Why do we dream of what we do?

This article I am writing is not about what we consciously dream of but of what our subconscious speaks to us through our dreams.

We speak different things to different people. To some people we speak our minds but to most we apply a filter and speak out only those things that are appropriate and those that would not create any confusion or problem. But deep beneath, not actually that deep. Just take away the filter or simply get a lil drunk, when the filter will vanish and what comes out will only be what we mean.
It is not uncommon to hear people speak about philosophy or about people who really love when they are drunk. Both these aren't acceptable to be spoken straight forward per the so called 'Societal norms' as people just cannot accept reality and pure love.

Well as usual I have deviated from my topic. But, the last para kinda sets the context for the topic of this write up which is 'what do we dream of? or what does the subconscious speak to us?

It is really interesting to note the kinda stuff we dream about. I can vouch for a fact that all that we dream about are things that we thought about at some point in time or the other but for the damned 'societal norms' or for the heck of being in the good books of others kept it to ourselves.

All these societal norms and other fallacies like that apply only to the world outside. The world inside is simple, beautiful and true. The subconscious speaks to the mind about things that it thought but did not let out or experience for some reason or the other.

Our dreams can vary from a scary experience like seeing a loved one dead to a beautiful experience like dating the hottest chic on the ramp to an indulging one like flying in a personal aero plane above the Alps. Such is the audacity of the sub-conscious. It doesn't care about how you feel on being communicated through a dream about something that you can cannot accept that easily. It just let's out things that are put in.

You put anything in your mind, it comes out through some form or other other. And, if it doesn't come out, it remains there troubling you for a life time. In my next article or probably some other article I will cover more about two more philosophical & psychological topics that were briefly hinted through the course of this write up. They are :

1. 'What goes in come out' and it's universal applicability.
2. 'The world is scared to accept things as they are.


Have a good sunday!

Difference between being alone and being left out

The people who think they are left out are the ones that are the weakest. How can some one be left out? I totally agree to what is being said and proved around the notion 'man is a social animal.' But, one can never be left out. Everyone has so much to discover from within themselves, so much to speak to their mind, so much more conversation that that their higher sense has to make to the mind.

When you turn your mind inwards you understand what all your mind says and does. You see and realize and some point in time that the mind goes behind everything gives sensual pleasure be it money, things and women. In this bargain it fails to differentiate between what is necessary and what is luxury, what is good and what is bad, what is true and what is false and most importantly what is temporary and what is permanent.

All this the higher sense within us understands but the mind which dominates us diverts us from this and rules the roost. Guess I am deviating from the topic. Let me speak more about the difference between being alone and being left out.

Ya... so what I mean to say is very simple. There are more than one being within yourself. There are actually three within you. One is the real you -'the soul,' the second is the one with which you connect with other things and beings in this world - 'the mind' and the third is the frame within which the first two are contained, I mean 'the body.' The brain is another entity too. And if you are a 'feel' person there is 'the heart' too.

Going by this there are at least three beings that everyone has. Interacting with any of these is a lot of fun and a rewarding experience. When this is the case, someone can be alone, but how can they ever feel left out? Ya.. they may not be surrounded by people but they have themselves to spend time with.

Spending time alone is also a great thing to do. It shows you things that you have never seen before and let's you feel things that you have never felt before. If at this point in time you have come to a conclusion that I hit my head against a boulder and blabbering stuff, or I am drunk or I have simply lost it, please feel free to reach out to me and I will be happy to share my excitement around this topic with you.

Remaining unaffected by how people perceive you

Everyone of us wake up in the morning go about doing our chores, dress up well, socialize etc. If you notice carefully, there is one thing that is common in all what we do and say. It is how people perceive you for what you are and your actions.

Thinking about it in further more detail, we would be alarmed to discover the effect of people's perception about us have on us. If we get a lot of compliments from others about us, that drastically improves our mood for the day. If we hear lot of derogatory remarks from others about us, that spoils our mood for the day.

The question to be answered is, why on earth does the comment of some one else be it positive or negative have an effect on you. Psychologically speaking, any mood is a state of our own mind and not about what people think about you. But, the exact opposite seems to be happening in every one's life.

I am not trying to advocate rudeness in behavior or encouraging everyone to be a loner. Of course, it is important to be amongst people and that is precisely why it is said 'man is a social animal.' However, a social animal need not be an animal that is a slave to the society.

Everything that happens in this world is not because of what others do to you or what others do not do to you. It is because of how to you take things. This is precisely what teachers of ancient karate tried to preach. The enemy to be conquered is not your opponent. The real enemy is within you.

