Can We Tell?

1–2 minutes

With the era of AI and the Instagram trends rising every week, there are new videos, edits and photographs popping up. I am not very well educated about the editing apps and the AI. All I knew was this Midjourney?

I always had a notion that we (humans) would be able to predict or differentiate the AI slop from real photos and videos. Then there was this one incident where a set of images actually taken by humans looked like AI. I am not sure if they were edited that way. Felt like a setback.

Even the platforms are guessing I think. When you post a real image, Meta labels it as AI. I am not sure if I am understanding the backstage of it. Most of the time, we don’t zoom into picture. Just a scroll up. No skepticism in vacation photos, food or health related ones. We remember the one that catch our eye and miss the rest.

With all these feeds of AI slop across social media, will the brain still be able to identify and differ? With writing, it is easier to identify. Maybe once we get used to it, we will? Or will AI keeping pushing the boundaries?

Cheers

Check out the previous post: Can the algorithm really understand you? & The Left Column

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The Left Column

Few days ago, I was listening to a pod (Link) where Andrew Huberman shared quite a few to many interesting and practical frameworks that can be taken in one’s life. One of them looks simple yet it is hard to imbibe. It is about creating a list of the things you want to do or the pressing ones. This is not similar to four square Eisenhower matrix. No delegate it or do it.

Source: Google images

The above one helps you manage your tasks. The stated one is more of psychological one, managing where the mind goes. Separate the list into two columns, left and right. The right column holds the things you have control over, or acted on or planned for. Meanwhile, the left column holds the things you don’t have control. You can control the effort, but not always the outcome. Same as many stoic philosopher spoke about and the idea I have being circling around last two weeks. (Check out the previous one on uncertainty, the untested ones and more)

Creating this list might sound east but the hard part comes when something shows up in a day. This where you have to rewire the brain to stop ruminating or looping. Saying it out loud helps too. I am still practicing it and bad at catching the loop in time. But it is good (Controlling what you don’t have a control over, lol).

Cheers

Check out the previous post: Can the algorithm really understand you?

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Can the algorithm really understand you?

2–3 minutes

Can the algorithm really understand you? Or can you make the algorithm understand you ? The question arose after watching a pod. I am not sure whether both are feasible or solvable problems.

For the first one, it is more about the system. What it is capable of seeing. One of the easiest pattern to study/understand/know the algorithm is that it gives more of what you react to.

For the second, it is more of question about oneself. What you can push through. There are things you want and there are things you react to. The algorithm doesn’t have access to the things you want unless you search for them or liked them on the internet. Unstated desires are not captured by it. The former part is what the algorithm is optimized for.

Each reaction (like, scroll, pause, watching the whole reel, staying on that post) is an input/preference to the algorithm and the feed get optimized accordingly. The algo assumingly concludes that’s who you are and what your preferences are. Now, can we manipulate the algo? Is it easy to fight against n number of techy people who are constantly working to keep you hooked into this ?

Not impossible but it is the hardest thing to do. Controlling/regulation your own triggers in the moment. To put this in simple terms, become Zen. The easier move is to like what you want to focus on. For example, liking the content about what you want to learn. It’s searching more and pruning harder. Deliberately not as a reflex. Or opt for things that have no feedback loop like books or conversation with people in person. Nothing gets optimized when there is no feedback.

So, it is possible to make the algorithm understand you but only by translating a want into a like (a language it reads), which is the trigger it understands.

On the flip side, the same asymmetry follows. As a creator, it is really hard to predict what might trigger consumers to get the content moving. One might stop the scroll and another might not. The only strategy that survives this unpredictability is the volume (as Gary Vee or Alex Hormozi says) inside a niche. Sometimes you can get fooled by a randomness (in a good way).

As a consumer, you can force a signal but as a creator, you just have to create until something sticks, rather than trying to make an algorithm understand you.

The system is such that triggers are cheap to measure and the wants are not. Friction is a metric for whether you are inside the optimized system or not.

Cheers

Check out the previous post: On the Way Out!

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On the Way Out!

2–3 minutes

Am I being creative or if it is just finding an another outlet to let the thoughts and words to take a form. I am not quite certain on that yet. I have been writing on this platform for almost three years. Whatever was circling or ruminating, I put it here. I think I believed that was what expression meant. Thoughts, give it some form, pour it out and it is outside. Done!

