Youth Counseling & Positive Thinking

Swami Vivekananda says, ‘My faith is in the youth generation, from them will come my workers.’ However, the youth of today is found to be often without definite ideals in their lives. Besides, the onslaught of negative ideas through media and various other sources often takes a toll on their young minds. The youth needs proper counseling to decide the goal of his or her life, train themselves to strive for it and to bravely face the obstacles in their path.

However, there has been a paradigm shift in counseling practices in the recent years. The new thinking, which is now widely accepted, is to move away from the morbidity medical model to a community based approach, the 'pro-active' rather than the 'reactive' approach. The beneficiaries are all youth, not just who are already disturbed. Psychiatrists, counselors, monks can reach out to schools, colleges and universities and conduct workshops and seminars which would spread awareness, life-skills such as self-awareness, empathy, problem solving , decision making etc. A large number of people can be reached in this way.

It would go a long way in not only countering the menace of negative thinking among the youth, but also create 'a lever for the good of humanity', as mentioned by Swami Vivekananda.

Shri Ramakrishna Ashrama, Rajkot organises workshops to implement the 'Youth Counseling & Positive Thinking’ activity. The salient features are;

1. Conducting workshops (one day or more) designed by professional counselors in educational institutions on life skills.
2. The workshop is an interactive programme that trains and encourages the participating youth to think about the goals of their lives, the ways and means to achieve those goals, the 'strength' needed to face the struggles of life and the means to attain that strength.
3. Swami Vivekananda's words: a) Each soul is potentially divine. b) Strength is life and c) Man is the creator of his own destiny; become full of meaning to the participants, thus making these ideas an everlasting inspiration for them.