What do you Want?

In life we are always wanting things. The fat six figure salary.. a beach house facing the Indian ocean.. A perfect Greek Goddess figure!. Sometimes we get what we want. Many times we don’t.

Just now I had a realization, a sort of Eureka moment. And I just figured that in real life, you usually get things which you really REALLY want!.. Sometimes we have so many good-to-have lists in our minds, but it’s only when these wishes come center stage that life changes around you to make you achieve your wishes.

I have felt this. Many times there are certain things that I want only in my head. My brain says, these things are good to have (say X: The sexy job of a high flying consultant). But the heart wants something totally different( like Y: Settling in your happy sleepy hometown or getting to spend more time with your family). So while I keep telling myself that I want X, I subconsciously desire Y. And, something that I really want with my heart is what I unknowingly work for. And trust me, that’s what works!!

I am sending confusing signals to my brain, regretting not having got things that I never really wanted from my heart!

So how do I realize what are the things I really want? Get a shrink? Stick electrodes in my hair to monitor the brain waves?..

Actually, it need not be as complicated as that.

I mean, when you are in confusion, it’s good to list down what are the things that you feel are logically good to have, and what are the things that you emotionally desire. Probably both these things are very different, and that’s why you think that you want something, but you actually want something else!..

And then you can train your mind like a lab rat.

Think how you can emotionally want to get the things that you logically want. Try to feel the emotions that would go through you when you achieve this. Imagine how your life would be if your “logical wants” became true. Can you picture yourself happy and contended there? If yes, then probably your heart can be tricked to make you really want what your brain wants.

Sounds convoluted? I know!!

But isn’t that exactly how we are: Convoluted confused needy and pathetic carbon based life forms!!

Coming soon ( on the same insane lines! ):

What do you Need?

Thinking about Thinking!!!

It’s been a sort of lazy unhurried day, with me doing this and that. Browsing the Internet.. Sketching idle doodles in my imagination.. Many thoughts and memories flashing in my mind!.

And then, in all weirdness pops up this question. Where do all these ideas come from?.

Is there a director sitting inside my brain, crafting a massive orchestra.. Churning out performances as “Thoughts” when I am awake and showing me “Dreams” at night? Do I host some sort of embedded freakish weirdo in my head – doling out “Ideas” according to his whims and idiosyncrasies? Or do these “Ideas” have a mind of their own, sauntering out at their own leisurely pace?.

Sometimes I feel I am a slave to them. I cannot produce them on demand. They only appear out of some fortuitous accident. I can only train my mind to welcome them. Focus on un-focusing my brain, and let the music play…..

What’s the trick? Where do all these ideas come from? Some possible answers:

Maybe it’s the time of the day:
For me, it’s usually the mornings. Sometimes on my commute to work, I can hear many voices talking to me. When sit back and listen to those voices, they give me so many suggestions. Sometimes there are arguments and angry discussions, too many people talking together. The brain is furiously trying to solve unanswered questions, making bits and pieces of a forgotten puzzle fit in together. It’s like you are blank, not thinking of anything in particular.. Some interconnections fire up to give you an entirely new idea. And you have to scramble frantically write it down before it disappears!.

Perhaps it’s in your environment:
We are a complex processed form of the environment around us. Like us, maybe our ideas are also an assimilation of all the people we have met, seen or read about.
Is it some chemical locha, some combination of genes, some sort of cellular mutation ? Or just the madcap in my head fooling around with a magical wand?! Tough question.

Maybe it’s your state of mind:
Ideas come to you only when your mind is free, with no constant drone of to-do lists hammering at the back of your head. For me, it’s very difficult to think out-of-the-box when I have loads of other stuff to do. And when there is a lot of clutter around.

Sometimes it’s in the randomness:
Ideas are like soap bubbles. One moment they are there -all gleamy and shiny, and the next instant “POP”, they disappear!.. And they come back when you least expect them to – while driving your car, taking a bath, or even in the loo! Often they suddenly appear like some phantoms of your past life. Or float in uninvited and uncalled for – like ghosts in the night!!
Maybe there is some method in the madness.Who knows ?

A sense of urgency:
Remember how many “Creative” assignments you have pushed through the door in last minute desperation to make submissions?…A sense of urgency can actually kick start your thinking process. Thinking about extreme things like your own death, or what impact you would have after you are gone can make you extraordinarily creative. If you have a nudging need, don’t abandon it. Think about it. Sit on it. If it doesn’t work out, sleep on it. You might get the solution in dreams! ( Don’t laugh, once I completed an entire chapter for the exam in my dreams, only to wake up and realize that I was asleep all the time!!)

Sometimes it’s Ignorance:
Remember how imaginative we were as kids? Always curious to understand things..Unbiased by preconceived notions, always experimenting without the fear of failure!
But then, we’ve changed. As we grow older, we learn to put things in a pattern. We get addicted to predictability. Anything out of the blue scares us. Education encourages us to organize everything around us into certain boxes, and destroys us. Blame it all on the system my friend – “We don’t need no education. We don’t need no thought control.”!

So, what do YOU think about thinking?? Give it a thought!