Then, a few months ago, I started with oil pastels. Mostly mimics scenery, imitating the pictures that were already on the internet. Recently, I started drawing the thoughts themselves, as shapes and colors. TBH, this new form (Oil pastels) has taken up more space and time than writing. It does makes me wonder whether I see a difference between the two. I believe, there is.

Should we call this as venting or dumping? I am not sure whether it is right as well. Dumping is merely taking the looping thoughts in the same form and vomiting it in the same form. The loop survives it. But writing or expression, gets processed, takes a shape, gets edited and then leaves. Closer to an expression. There is clear distinction between dumping and expression.

When it comes to pastels and writing, writing goes deeper for me. Words are necessary to name things. You cannot write a feeling without identifying and deciding what that feeling is. Bu, pastels doesn’t ask anything. Those color and shapes can hold the thing which can not be named. No questions to answered.

So which is better medium? Is there a way to measure any of this? I do not think there are any scoreboard or metrics. It is subjective. But there is one rough metric, I circle back to. Does it feel better? Does it loosen the loop? This is the only measurement I have right now. The pastels give a shape to a feeling. The writing makes me go deeper. Maybe the question isn’t about the current form. It is about which channel to what form. It helps to decide whether to hold that thought or go deeper to understand it.

So, find a form, wander in it and see what it does to the thought/feeling on the way out.

Cheers!

Check out the previous post: What keeps you going & Motha Rathiri (2026)

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Motha Rathiri (2026) Movie Review

2–4 minutes

I am not sure if I can title this as a movie review, since I want to talk about the role played by Muthu. I am not sure if it was her acting skills, the role she played, or the plot that made me write this. I see this as a rural version of Malargal Kettean (a short film) with regard to the female lead. Maybe an extended version of it.

The core theme of imposing marriage onto individuals was clear. The movie brought out so many layers that play into an arranged marriage, or into marriage itself: the parents, relatives, caste, money, friends, and even one’s own ability to handle a relationship. Before proceeding to Muthu, the director (Nitiz) himself played an amazing role. Not every man has the guts to say no based on his ability to handle a relationship. He was honest rather than wasting Muthu’s life, late though! In reality, many don’t do that. “No” is the best thing.

Back to Muthu. Very fine details of Muthu’s character were established in the beginning. She had very few dialogues, but the emotions were conveyed. Most daughters are trained right from birth to take care of themselves and the family from household chores to earning an income for themselves (a recent update). I felt Muthu was looking for a rescue through Nitiz, a way to escape her home. To her surprise, that failed too. I am not sure if Maruthu was also her rescue option; even so, she doesn’t have a choice to pick. No cards to play at her end. Or his words (Assurance) made her stay.

Maruthu did have an event that brought out the changes in him and in his feelings towards Muthu. The most subtle thing the movie focused on was the space Maruthu gave Muthu to think, rather than rushing her decision. There was no pressure to rush. The dance on the stage and the screaming in front of them were beautifully portrayed, for when her words couldn’t be communicated. Maruthu had the choice to move out of town to grieve, while Muthu doesn’t. Maybe that stresses the role of Maruthu in Muthu’s life. Reassurance or accountability or maybe both.

People were comparing this to Dude. In that, Paari was confident about Kural. Such comparisons can’t be made when the access and the choices are different.

The reason for the marriage was reasonable. That reminded me of the movie Care of Kadhal. The roles played by the others (each one took their space to be remembered) were also good, the team of men and the team of women separately. Their conversations were entirely different from each other. The humour worked in most places. The movie subtly pushed you to think in a few places: the training for a long jump, the touch on the bike, the frequent calls from the partner.

Fun to watch. Will stir an impact? Not sure. Maybe If Muthu had a few more dialogues to go with those emotions. Yet, Highly recommended.!!!

Cheers!

Check out the previous post: Story Time #02: Salt Biscuits! & Other Movie Reviews

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What Keeps You Going?

1–2 minutes

Every process or goal requires pain, discipline, consistency, courage and innate ability to handle the uncertainty of the outcome. Most of the people do the process for the end goal, such as reward or profit or prize or medal or more. For a few, the journey might be enough and for other, a witness is enough to run the journey.

It is not fair to rank which is better. But each one has a failure mode too. Reward people collapse when they lose. Witness people go hollow when the room is empty (including the inner self). Journey people never finish (finish line never appears). Nothing is better or worse here!

But how does one identify that? By the starting something, finishing and identifying the outcome (to know the shape of what’s missing at the end). You will realize which one is your need or want.

Some goals are short and a few cost years. Obviously, the activities, goals and outcome are subjective.

Start is hard, finish is also hard, identifying what is working for you is even harder!

