The idea of idea.

The very basis of our life is a secret to us, we know not a thing when it comes to our own body and mind. The complexity with which it functions and all the parts that come together to make it all happen are beyond our wildest imagination – the precision is astounding. Something for everything and everything for something, in essence of things, nothing about life is in excess or limited. It just is.

This make me wonder how and why do we even have thoughts. It is not something very physical – the activity of the brain might increase when one is thinking but what really is the source of a thought. If it were physical we would have identified it by now. But nope! I do not think there is any such explanation or exploration for the source of thoughts.

The cognitive faculties function only through information, that is to say that – something must be imbibed in us to to be expressed. Even an idea, or the idea of idea is possible because of the assimilated information. And that makes every expression and my blog post – yet another combination or mixture of existing thoughts. Thoughts that are basically not new, probably out of the ordinary but not extraordinary.

Dreams, another realm of thought process, just a little too visual than thinking in words. But even that has its basis in past and the present and if you constantly dream about the future – congrats you are a psychic!! – provided you are gifted and your dreams actually come true. Otherwise, it is just a projection of current events and your imagination is fooling you into thinking that you can see the future.

See, this is where logic is safe because 0 and 1, true and false – unlike the unreliable dream that you cannot even statistically establish whether it is predictive of the future or not. It is such a hit and miss with dreams. And so is life, what works for one does not for another and we still have no clue of what is real and what is not.

So, my question is are your thoughts even yours. And if your thoughts are not yours then how can the feelings be yours? We are one big pile of reactions to the external stimuli. They are real – yes! But they are not conscious but actually triggered – it is not about right or wrong, just awareness and I think that is something to ponder upon!

I am the cause of the new chain of thoughts that you have right now. Drop it or carry it on – that is all the choice! haha.

Brain or mind, what is the deal?

You know every now and then I find myself stuck on one thought or the other until I realise that I am either in the past or thinking about the future. Although, I am aware that these are not realities because the present moment is all we have, but the memories are so strong that they do affect my present and this mind does have the capability to easily extrapolate things into future.

If we pay attention, most of our time is gone in thinking and there is negligible action. I mean, talking about myself, right now I have an entire speech prepared as a comeback for an argument that happened 3 years ago. Talk about letting go. I might have not let the incident effect me all this while, good for me, but I did waste my brain’s capacity over something that, in hindsight, looks very stupid.

I have a better control now so I do come out of my head easily, but this is still not a natural process. You get me? Like I have to put efforts to get myself out of this mental-regurgitation. It is just ‘on’ all the time.

And this got me thinking what in the world is our deal? Where and when did we become so self-analytical and not just that but where did we imbibe these qualities. Or is it just that we do not know how to handle our magnificent gifts. Scientifically speaking, evolution gave us the capabilities, but looking at the way we are using them makes me wonder whether we are doing it right or not?

We have probably gone wrong because the suffering is evidently self-inflicted. I could sit here and mentally destroy someone and at the same time destroy myself. It is a fine line, a very fine line, going from positivity to negativity to depressed or from confident to over confident to egoistic. 

Just imagine if we were not distracted by the out-side world, or if we were to sit ideally doing nothing, I am sure the first thing would be boredom followed by loneliness and eventually sadness. And can we even protect ourselves from this ensuing pain? I do not think so.

The shift to consciousness is all the talk these days. We need to be more aware and in awareness we can control our abilities better. I did come up with a solution for myself. Start thinking of every human capability as a super-power. Believe me, just look around we actually are the most intellectual (not-so-intelligent) species and our mind renders us with some sort of a power in comparison to other beings.

And we know that  with power comes responsibility. SO let’s just stop right this instant and be aware of the responsibility that these powers bring. Can we do justice to our brains and conduct ours mind carefully? I think yes, so let’s give it a try. It is a mind, give it a break, make it a habit, use it only when needed. It is a power let’s utilise it well.

Outside-Inside.

Things happen for a reason.
We have been hearing that forever.
What is this? What does it even mean?
Some times I can’t see any meaning to it.
Life just seems out of control.
For I can either indulge or sit here and question it all,
I choose to watch carefully as I participate.
Is this what they call awareness?
Now, I feel like I can control a few things.
Like, add a little sweet to any bitterness.