Taking cue from this and applying it to our daily lives, we can pretty much understand that it is we who decide how happy we are, how sad we are, how handsome/beautiful we look and how well we live our lives. It is not the perceptions of people that decide it.

When we start getting into the habit of thinking primarily about what people will think, how they will perceive you, you will end up living a life without having done anything that you wanted to do and not even earning a good reputation from people. Because, irrespective of what you do people will still rack their brains to find out something wrong in to speak about partly because most people are so jobless and partly to satisfy their self ego. Self ego is satisfied when one feels better about himself/herself in comparison to the others. When the find fault in you, they feel faultless at least relatively faultless and that gives them a false sense of self-confidence by which they feel good.

Feeling young and happy

The whole world is running on it's toes for god knows what. But at the end of the day retire in the drawing rooms of their respective homes with a bag full of money, room full of luxuries and a mind full of sadness.

I am sure each and everyone of us would have been nothing but happy all through our childhood and early teens for that matter until late teens. But, by the early twenties is when the worry factor starts to creep in. Logically speaking early twenties is when everyone should start feeling more happy because, all the material pleasure we only dreamt of suddenly appears in front of our eyes. This is primarily because of the fact that we get to work and draw good if not huge salaries.

But here is the catch. If happiness ( at least how we picturized it in late teens) is bought by money why aren't we happy with more money. This let's us face off with a truth of life that happiness is not bought by money.

One way of feeling happy is by feeling young. By feeling young, I mean enjoying every single moment of life and doing what gives us happiness. As a kid, even a short cycle ride would make me feel out of the world. When a grew up little more, travelling pillion on my Dad's scooter gave me happiness. As I grew up little more, travelling by a car gave me happiness and two wheeler rides no more excited me.

I am now employed and travel to work in an air-conditioned car every day but it doesn't bring me even 1/10th of the happiness that I the same used to give me a decade back. It is the same car, in fact a better one, same luxury in fact way better luxury but things aren't the same. Logically speaking my happiness should have increased. But, it has decreased.

The problem is not with the type of the car I travel or the luxury it has to offer but in my mind. Or rather the way I have groomed my mind. I have groomed my mind in a way to not happy with what is around but to dream of higher levels of material happiness. By saying this, I do not intend to say dreaming big is bad. What I am only saying is, dreaming big about things like what I can do as a person, how much I can love people around me, how well I can develop my skill set etc.. is what is required and not dreams like, I would own a car when I am 25, I would own a house when I am 30, own a bunglow when I am 40 etc.

Here again I would like to draw a parallel to cricket. And Sachin in specific. In the center of all the fame, money and records is a man who has very simple rules by which he lives life. Even now when you ask Sachin what keeps him going, his reply would be "As a kid, I dreamt of playing cricket for my country. I am happy I get to do this. "

What a simple but effective reply. 20 years of playing international cricket is no mean achievement and too playing for a country like India where there is enormous pressure from the media and the public. But it takes one great head on that tiny frame he has to keep it going year after year.

This is the reason he still enjoys his game and that enjoyment in turn leads to him playing extra-ordinarily even today. If only he had changed his focus from enjoying cricket to much attractive but temporary targets like being the highest run scorer, being the most famous cricketer, being the richest sportsman etc, he would have lost his way. May be he would have achieved all these but would have sure lost his head.

But here is the man standing at less than 5 1/2 feet still achieving things that most cricketers can only dream of and still leading a peaceful, happy and successful life. Now, you would have understood that, the thing that keeps him going is the passion for the game.

And I am sure he retires every day to his drawing room with a bag full of money, house full of luxury and a mind full of happiness.

Happiness in fact lies in following what you are passionate about and everything else follows. Actually even if nothing else follows it doesn't really matter because you are happy anyway and that is essentially why everyone is alive!

Hyderabad half marathon

The lack of training in the past two weeks coupled with the lack of sleep the night before the marathon saw my performance dip. ( Though I clocked exactly the same time - 2 hr 30 mins I did the last time I ran the half marathon on the 30th November, 2008, I would call it a dip performance because of the training I did in since then!) Anyway, no great regrets. It was still a success in a way because I always believed in a good sleep absolutely important the day before running a marathon.

But this time around, despite sleeping only for 3.5 hrs as opposed to the 8.5 hrs I do normally, I was still able to complete the run with a decent timing. I am not very sure about how lack of sleep affects performance physically the next day. But, lack of sleep usually psyches me out - in the sense I get mentally defeated even before the beginning of the race coz of lack of sleep. But, this time around, it was a test for my mental strength and I should say I managed to put up a decent show!