Cheers!

Check out the previous post: Untested are not the Same as the Safe

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Untested are not the Same as the Safe

2–3 minutes

The brain is a complex system, yet too protective of us. Basically, it has been trained for years to filter out the unnecessary ones and feed us only the important things. I have read and written about the RAS how our brain picks up on what we give attention to. While I was reading this book called Fooled by Randomness (I had wanted to read this author’s work for a long time), the concept of the narrative fallacy came into the picture.

Everyone might know the act, but not the label. I am still in debate over whether labelling is necessary for everything. But the label helps us identify the things we were doing instinctively, and brings awareness. The brain, in order to protect us from bad outcomes, creates a false story around it. Let’s say something good happens. We might assume that good things will happen forever, without considering the uncertainty or the unhappened data points which could affect the entire graph. The outcome could be positive or negative. It filters out the rest and gives us only one version, as if that were the complete picture.

For eg. I am healthy, so I don’t need insurance is a narrative fallacy too. Forty years of not falling ill feels like evidence to oneself. But it is only evidence of the years that have already passed. The rare event gives us no warning.

I am still not sure about manifestation, but neuroplasticity, rewiring and doing the hard things can change the system. Focusing on the good things, or being slightly optimistic, would help us. In the end, exploring all the worst-case scenarios helps us forecast how much of the uncertainty can be absorbed. So, as Taleb says, be pessimistic in absorbing the risk and optimistic in the rest of life.

Take the example quoted in the book, that of John and Nero. Nero had the capacity to bear the risk, and John didn’t. But the beauty is that there are n number of Johns who are not affected by the randomness.

We can call it karma, the butterfly effect, nature or even God, the rare event and its occurrence are unpredictable. And this is where the narrative fallacy comes into the picture, where we create stories and narratives to stay inside.

It all takes a bit of awareness to absorb or handle the randomness. Otherwise, it is likely to be a disaster.

Cheers

PS: You never know!

Check out the previous post: On Purposes and Desires & DC Movie Review

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On Purposes and Desires

3–5 minutes

I think I have written something on desires previously, but I don’t remember on which post I have associated with. These thoughts are on loop for the past few weeks. Such are the purpose or desires, or what it is that is pulling you, or keep calling you, how do you take your life in the next five years? I am not sure, whether I have found the answers to the above.

I think I’ve been evolving with these questions on. The answers that I have been arriving was not same across. Last month was too different from yesterday and from today. I don’t know whether I think the same tomorrow with the inputs that I collect. I have been giving attention to each and every detail regarding the purpose and destiny, or what is your karma? Or will whatever you want to call it, or even you can call it as passionate if you want.

I would say, maybe I have identified how to find your purpose, or to know, or to identify. I am not sure whether I have identified my purpose yet, but I think I found the path to which it can be obtained. The purpose can be anything that you desire to do with a strong burning sensation of doing it for a longer time, without getting bored.

The major differences between the them is to identify whether it is fleeting or deep one. And some of the desires fade away. Right after you chase it, or you get it, or the satisfaction level does not give you much happiness, and there is no much exploration, or there is no wanting of more.

This I found out while I was running for marathon last week. I did like the process of running, but I didn’t like the heart of getting a medal, and that part wasn’t exciting enough. I enjoyed the most in the marathon was like, I made a conservation with stranger. we helped each other. I think that was more, the process which I like, than the process of telling myself that I ran at this space and got this medal. Maybe that helped me find out like the medals where the fleeting desire and the deep desire was the process that I liked the most.

Maybe I should run another marathon with her. I could do a 10K. The running didn’t stop in me, I think it is the same that I had with the writing. Maybe it is around four years, though the audience are very limited, I don’t think that I have stopped myself from writing. That is what I could say as of now.

And coming back to the purpose question, I think it is more of finding out, what is yours? Through exploration and through trial and error. The process helps you to identify, what are the things which you do not like? No’s are easier to find. For some people, some things like a found at a very young age and for some people, it appears late. And that burning desire, I feel like it will never stop, I don’t think so. I think you just have to listen to yourself little more to find out, what is that burning desire that you have and keep working towards it?

And one more interesting quote that I saw while I was watching a YT today. He said it was about a Sanskrit quote, which said that what you become on following that burning desire is is your destiny. I would say, it did help me to a greater extent on identifying how the deep desires lead you to more branches, rather than fleeting. A deep desire is one that survives the absence of reward. No medal, no audience, still doing it.