May be not all of it,
But one thing that has become a choice.
If how I feel is just a chemical reaction…
I’ll take charge and mould it to my liking.
Choice is not just at the first step,
The sail can be set in any direction.
I never knew of this power,
That mentality controls our actions.
That we are only perceiving and projecting,
All that we have been gathering.

Now, it does make sense,
Reasons to all situations do exist.
We are merely manifesting our beliefs,
Sometimes holding on to what was,
Other times fearing what it will be,
Losing on all that is actual reality.
It is like a game of charade.
I am the player and I am getting played.
And the moment when I see a little clearly,
The outside is every one’s, but the inside it’s only me.

Go with the flow?

Any number of time we here this quote,”go with the flow”, we tend to nod in agreement. And as usual this got me thinking and I got inspired enough to write about it. It seems like we are wired for positivity or wired to expect positive outcomes in life. It is not about how we feel at present, but mostly about how we wanna feel in the next moment. So a lot of our energy is either stuck in the past or it gets used up in imagining the future which takes our attention away from the flow of life.

My interpretation is that, our minds are naturally inclined to get stuck on things which represent everything but the present moment. So we end up getting stuck – inside our heads – hence we need the flow to guide us out of the mental-madness we so ignorantly create.

Go with the flow, is not a negative statement. It does not compel us to take life as it is. That is quite a useless way of looking at it. I mean, if it was in anyway negative or connoting leniency then, the quote would not have a word like go in it. I have had some people interpret this quote as suggesting to take a back seat. Firstly, how do you take a back seat when you are the only one on the wheels. Secondly, where do you ‘go’ if you are just an audience to your own life.

So the idea is not to just sit and watch life pass by. The idea is to take the current and go where ever ‘it’ is. The destination is the only thing undecided, but what is an adventure if the destination is already known, that is called traveling not venturing. Let’s go with the flow – I think being open minded, having least of expectations, and being involved with reality – is the real essence of the flow. Let the currents take you away but no one said you can not sail your way.

Courage is all it needs, faith can come in handy but to be honest faith in itself comes with a sense of expectation. Which makes me reiterate that, our minds are wired to expect and plan for the next moment, and faith takes the sense of responsibility away from us. It only when we are responsible that we can start talking about courage. And if there is courage, which is a consequence of a strong foundation, it is easy to stand strong. We can sail through storms simply by finding our flow.

That dim feeling.

Thoughts are such a beautiful aspect of being a human. I wonder if other beings can have thoughts. They might not have discernment but in my opinion if animals can feel things they can at least think about basic things. Instinct in itself manifests as a thought and as humans we are offered a choice to whether act on that thought or not, and that seems like a distinguishing characteristic.

It comes so naturally to animals and birds to just act on their instincts they do not care about anything more than their needs. But our free-will allows us to have a thought after the first thought. They call it intellect and it does this beautiful job of freaking our wits out with confusion. I guess this is why school’s encourage students to question often – just because we can and because we should. Think and question!

On one hand, it is a beautiful and powerful tool to be able to pause (think) before we act. But there exists a very fine balance between thinking and over-thinking, just like a few other things in life, how much is too much? When does thinking become over-thinking?

Experientially speaking, It is possible to be mentally exhausted and still be perfectly fine. A good night’s sleep should fix you up. But if you wake up the next day with a hang-over of lingering thoughts; when you have a dim feeling of uneasiness the entire day or night, it is at this point when one must stop. This easily qualifies as losing the balance.

Just like any other part of our body brain utilises the fuel of the body, energy from the food, but at a much faster rate. You do not have to wait until the physical signs appear and you lose some of your body weight just because you have been expending more than you should.

As fascinating as our thoughts and mental faculties are, burning out this system is an actual possibility. Do not let it get that far. Two things are very clear one, thoughts are a mental response to an external stimuli or an internal one (old memories or imagination).  And the most empowering aspect of this capability of re-living the past and/or making-up the future is that we choose to carry out these mental actions.

