Human behaviour and the various varieties we see every day – an amazing study in itself. You can know much about the person by his behaviour, and when I say know it includes the past, the present & the future. Scary right? Not so much if you portray your true self, definitely yes if you’re hiding something. And all of this is possible by just studying your behaviour & analysing how your mind functions. One of the reasons that I took to studying psychology as a subject. Knowing about the human mind and how it affects everything around us & how we act is an eye-opening self-introspection. It makes one question our perceptions & gives us a reason to delve further into why a person is reacting the way they are.

Interestingly, before I go on about the human mind, I’m reminded of an instance when I was asked why I took up psychology despite having a bachelors degree in computer science and as well as a software engineering diploma. And to that is a very simple answer – the study of computers is incomplete without the study of the greatest intelligence machine – the human mind.

Further, what pushed me to start writing on this marvel of nature was reading much about its power, the power which is untapped & often goes waste.

Starting with a known fact:

“Even the best conditioned thinkers are using only 1/100th percent of their mental reserves”

This can make us feel so inefficient! Imagine the secrets of the universe yet to be discovered, the answers to all our questions, so much is possible if we unlock the other 99 parts of our mental reserves! The human mind has so much potential that you could lower your heart beat, you could go without sleep and control hunger for days. We’ve read about that, seen examples and probably tried some bit to achieve that state.

Moving on, here’s another fun fact:

“On an average day, the average person runs about 60,000 thoughts through his mind. What is really amazing about this, though, is that 95% of those are the same thoughts you thought the day before!”

Think about it. Well I did observe my thinking today. I was thinking about the same things I was thinking about yesterday, the same people, the same issues, the same places – all over and over again. And much of them end up being negative. Such waste of our mental reserves.

But well, I’m no yogi, and yet to tame this brain of mine. And I got a simple exercise to start doing so.

Tackling the negative thinking part.

Many of us become slaves to our negative thoughts. It definitely doesn’t take us minutes before a negative thought has already spoiled our day ahead. And given the days of constant information pouring in, through media, through people around (not to forget the famed grapevine), negativity has become the centre of much of our talks. And it definitely becomes hard ignoring much of it. But we can.

As often as we may call our brain a super machine, it has one fault – or characteristic if you may call. It can only think of one thing at a time. Observe yourself. You could be reading this post or thinking of something in your mind – not both at the same time.

Add to that the understanding that nothing in this world is absolute, there isn’t any truth or false, positive or negative – but each one’s thinking about it. Your loss maybe my gain, your friend my enemy.

Therefore, this leads to realising something about our thoughts. As simple as it maybe, we often don’t apply this. We could think negatively about something or positively about the same thing – and it all depends on us.

I tried doing this today – replacing any negative thought with a positive one just as it came. And well, it works. A calmer, more happier me by the end of the day. Can I do it everyday – yes I can. Do I do it everyday – no I don’t. Most of us don’t. We don’t use our mental capacity you see ;)

But then given the fact that we don’t have the luxury to entertain even a single negative thought, this is an exercise we should all follow each day, every moment. Which leads to another power of the human mind. Imagining the reality & making it happen.

It’s an universal truth, the very fact that you’ve a desire or a dream means that you’ve the corresponding capacity to realize it. Think about it. If you’re a painter, you may never have thought of building a dam. But you definitely would have thought of painting the riverside – as beautifully as any famous painter. You thought so because you can do so.

Everything in this world has been created twice – once in the mind & then in reality.

So think about your dreams & what you want to do. Envision your reality & you definitely will be what you want to be. But before all of that, weed out the negativity. Positivity, which leads to happiness, too is a luxury nowadays, but an easily accessible one if you truly seek it.

With this, I’m off to observe some other theatrics of this machine. So until next time, breathe in breathe out! ;)

P.S.: As much as you’re thinking, I’m not turning into a philosopher! :P