Yet, I do not know whether these running and writing are my destiny, but I think I will keep exploring more options. These will keep pushing me to become what I am becoming today and tomorrow. Hope this helps you to identify your deep burning desires.

Cheers

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Bangles

2–3 minutes

துறைவன் துறந்தமை தூற்றாகொல் முன்கை இறைஇறவா நின்ற வளை – 1157

This is a beautiful kural from Thirukkural on missing the partner who comes back. She is not just worried about her weight loss but also about the village people knowing her grief. The bangles are slipping away screaming the grief of her loved one’s departure.

Maybe, this is how the bangles have to slip away from the women’s hand after the departure of the men rather than breaking it. Of course, this post is about the ritual carried out right after husband’s death. Valluvar was writing about a man who would return. I’m borrowing the image for one who won’t. Some might think like, who is even following these things. But to the sadness, it is followed as a closed ritual , not done in front everyone for about 10 to 15 mins, I guess.

I believe in partnership, healthy relationship, grief and certain rituals and customs. Many to most has scientific reason behind. There is one blog post that comes to my mind. Its on useful beliefs. I don’t remember the author nor the website. Was it Derek Sivers? Not sure (I will update link later). The context was that if the beliefs shapes you to become a better person, then adopt that belief into your life.

I am not sure whether the above thing shapes any the women in a better way. The women are conditioned right from birth to wear things like bangles, bindi, anklets, garlands on the hair, bright colored dresses. This counts to the maximum of 20 to 22 years of conditioning before marriage (considering the legal age). If the husband pass away, suddenly all the identity that were her from birth becomes his and it has to be given away. So many logical explanations were given but isn’t all absurd? None of them holds true. Philosophically, there is no identity to any human beings, it keeps evolving but how does it change over a night?

There are lot of taboos around single women, divorced women and widow women. I am not sure whether it has to be looked through the lens of philosophy or humane. But one has to learn the difference between the beliefs that shapes our life and belittling ones.

I want to add the kural to reveal how grief works in reality rather than the forced one. Let the bangles fall on its own through grief or it may not. Let that be a choice of a person wearing it. Even if she can’t yet tell whether she is choosing or obeying the conditioning, the choice should be hers to make.

Cheers

Check out the previous post: Liberation over Grief!

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Liberation over Grief!

3–4 minutes

I think I asked a different, possibly irrelevant question last time (The real metamorphosis). Could be time relevant. The question now has been re-directed towards something else this time.

In the last post, I got stuck on usefulness and and which kind I meant. Whether it was something I made for myself or just the price of being kept. I left it open ended because I could not close it. Nor I found the answer. But the book does not end nor focus on usefulness. It ends on liberation.

Gregor dies. The next morning the family does not fall apart nor grieve much. They take the day off. They write letters to their employers. They ride out to the countryside and there is warm sunshine. Somewhere on that ride the parents notices their daughter has grown into a young woman. That is the last page of the book.

Kafka does not punish them for not grieving nor rants about their behavior. He just lets it be true. Last time I read this book from Gregor’s room. This time, I am inside the Grete’s mind.

She is the one who feeds him and tried different foods. She cleans and even tried to looking at him, whatever his body had become. Yet, she is also the one who finally calls him “it“, and says they have to get rid of it. But at the end of the book, her young body stretching is the final piece of words. Young, livelier and ready for a life. The one who cared the most is the one who looks the most free. Liberation over grief!

So maybe usefulness was not the question then. Was it death? I don’t mean death as an ending. But death shows you which kind of love you were living inside. The kind that survives the person, or the kind that was only there because something was needed/meant useful.

So, does death mean liberation? Liberation for whom? To Gregor or Grete?

This liberation didn’t sound like betrayal in the book. Not from Grete’s POV. It is what is happens once the caring stops from being required or even forced upon.

Here is the part I keep getting confused or was wrong about earlier. I used to think relief comes first followed by grief once the shock settles. But, it does not come like that in all scenarios. It is more of subjective to the individuals on which comes first or the second. For Grete, grief followed by relief.

Maybe the ending was never closing Gregor’s story. It was opening theirs or even Grete’s. The tram ride is the honest scene in the whole book, because it is the first time nothing has to be performed for him.

This is what death actually does to everyone when it is allowed to. It does not just remove a person. It removes the performance that grew around keeping them. One more thing is that, Gregor’s last thoughts were about his family. He thinks of them with love. He decides that he should disappear.

So the book does have that kind of love in it. The kind that does not need usefulness to keep going. Maybe this is the answer to my previous post.