We choose to condition ourselves with what we like or dislike, we mask what we want to hide and show only what we want to show, even with all this practice when it comes to controlling our negative thoughts – negativity –  we lose the battle like a novice.

I mean it is our mental space, good or bad, we have been day-dreaming all of it. Why lose creativity now? It is better to immerse yourself in your story – one with a happy ending instead of tragic. Use these exclusive capabilities for yourself and for others. The moment you feel a dim feeling hovering upon you, remember it is time to sail into a new direction.

The shock.

There is a glass with water in it and we are trying to figure it out whether it is half full or half empty while the question should be why is there a glass with water in it just lying around like that… Ghosts? haha. I am just trying to look at it the way it is.

I feel it should not be about how or what we perceive. It should be about how much of what we perceive like, do you just see the glass and the water or the reality surrounding it. What is even a wide or a narrow perspective and how could it be wrong or right? Perception could only be true or false and half the truth is not truth because the rest of it will be an assumption so, it is a hit or miss.

Half the time we choose to close our eyes hoping that the reality would change, other times we are not even conscious of this and some times we are just blindsided. The last one is okay but in the first two situations when we are faced with reality, we are shocked and that is not fair on anyone.

It is easy to get engrossed in ‘how’, missing out on ‘what’, and then finding a ‘who’ to blame it on while searching ‘why’ for a loonng time. So why be shocked if time slips away. It is easy to miss on reality when we live in our own world, but for how long? The longer we stay the bigger the shock.

 

That one reservation.

Oh gosh! the amount of things that we keep reserved for ourselves and the things that keep us reserved could simply be put out in display to the world and anyone could do a psychological analysis of our true reality kind of like in the movies. It is by small things that the character reserves and the reservations the character holds that simply defines the entire character arc and even the progression of the story-line.

With that being said and after sounding like a pseudo-psychologist I am going try to sound very realistic yet stick to the theme of movies and story-lines. So, with things reserved and reservations holding us back there is that one reservation that every movie has, actually come to think of it, everything has that one place reserved for itself at the end.

The end is where it all… begins again. Result oriented as we are today the only thing we would like to reserve is a “perfect” ending and the only thing that holds us back is the fear of not getting the “perfect” ending. Fear of failure? Nope! Failure is the first step on the ladder to success or they say. Then why fear it? It is the ending we all want, not the first step or even the second but the last one; the climax.

And as cliche as it sounds there is no ending without a story. Build a story or even better let a story unfold itself so that an ending builds upon it.

In my opinion we are directing the ending so much that we do not eat to eat, we eat to lose or to gain weight. We do not talk to talk, we talk to get something done or undone. We do not breathe to breathe, well…. no…. wait, we do not breathe at all it just happens. Had breathing been a task I am sure by now some of us would have taken the time to get it over with to get to where they want to be. But where is that exactly? No one has time and that is okay, people are busy in turn productive or destructive. Either way, we are just busy human-beings.

I am not against the awareness that one must have for repercussions of their actions. I am against the reservation that results could bring specially to those who deserve or need the freedom. While on the other hand there are some who do not think of repercussions at all they are excluded from this just because good or bad (destructive) they can not be stopped (by just words, that is).

So, at a personal level why have that one reservation hold you back when you clearly have the ability to think things through (to a point in future that is not yet a reality). After all, failure is the first step on the ladder of success. The ending is reserved anyway.

P.S. This might have sprung out of a positive self-talk haha.

From calm to calmness.

With so much going on around us a moment every now and then to feel the present is all we need, a moment where we can be tranquil for just a while. There are enough talks and books on self-help, but we know experience is the best of all teachers.

As calm as this word is in itself, the feelings attached are of our own understanding. I mean for any non-English speaker this is nothing but an uttered word – all in all a sound -nothing more nothing less. Then why do those who associate a meaning to this word can feel this word? How?

It sounds uncommon, but is it really? Hate, sadness, murder, benevolence, love, happiness are mere words, just a group of letters; plain alphabets! But as much as hate sounds bad and love sounds nice.

