#thoughtsfactsnotions

[thoughts-facts-notions]

✍ Out of experience

Get inspired by the good !

It's been more than 2 years since I phrased this, but still, this one remains my favourite💚!

'Appreciate the good to get richer in goodness'.

A simple concept which some great people have preached in different ways. But slightly difficult one to follow as human minds are first attracted to negatives qualities of a another person.

This blog is a reflection of what I observed and experienced when people try to form an opinion on someone. Let's not confuse this with judging a person, which altogether has a different meaning. Having an opinion on someone is totally different from judging them. We do form an opinion on people when we meet them and interact with them.

Ofcourse we never form an opinion on anyone intentionally😂. Opinion is formed as and when we interact with them. Unless we are interested in getting more of that person and intentionally find out means to know about them.

When we try to appreciate the positive qualities or act or effort of someone, we get inspired by it and our subconscious may try to imitate the same. It is nothing more than learning from someone. We do look at the good qualities of someone, but after a lengthy analysis of the possible drawbacks and negatives which a person has or may have🙃. After looking at the whole of the negative side of a person, the good qualities of them won't matter to us😂. We may miss to recognize it as our mind is filled with its favourite! the negatives of that person.

When we train our mind to 'hold' a negative quality or attribute we identify in someone, and search for the good quality, we may end up finding out something great from that person, which we wouldn't have found if we had proceeded with the negative we identified first and arrived at some opinion.

It may sound weird if you haven't experienced this😅.

As humans, we possess a combination of strengths, weaknesses, positive and negative attributes. Ultimately the qualitatively higher one decides one's overall personality.

When the overall personality of someone is completely negative, well, there is nothing big to get inspired. The possibility of getting inspired for something from a liquor or weed addict is nil in my opinion😛😂. Let's ignore the extremes and think about the normal population and how we actually form an opinion on them.

We get inspired by either someone we like or someone we don't like. Practically, you can even think about a person you don't like and search for some good quality which you don't possess. There'll be something. That's what we miss to recognize when we look only at the negative and arrive at one single conclusion that we don't like that person😂. We ofcourse can't like the person for those one or two good aspects but we can very well appreciate those qualities. Not liking someone need not necessarily mean not liking them in all aspects.

When we train our mind to look at the good qualities, irrespective of whether we like the person or not, the qualities may inspire us and have an impact on us. One need not be a great leader to inspire us. Anyone or anything can be an inspiration to develop good attribute or act or an effort. For that the first and foremost requirement is we need to realize and appreciate that quality.

[thoughts-facts-notions]

Scribblings✍ as an all time learner

Our Mind is a weapon

Let's take any great leaders or philosophers, like Buddha or Thiruvallvar, one thing which they have commonly taught is 'Clarity in thinking'. My favourite of Buddha's quotes is, 'Our mind is everything. What we think we become'. And I strongly believe this. Buddha has also preached the concept of 'let go' when something is not in our hands. It is just that we need to have a balanced and matured mind to control things as we want and let it go in scenarios which are not in our control.

When our mind is everything, I wonder how people make up their mind to commit suicide. News reporting says most of the people commit suicide because of depression. Personally, I had categorized people into 3 types based on how they handle a problematic situation. Some people have the maturity to overcome any problems by themselves without guidance or without any advice. Such a category are stronger by mind and a kind of enlightened people who won't be muddled by problems for a long time. Another category of people realize the reality and arrive at appropriate solutions when guided by someone. It is a matter of time for them. Then there is this third category who neither know how to arrive at solutions nor approaches the right person for advice. I felt that this third category of people create their own pseudo layer of problems and dissatisfaction, and call it as depression. This category of people suffer due to their mindsets and attitude, more than they suffer from the actual problem. Unfortunately, most of such people don't have an endeavouring attitude, they have giving up attitude. And that's why they end up giving up his/her life committing suicide. I have never thought about the reason why people give up.

