To see good in your reflections: Part -2

Estimated reading time: 5 mins

Continuing from “To see good in your reflections: Part-1“.

Thanks, for reading it till now, I introduced few concepts to you, in the first part. Now, it is time to take a step forward, and know some new cool things, about seeing good around, trying to be happy and at peace.

Reticular Activating System

This is a magical organ in our nervous system.

Biologically it means, “a diffuse network of nerve pathways in the brainstem connecting the spinal cord, cerebrum, and cerebellum, and mediating the overall level of consciousness.”

Practically it means, ” a bundle of nerves connecting your brain to rest of the body and controlling the flow information, by allowing only important stuff to get into your brain.”

For example, when you hear your name in a noisy crowd, you react to it, because when your ears heard that phrase and passed it on to the brain, along with all the other noise. Your Reticular Activating System will stop all the noise and pass only that phrase, to the brain to react.

Consider it, as a bouncer, standing at the doors of your brain, and regulating who should get in, as per your instructions.

I hope you get the idea about RAS now, this is the best I can do.

Basically, it is programmed to work for your benefit, without you even knowing it. All magical stuff is selfless.

The great part is you can control this, and focus it on good things, and it will only filter through good stuff to your brain. Hence, use your RAS to focus on the good in people too. And, read in details elsewhere. I just wanted to introduce this idea to you.

“For what you seek, travel your own journey.”

Positive intentions in average deeds

Do you know? it is scientifically proven that our brain is negative-bias, hence it is very likely, that it might try to retain negative thoughts about anything.

For example, when I was a kid, there was a cat at my home, she was not our pet, but my mother gave her food once or twice, and she started liking to stay at our place.

So, one day while watching a daily soap with my parents, I got so engrossed in those hilarious people on TV, that I accidentally stepped on that cat. She immediately retaliated and with her teeth, and I had to visit the doctor, for several rounds of vaccination.

Imagine your parents are dressing you up, to take you to a place, where a loser will take off your pants, and stab that long injection inside you. *Ouch.

Obviously, I didn’t like that experience. Hence, since that day, I am not that much fond of cats. I don’t hate them, but If someone offers me a cat or a puppy. I might go for that puppy. My brain stored that negative memory, ignoring all other memories with cats, for me.

This is an example of my negative-bias brain, you can have your own. But the point is, that it is easy for us to find faults in everything around us. Our brain works like that only, it is normal.

But you can surely save yourself from this habit, by trying to look good in even average deeds. Slowly, you will get used to it, and it won’t be an extra effort for you, to look good around.

That cat was just saving her leg from getting crushed. She didn’t hate me, it was just an act of self-defence. At least, her attentions were not wicked. It was my fault. The day I accepted this, I stopped hating cats.

It is always a choice, your own choice. You want to cling to negative thoughts, and exhaust your energy in anger and disgust? Or, give yourself mental peace. *Choose wisely.

 Benefit of doubt

Heard this term while watching a cricket match, with my family. There was a stumping replay, and my uncle said, that “Benefit of doubt should go to the batsmen”.

Surely, that guy was hanging in there for such a long time, battling with stones, thrown at him with speed up to 160km/hr. He definitely deserves the benefit of a doubt.

Similarly, we are also fighting our own battles, each and every day. Trying to do something good, trying to improve ourselves. Giving our best to be a better person. We all deserve Benefit of Doubt.

Hence, feel free to give it to others as well. Unless you know everything, give them a chance to reveal themselves, at their own pace.

Offer them your complete trust, unless broken. Trust, is all a person needs to give its best. Keep your Plan B ready, but let them run the show first. I hope you got the analogy.

Stop finding perfection, not even in you.

Exactly! Suppose, you told your friend, that you have trust in him, that he can dive deep inside the ocean and bring you a whale by grabbing her with just his hands. What do you expect? Can he do that?

I don’t know about that, but I definitely know, he will laugh at your face. You might get slapped too. What a non-sense? asking a normal boy to bring a huge whale from the ocean.

No one can do that, because we are human, we are not the strongest or the mightiest creature, we are not perfect. No one is.

Hence, stop looking for perfection. Unless it is a matter of your heart. True love needs perfection. A nice topic for a different conversation.

Accept people with their good things and bad things together. I am not asking you to be a fool, but just to accept the fact, that this person is good in this and bad in that.

It is for your own mental peace, you have to be selfish sometimes, right?

Stop finding perfection, and prevent getting disappointed.

 Whatever we do, WHATEVER!, we do it for happiness. You want to earn lots of money, maybe to buy a car or take your parents on a world trip. Whatever our dreams are, they are there to give you happiness.

We proudly say, “I will be happy after 5 years when I will become a doctor”. Good! Go for it. But, what about these five years. What is the probability that you will be alive after 5 years? Who knows? *Shrug.

What we fail to see is that happiness is not a destination, it is a choice. If we go with the destination approach, then we will always be running behind a new one. Humans are greedy, it is a basic nature.

Today, make a choice, to help yourself to be happy, by looking good in others.

“For what you see, is the reality”

~R

“To see good in your reflections”, did you get the meaning of the title now?

You are welcome.  🙂