You see, the words that we utter do have profound effect on our message; the words we commonly use become a part of our nature. Words that we constantly come across tend to lose their value over time but never do they lose their meaning. Like profanities; when used around friends they are funny, when with strangers they could be dangerous. So in a way we program our brains, our selves, our surroundings with the choice of words..

It is good manners to be polite, but for whom, to whom, with whom? As I find it, most of the things that we do in life are placed externally. We feel as if it is necessary to be good to others that, it is nice to be kind and genuine so that others would be the same to us exactly like the saying; treat others the way you want to be treated.

There is nothing wrong with the statement, only that yet again we have labeled a good habit “good” on the basis of how it makes others feel. Yet again we go on behaving not for our sake but for others’. Do we not already live too much in a small restricted world just to satisfy others and their egos, just to get things done, or simply just to be nice to others?

In my opinion there is one thing wrong in this approach. It leaves a choice in our hands because when we do things for some else’s sake it is more of a choice instead a necessity. We would go on and categorise people as those who “deserve” this favour and those who do not “deserve” goodness.

The way I see it if each one of us would do good and be good for one’s own self, this good nature will shift from being a choice to being a compulsion. After-all no one will do wrong to themselves. If this shift happens we won’t need to be calm with people or calm in situations, but we would transcend to calmness altogether.

From calm to calmness. From the adjective to a mental state. From external to internal. From doing to being!

Exhale.

Relax! The thing I keep reminding myself.
Relax! The thing I keep suggesting.
Inhale, I must instead.
Exhale, I must suggest.

Relax, do you mean re-lax?As in go back to being less careful “again”. Normally an English word with ‘re’ as a prefix commonly suggests the repetition of an action – like repeating the verb containing the prefix. When it comes to relaxing is it even possible?

Who has truly experienced calmness to be able to re-visit that state of low or no anxiety. These days stress is as normal as anger and as uncommon as a smile. ‘Relax’ does not explain the process so, the appropriate word would be ‘breathe’ because that is something we all can and need to re-do and that too properly.

Our mind has a thousand thoughts and they are enough to make us happy or sad let alone the external environment – ughh life is such a task honestly. But at the end of the day everyone has to roll with it and those who let go easily are happier than who do/can not.

Letting go is not only for the thoughts or the pent up emotions, it is also for the breath that you took and have not released yet. That is anxiety, the feeling of suffocation causing the panic.

We have all heard the age old saying – breathe! And I think the very core of life gets hit the hardest when it comes to anxiety and stress. The breathing pattern is one of the signs of being alive an also of good health. And in stress, being unaware, we tend to lose our hold on it. Some suffocate others hyper-ventilate.

So when ever you feel uneasy or too anxious do not just relax, inhale and exhale actively instead. It is nothing new but everything that is not new or anything that is categorised as “I already know this…” is mostly ignored. There is a reason they call it focusing on your centre, after all what are we without the air – dead! Control it and stabilise the core like a king or a queen (which ever you prefer hehe).

Maddening – you bet.

A world full of facts.
And a world full of miracles.
You won’t believe in any.
Until something has been terrible.
An illusion of a kind.
A belief of a thousand minds.
Eyes see is what you want to see.
An experience is soon a memory.
All the details you miss on,
Are there for another person.

A sort of a confusion.
A little shaken is our trust,
When there are twists and turns.
In the way this universe works.
One way or another,
You and I shall go on.
We have seen people fighting.
We have wounds of our own.
All that is visible, all that is out there,
Doesn’t make the inner pain any unreal.

For mind creates and heart desires.
What we want is not on these aisles.
Try the next one perhaps.
We only do a trial and error.
All of it is as far as are fear.
Just as it is so near.
Little we know of all that is.
Though we believe we have enough of it.
Imagine all the more that goes unseen.
I am sure you’ll find it maddening.

 

Isn’t life full of trials and errors? A balance of experience and beliefs? At times based on facts and other times on faith, hope and destiny. Believe in either or neither, but what never changes is the desire to find “it” and the same battles we all fight – openly or quietly! And just one thing, one thing,  goes wrong, goes unseen, goes unheard…. And that is just so maddening.