Change, What is?

A year ago, I guess I was busy looking for the mysterious road to a respectable high school finals. Then, I gave a dozen engineering entrance exams, and finally ended up in MIT, Manipal, which is roughly 2200 Kilometers from home, and which according to Google Maps can be reached in 38 hours by road (bearing a mere 99 important turns in mind). Did things I never thought I will do: make my bed, look after dirty clothes, walk for five minutes every day to get food – the list actually is pretty long. And now, I am finally back home after getting over with the first semester. And for most parts of all that chanced in the past year I was pretty much left alone. Well, now when I reflect on it, it is actually petrifying. Change always is.

I never had a good rapport with Change, it always defeats me in our little debates in my head. Why does Change always win? Maybe because it has the element of surprise, whenever you think of a new scenario, something you have never experienced before, you do think of the worst possible way in which that situation can pan out, and when I having such thoughts, Change comes in and makes its moves, making me all terrified. And from that point, it is impossible to get the better of Change.

Change threatens my comfort zone, a zone which I am familiar of, which I am confident of. And our confidence is something which builds up over time, the more time we spend in our surroundings, the more confident we are to deal with the problems that may come. Confidence is dependent on this familiarity without surroundings. It takes a lot of energy to build up this confidence and trust. So we have a tendency to stay in the same state as we are, be it good or bad. When Change comes knocking our door, it requires a lot of investment of energy, which we are reluctant of. Because we will have to repeat this process of trust building once again. And the idea of staying in the same comfort zone as we are, looks very appealing right about then. It does always to me.

But properly breaking it down, what I think is that we have this mental debate with Change, it is only then when we fear. Not when it is actually happening, because in the actual happening of the event, we are too busy playing out our parts. The battles of the mind are always tough ones, and I think it is alright to be scared, because that is what makes us human. It is okay to be in doubt, to be not sure about things. Because that allows us to appreciate the grand scheme of things, when everything eventually falls into place.

Always happening around us

So, all in all I think it is okay to be scared of change, because it is the only constant in life, it will happen whether we want it or not, and we are the ones who get the better of Change in the longer run. It sure does gets us down in the debates in the mind. But, you cannot always be in your same comfort zone, so the next time when Change beats you in your head, be ready for huge things to come your way. We cannot do without Change, because without change we would just be immobile organic matter marching towards our graves.

Temet Nosce, What is?

It is one of many Latin variants for the phrase 'Know Thyself' (Know yourself) - It is so much more powerful and complicated than what people think. 

 

I picked this up from the The Matrix movie, there is this sign subtly placed above a door when Neo goes to visit the Oracle. It is actually hard to miss.

If you missed it

What do you think knowing yourself means? It is definitely not about knowing basics like your name and the place  where you come from, and everything else that you require to fill out a form. Is it about maintaining a written catalog about how you behave in different situations? No, not that advanced. 

According to me, knowing yourself is about keeping mental notes about the critical situations you have been through, and creating some of your own. How to create mental situation, our mind is exposed to so many things today: books, movies, news. Almost everyday you must stumble upon some situation where it is about choosing one path from an array of choices. That is when the frontal lobe of our brain comes into action, decision making. How do you expect to make a decision when you don't know yourself? All these criminals and the negativity which prevails in our surroundings, this comes from the root cause of not knowing yourself and having a false belief which further branches a flawed sense of justice.

What I find myself doing from time to time is giving myself a random situation, and think how I will respond in it, what decision I will make and justify it. This is the way your thinking expands. If you don't converse with yourself, how do you expect to make the right decision when you are talking to another brain? Our brain is so feeble, often it takes the road which seems easier, sometimes it takes the road which most people are taking, most of us - we don't know the reason for our actions. We just do it, because of our feeble minds. At least we should know the mental note we kept with regard to that decision. Else we are just doing what we all do before creating an online account or installing a software (I have READ and AGREED with the terms and conditions) - but life is not a software which can be re-installed or a Google account, which can be recreated. You just get one life, and you are straight away thrown into the fire where you have to adapt and learn accordingly.

People who don't think (and keep mental notes) - they are the ones who are easily manipulated into hurting themselves or their  surroundings. You are the only 'You' in the universe. Don't do things, just because others are doing it. Respect your individuality. Think before you act. Justify your actions. Know yourself. The world will seem so much simpler then. Just try it.