A book which I read recently gave me some inputs on why people give up. It's their thinking which is their enemy. Primarily the book stressed the need for strategic thinking in any situation. In that way, the book gave me an insight on the requirement of a clear mind for strategic thinking.

Next to our teachers and mentors, it is books which can teach us and can influence us. I would not prefer including fictional books in this list. Not all fictions teach us. But non-fictional books giving some wise advice and life thoughts can enlighten us in a better way. This is one such good book I came across. Chanakya and the Art of war (by Dr.Radhakrishnan Pillai, who has made an extensive research in Arthasasthra). Chanakya was a teacher of war strategies. He wrote down everything he had studied about war and war techniques in Arthashastra.

Interestingly this particular book by Dr.Radhakrishnan Pillai, didn't stop with war strategies and principles of Chanakya. It goes something beyond that and says how Chanakya's teachings can be used by the current generation. Based on principles enunciated in Arthasasthra, the author, in this book, gave tips on how to win the daily battles.

I liked the way author has related the ancient principles to our current life. Earlier I had a profound belief that Thirukkural, aathichoodi and Bagawad Gita are an exhaustive book of principles needed for life. Now after reading this book, I realized that I should not restrict to 3 books, many more are to be explored😅. Any ancient literature or works which are kind of Arthasasthra too propouds life principles. We need to know how to relate and apply them in our daily life.

The author shared his opinions on the problem of the current generation. We fight with us (our minds). During Chanakya's era, the enemies were external and it needs a strategic war to win them. Now what we need is a clear mind to win our inner enemies. It hit me hard while reading about the comparison given by the author, between enemies in ancient times (external enemies) and enemies in current time (our mind). It reminded me of the third category of people I had in my mind.

The mind is a weapon which can either make us or destroy us. So we need to tune our mind stronger by giving right inputs, by reading such life principles from such books or by reading motivational stories or we need to have someone who gives us wise advice in required situations. Chanakya has also emphasized the need for proper minster for a king and the king should consider all advice of his ministers before arriving at his decision. Likewise, having someone who can guide us in the right direction is a mandate. In my opinion, people never step into this so called depression when they openly talk with their well wishers asking for advice.

There is a famous thamizh epigram, "ஐந்தில் வளையாதது ஐம்பதில் வளையாது", which means, it is difficult to demand or enforce things which are not taught or habituated at an early stage. Being endeavouring in nature is an attitude which needs to be ingrained at an early stage. Most of this third category of people are the one who weren't taught how to face a problem boldly and that's why they give up easily. I feel that we need to educate children about it right from their early stage. Teaching principles of life for children is the need of the hour. It can be a religious one like Bagavad Gita or religiously neutral one like Thirukkural. Undoubtedly, the learnings from these could touch the principles of acceptance, optimism, and being endeavouring. The study of these may make children's mind stronger and let them know about right and wrong, inner enemies, ways of overcoming it, how to have clear mind etc., so that in future, percentage of people falling in the third category is reduced.

[thoughts-facts-notions]

Thoughts shared ✍ Process or the result

Is success all about attracting society's applause ?

People celebrate success. It is the Success which gets documented. Everyone around us are keen on knowing the result but nobody cares about the process, depth of process nor the difficulties involved. In anything and everything we focus only on the result. Ofcourse, I won't deny that success brings us immense joy but I feel success is complete only if the process has been valued by us.

'Hardwork' brings success is a famous saying. Nowadays people prefer saying 'Smart work' brings success😅. Let's come to this smart work. People have different perceptions to this word 'smart work'. If plotting a plan to achieve the target by deviating from the normal process is appreciated as smart good, well, I differ from this view. When process is deviated, irrespective of whether we achieve the target or not , I feel we do lose something.

I am just pointing our approach here, the result-oriented approach. What do we lose in the result-oriented approach? It is the beauty of process and learning which the process can teach us is what we lose. I am not against smart works, I am only against skipping the process. Its is completely fine to deviate the unwanted things and follow a process-oriented smart work😅😅. Let's not skip the process and name it as smart work. Smart work is something different.

