing out of the ordinary. Classmates were milling around and chatting, their faces showing unconcern to today’s agenda. But to me, today’s main event was a very big problem. I was a shy child back then, and the fact that we had to present in front of the class greatly troubled me.

I felt I just was not up to the task: I did not know what to do, I was not very sociable, and I disliked being at the center of attention. I trembled at the mention of speaking publicly to an audience. It did not show on my face, but a peek into my mind would have instantly revealed my inner turmoil and dilemma I faced. To put it bluntly, I thought I was totally, utterly, and unavoidably screwed.

The bell rang for the class to start, and all the students quieted down and sat at their desks. Then came a few moments of bliss, the calm before the storm. But it was only a fleeting glimpse of comfort before the tension settled in like wind-blown fog. Class started, and the teacher revealed the order in which we were to present and, one by one, the students before me began to rise, walk to the front of the class, and start their presentation.

As the number of students presenting before me dwindled rapidly, I grew more anxious, my palms dampening, my forehead covered in sweat. Time ticked on sluggishly, like a snail leisurely moving forward at its plodding pace, unhurried. The presentation preceding mine stretched into eternity, as I sat there sweating profusely, worried, becoming more tense, my heart beating ever louder. Panicked thoughts flitted through my mind as evidence of the presentation’s imminent end emerged. My introverted self unconsciously thought of public speaking as throwing myself, defenseless, into a cage with the audience, which had transformed into ravenous, devouring, and threatening animals.

Then silence permeated the air, followed by raucous, loud applause. I paled, realizing that the sound indicated a very big problem – it was now my turn to present. I stiffly stood up, and trudged my way towards the front of the classroom, dreading the moment when I would eventually reach it. Sweat poured off me like waterfalls as I finally reached my destination, the end of a short but nerve-wracking journey, but the beginning of something worse. I stared at the ground, as if staring hard enough would save me from my plight. Then I started my presentation, covered in sweat, worried, not making eye contact.

Looking up was not an option, I did not want to see what my vivid imagination claimed was a swarm of beasts, fanged and clawed, sharp teeth lined mouths dripping with saliva, waiting to pounce and stuff their bellies with the nearest sustenance – me. Everything became a haze, my voice became distant and all I could hear was my heartbeat, all I could feel was the sweat trickling down my pale, nervous face. After a long while of being in this state, I finally gathered enough courage, lifted my head and, when I did, glimpsed the audience. I was struck with sudden realization – that small peek, a simple glance at the edge of my vision, exposed reality and rapidly dispersed my previous prejudiced perspective of the audience.

The audience was not a horde of hungry creatures, but were humans, classmates, students, attentive listeners. The audience was not dangerous; I was no longer afraid of them. It may not seem like it, but a surprising proportion of individuals, who are good at presentations and speeches, were introverts as a child. Through repeated exposure to public speaking, they developed social skills that they lacked. But they had to start at the beginning, the first step into the world of public speaking. They had to be nudged in the right direction, to have the courage to step onto the stage.

Once you command your fears, they become nothing more than a wisp of your past, something to fondly reminisce about, but never to dwell upon. By overcoming their dread towards public social interactions, introverted people were able to acquire mastery of speaking to others and socializing, something introverts avoid. Mustering the bravery to surpass one’s fears is a challenge, a trial. But triumphing over test rewards you with accomplishment, and the opening of a gateway of freedom, of choices and extra options, of not having to always cower from that one thing.

Introverts can be given the ability to socialize, to express their ideas and creativity to others, to communicate effectively. What was previously terror can be defeated, overcome, beaten, to achieve a better, happier, life. Eventually reaching the end of my presentation, I spoke the last word, the final closure, and there was silence, a pause, then came an onslaught of thundering applause. I strolled back to my seat, relaxed, calm, and sat, breathing a deep sigh of relief.

I was victorious, I had lasted through the whole grueling ordeal, and I had learned my lesson, a shocking epiphany. I was still nervous of public speaking, but I had taken the first step, the beginning of a journey to conquer the fear of social interactions. I sat back leisurely, enjoying the remaining presentations, relieved that it was not me up there, glad at my new-found revelation. That was just the starting point of the reform of my personality.

I gradually changed, no longer the quiet boy who does not speak a lot. I started to chat with my friends more, no longer spending lunchtime reading silently in the school library, but hanging out in the crowds instead. I worry less about presentations and speeches, I can give a talk more fluently than before. I learned more social skills, I spoke more, became more outgoing. I participated in more social events, in activities that fostered and encouraged leadership and social ability. I still become nervous over public speaking; the anxiety is not completely destroyed, but looking back, I see the great progress I have made from the shy child I was all those years ago.

Jenkins Rethinking History is a fascinating, albeit slightly long-winded read. While reading, idea after idea profoundly struck me until about midway through the text when I realized that in a large way, Jenkins is showing us how the concept of perspectivism-particularly in the ways that Nietzsche speaks of it. Which is to say that Jenkins asks us to examine the ways that our perspectives influence our readings of any text including the past because after all, we have no direct access to the past; it’s not as if we can just head out and investigate the past directly. Rather, we’re always in a discourse wherein people discuss, theorize, recall, and reinvent “the past” because the past itself is unattainable.

Jenkins develops this idea in an interesting (albeit Heideggerian way) by arguing that the question “what is history?” is the wrong question. Rather, we should ask, “who is history for?” because history is perspectival and very often has served someone’s agenda (Jenkins 22). But it’s also problematic because biases, empathy, separation, etc. lead to one’s perspective and are very often subconscious and therefore invisible to the reader.

Jenkins digs into the meat of this idea on pages 40 through 44. He argues that no method establishes “incorrigible meanings; all facts … (are) … embedded in interpretive readings that … contain them but which do not … arise from them… If history is interpretation, if history is historians’ work(s), the historiography is what the ‘proper’ study of history is actually about…. everything is a discursive construct…” (Jenkins 41-42).

And this leads to the most intriguing issue in the text (at least in my perspective): the idea of “the centre” (Jenkins 43). Traditionally, people involved in “objective” pursuits have been focused on the idea that they were able to find a perfect balance in their pursuits. But this is to ignore the looming question: the centre of what? And for Jenkins, the centre is an ideological standpoint somewhere along the ideological spectrum. And so at any given time, when someone gives a balanced, centered argument for something, it’s really only balanced and centered in relation to some discourse that already exist in and itself is an already established value matrix.

Jenkins’ reading of discourse allows us not only to rethink history: it allows us to rethink a lot of our discourses. For instance, the idea of balance of centre just described could help the epistemology of any postmodern discourse that runs into the problem of relativity because it argues that all opinions are relative to a centre, and from that centre we can argue for a specified set of shared values. So even though the spectrum of an issue can be infinitely varied, the structure of centre, right, left, and balance will simply shift.

And though the structure will change semantic values, it’ll still operate in the same way (allowing us to interpret things within a specific standpoint). So, we can then see objective readings as problematic insofar as they ignore the fact that their objectivity owes an epistemic debt to the standpoint from which they argue. And if that’s the case, then objectivity is just bad scholarly work, which greatly validates the postmodern project of arguing for overlapping values.