And this is how “Assertiveness” became my ‘Ultimate Problem Solver’!!!

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#intensivetrainingmodule #Nicheadvocacyfoundation #emotionalfitness #Assertiveness #mentalfitness

Author: Harshita Saxena
(student of B.A.LL.B , Gwalior)
Junior Intern at NICHE ADVOCACY FOUNDATION

Aggression or Submission?
Have you ever been in a stressful situation by choosing one of them?
You must have had, right?

Believe me, Knowingly or Unknowingly, we all get stuck somewhere between being passive and aggressive in our lives. And with this very thought of being stuck, I too have faced a lot of situations so far in my life until my mind got to enlighten itself with this crucial skill called ‘ASSERTIVENESS’.

As we, most of the time, are not able to master this art of standing up for our rights, opinions, and beliefs in a confident yet calm way so what we choose is to be either silently passive or extremely aggressive. Being passive, we attempt to hide and suppress our opinions while being aggressive, we unreasonably start fighting with others but do not say what we actually want. So, either way, it becomes difficult to express ourselves explicitly. I understand the need of this skill of assertiveness because I too have gone through both situations like admitting my mistake when it wasn’t mine or being aggressive enough to repent later.

Somewhere in between these situations, we start to lose our own existence. Our identity starts getting faded as we do not communicate ourselves to others. It lessens the self-esteem and self-confidence we had in ourselves. This realization happened to me when I took that unique session of ITM by NICHE.

Starting with, “OUR PERSONALITY IS OUR RESUME”, the way Poornima ma’am conveyed her profound thoughts about this core life skill was so influential that I actually dived deep in myself asking a number of questions for my self-introspection and self-analysis. Through this beautiful session only, I got to find out how important it is to express yourself clearly and confidently.

To talk about the session specifically, the most extraordinary thing we did was an audio skit. I think roleplay is the best thing to comprehend a topic as it gives you a very wide scope to imagine a situation and to portray it realistically. Here, not only did I learn about conveying myself but I got to unveil the curtain of hesitation from my creativity also. I felt delighted with the thought that it was me who designed the concept of our audio skit. Performing a virtual skit was incredibly amazing as we all put our endeavors in portraying each character creatively. This activity connected us with the topic so well that it did not remain complicated at all. Everything seemed crystal clear and we all got the essence of the theme properly in a fun manner.

The positive vibes and the knowledge from this session helped me a lot in coping up with the fear of expressing myself. I realized that we are not actually stuck between both of the situations of being passive or aggressive, we just do not try to choose where we want to stand and for what. The skill of assertiveness clears that in our mind so that we can resolutely put our point of view in front of everyone without any fear of being ignored or mocked. Being an assertive person makes us strong enough to live the way we are because we try not to pretend what we actually don’t feel.

According to me, assertiveness acts like a ‘calming pill’ whenever you have to react in a particular situation. It helps you analyze everything and then makes you strong enough to put your thoughts honestly in front of people.

Summing up my overwhelming feelings, I would like to say that assertiveness made me feel that until and unless you understand or recognize yourself, no one else can. So, firstly we need to respect our feelings, thoughts, beliefs, etc. in order to make others perceive them.

This is how Assertiveness, being a very important skill, provided me with a completely new perspective, and filled every single jot of my life with pioneer energy. And I think that this great energy will remain within me for life and will be my source of strength whenever I lose hope in myself.

At last, I consider ITM to be something that has been so impactful in exploring and discovering those sides of me with which even I was not familiar. And when I got to be a part of this session of assertiveness, it felt magical. It was like “the thing I was looking for came looking for me.”
To be said, in a nutshell,

“Assertiveness hit right here in my heart that too very assertively. “