People cut short the process just to achieve the targets, focusses only on documenting their success and attracting the society's applause. Though they claim it as success it is not so in real terms.

Not all achievers have acquainted sufficient knowledge of what they have achieved nor all knowledge seekers have achieved their goals. Rather than focussing on results let's be devoted to the process.

In a better way I can say that success is not about who has been applauded by the society louder nor who has been applauded first. Success is all about whether we have given our best and whether we are satisfied with what we have done.

We do succeed when we learn, where learning is an intangible success which society cannot recognize. Our dedication shown to towards the path of achieving something can teach us more in terms of experience.

- Thoughts.Facts.Notions

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Emotional inter-dependence tops the list.

[thoughts-facts-notions]

Ideologies/principles I mean are those with proper base. Not the customary ideologies.

This in no way means one should disagree with other ideologies/ principles. Holding mutual respect for different principles too, matters a lot.

In fact, respecting other ideologies gives great inputs for a flexible mind.

[thoughts-facts-notions]

What is important ?

Everything is important

Rejecting something without losing anything is an art. That art is needed to get what 'we want' rather than accepting what is given.

Have you ever wondered, why you end up getting things you don't wish for? When such an event happens, What does it convey to us? And what next to do? There can ideally be 2 ways to solve this mystery. The first one accepts what is given or waits for the output, to happen on its own, with a mindset that the world gives what we want. Nothing wrong with this approach but I feel something is missing. I feel, 'what universe gives is meant for us' is a myth. In firstplace we need to try from our end for the external forces to help us!. We need to truly search and take steps. Life tests us with options with all its answers hidden. The privilege of choosing is with those who realize that they can chose without having to agree with the option received. I appreciate this other approach of searching for what we want, for which we should actually "know" what we like and what may make us happy. Searching for/ endeavouring/waiting for things, may not always be interesting but it would mostly be.

Though whatever I say seems to be more appropriate for important decisions, it need not necessarily be some serious life decision or career decision. It can be anything right from what you wear to what you eat. When we limit the level of compromises we do, we can feel the bliss.

I share this out of my personal experience. I have reluctantly agreed to things that are 'not much important' category of my day to the day list, though I have the potential to get or fight for what I want. What has grossly went wrong is categorizing things into such buckets as important or not so important, relevant not relevant and so on. The fact is everything is important. Only the level and impact differs to some extent. When we try to stop compromising, even the smallest thing can give a great level of happiness. I am not sure what incident or what book gave me the thought to prioritise what 'I want' in everything irrespective of the size. But I know it started with my career, which was in my important category at that point. Later I broke the buckets and started seeing everything as 'my wish', there was a slight change I had to go through. When I tried to stop accepting and started demanding even small things, it had an impact. The process of searching for what we want, may give us more of what we may need, on our way to the destination.

I didn't stop here. I tried to find out the answer for why people including me are/were reluctant to demand what they want. The answer is very simple which most of us already knew but won't acknowledge or have not linked the answer with the question. The answer is when we try to go out of a line that is usually deemed correct or correct in the perception of the majority, it becomes a rule which is not to be deviated by anyone. When we try to cross that line, a tagline of being selfish or being rude or adamant is born out of nowhere. Sadly, none realizes the difference between selfish/rude/adamant Vs. self-care. Ignoring such people is not as easy as we say. And practically it is not possible to ignore 'all' unless we create a separate universe for ourselves. Anyhow, it is to be managed. The only takeaway to be carried forward is, none can be a cost to sacrifice self-care (with few exceptions of extreme things) and prioritizing what we want is nothing more than self-care.

- Thoughts.Facts.Notions

[thoughts-facts-notions]

Hustle🤔 ✍

We are suggested and some times advised to spend time productively. People hustle for growth, money, learning etc. Needless to say people try their best to spend time productively. Especially in these lockdown days. It is good to spend time productively. When there is additional time we can capitalize it on something useful. But I am not much happy with how we 'move towards productivity'. I observed this in lockdown. What is a productive activity and what not is, has not been defined. And it can never be defined, that is a problem. Instead of being guided by our wishes, people are guided by general opinion on being productive. In general terms, spending time productively or being productive refers to learning/earning, which people are focusing upon. It is important but it isn't the only thing. Few important things are being missed in the hurry to run behind productivity.

Productivity is not something to be intentionally focused upon. It should be a complimentary output of activities we take up for satisfaction, happiness, peace and earning in the same order.

Satisfaction, happiness and peace seem to be similar here in this context but if we carefully identify we can find that peace is a greater circle with satisfaction and happiness being the subsets of the greater circle. When we are satisfied with something, we would be happy. Or to put it in a better way, we can never be happy when we are not satisfied with what we do or what we get. And it is the satisfaction and happiness which can make us feel peace. Peace as a bigger circle, has some more subsets. But primarily, satisfaction and happiness are two important subsets in my viewpoint. These are chain feelings with temporary effect. Doing something you like for a day or two will not give satisfaction for the whole life. Things are to be simultaneously taken. Irrespective of whether something is productive or not, as per the generally perceived meaning to it, one should make activities they like to do, as part of normal routine to, not to miss these chain feelings and feel a permanent sense of satisfaction in daily routine.

Unfortunately, the word 'productive' is understood in a very narrow sense. Literally in a very narrow sense.

Does 'stressing' upon productivity makes it even productive😅 ? Isn't it something we should get in due course? We need to explore what we like, what kind of activity make us feel satisfied and not what makes us more productive. Infact what gives us more satisfaction is to be accepted as productive activity irrespective of the general opinion. One need not prove that they spend time on productive aspects. Being guided by the general opinion may not be right. Such as, Just because studying a course or such sort, is generally perceived as productive act, one need not do it. The more important question is whether they want it and are they happy with it. Don't buy udemy courses just because you are free in lockdown or just because they are on discount😝. Ask yourself whether you need it in first place. Dance if you like to dance, without expecting people to approve it. Time spent is to be productive for our own self and not others. I like reading and writing. I do it irrespective of whether it is considered as productive act in general opinion and irrespective of whether anyone is interested in reading what I blog or commenting on it, except for constructive criticisms.

Learning/productivity in any sense/even earning for that matter, makes sense only if it is done with the consent of our conscience. There can be some activities or casual jobs which we like to do but learn/earn nothing out of it. Still, it is productive if we do it with a whole heart. What we get out of it is the satisfaction and some sort of experience which may or may not be much useful, but still they are to be prioritised. This is equal to prioritizing self care.

- Thoughts.Facts.Notions

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I am not genre-specific in writing. But in reading, I have a profound liking for specific genre Fictions. Thriller, Mystery, love and romance.

Just now finished the novella authored by my batchmate. Well, the book fell into the genre I like. It was a great love story!.

✍Book - The Sunshine to my shadow lover

The book was full of emotions and life. Romance and love were so deeply expressed♥️.

The portrayal of every character was amazing. There weren't many characters in the story. Just a few with their own role being crucial.

The book revolved around the love Surya and Sanjana had for each other. And I personally liked their love story. The way it was expressed was mesmerizing and caught the attention.

Next to love, the novella conveys an awesome message as well! The Crux of it is "Never miss expressing feelings you have for a person. If you miss it, it may turn out to be an irreparable mistake". This message was conveyed through Chaya, who played the role of Surya's crush or ex-one side love. The relationship between Chaya and Surya wasn't much clearly written, as the relationship couldn't be termed but portrayed understandably. Chaya was an exceptionally important person in the story line whose role can flip the entire story like a coin.

Apart from love and romance, the book has also given weights to true friendship and an amazing father-daughter relationship. That's why I mentioned the book is full of emotions💙

A great choice for people who prefer reading a short novel with a feel good story.

- Thoughts.Facts.Notions