I am not sure about it either.

Cheers

PS: Every re-read gives a different perspective.

Check out the previous post: On Recovery!

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On Recovery!

1–2 minutes

There is always saying that “Prevention is better than cure”. I believe this most of the time.

But, the uncertainty always exists. Uncertainty doesn’t ask us permission anytime. It hit us at its own time, place, intensity. We never know.

All do we do have is a playbook or mental models we have built over time with the experiences. But these doesn’t help during the uncertainty. But they definitely helps us in deciding what happens after.

Take Noah (my fav name) for an example. He works out well. Watches his diet (carbs, proteins, fats). The micronutrients or fiber are not missed out. Does this mean this person won’t fall sick? No. He might or might not.

But if he falls sick, he comes back faster. That’s the difference. The recovery matter more than ever.

The more Noah walks this health path, more the realization. It’s not about how many days he stayed well. It’s about how many days it took him to recover/ come back to the self.

Maybe, prevention was never about avoiding the fall. Maybe it was always about the comeback. How fast is yours?

Cheers!

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Lifestyle

2–3 minutes

A few years ago, FIRE (Financial Independence, Retire Early) was everywhere on LinkedIn and IG. Every fin-influencer would talk about it. I don’t know if it still the norm. But the underlying question is very simple. How much of your life do you actually need to fund vs how much have you decided to fund by default?

Money psychology isn’t universal. It’s shaped by how and what we have lived through through our childhood. Mostly through scarcity, excess, a parent’s anxiety, a childhood that taught you either to save or to spend. So when I read a post like the one going around in the X. A man in Gurgaon, ₹26L a year, ₹15,000 left at the end of the month. My first instinct isn’t to judge the number rather than on the behavior. I don’t know. I am heavily influenced by Morgan Housel on this one. Few things to stress on.

Source: X

Lifestyle has to be a conversation: Every couple has a spendthrift and a saver in some proportion. TBH, gifted if you could get one in your desired way. But, neither is wrong by default. But if that was never discussed and if one partner is optimizing and the other is drifting, then it will be a total chaos. the math would eventually break and the math game would turn into blame game.

Maximizers vs. satisficers: A distinction I keep coming back to link to my old post. One always wants the best available option and the other wants an option that’s good enough and moves on. It is quite important and maybe worth spending time on identify the areas of maximum and minimum.

Morgan’s line: No matter what you earn, maintaining the lifestyle is what costs you. Income solves today’s number/problems and creates tomorrow’s ceiling. The ₹26L earner isn’t broke because he earns too little. Maybe among the top 5% earners in Indian population? He’s stretched because rent, a car EMI, and ₹50,000/month for one child were never weighed against what the household could actually absorb/handle.

Some of those could be reduced. A family of three has room to renegotiate rent, groceries, even school costs and toys. None of it is fixed the way it’s posted across.

And if the answer is my wife should also earn. It is fair enough in this economy and with rate of inflation, but that has to be a conversation. Women re-entering workforce after a maternity gap is not that easy. The hurdles between the kid, job, household has to be managed. Very few get the resources and the additional support.

None of this erases uncertainty or unforecasted events. Health issues, jobs disappear, rent rises. But blaming a partner (irrespective of the gender) for the shortfall rarely fixes the shortfall.

Cutting expenses does. Saving as a habit does. Constant lifestyle does.

Cheers!

PS: Haven’t installed IG yet

Check out the previous post: Delayed Gratification!

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Delayed Gratification!

2–4 minutes

Everyone advices the other falls into two. First as stop scrolling. Second one as, to learn to enjoy a quiet evening once you’ve stopped the former. I assume, they are one loop, seen from different perspective. I believe, it is just an advice to be spread and quite difficult to be followed.

The pull isn’t the content!

TBH, most of things in the feed is forgettable the second we scroll up. Yet, the thumb keep moving, right? Does it end? IG doesn’t show the end of the gird. It feels like there is no end. Like Akashyapathiram, there are n number of new creators and consumers.

This feels addictive because we don’t know what the next scroll/reel gives you. It is usually nothing. Then, suddenly, something that resonates. It’s not chasing the good post. But chasing maybe this next one. That “maybe” is the whole game or to be precise, the anticipation is the word.

Why deleting the app isn’t enough?

Lets say the app is deleted or we have set a timer or even uninstalled. And, obviously it works for awhile. In the long run, does it?

The moment it’s reachable again, the urge to use is back. Sometimes even stronger. This never stops. We try to break the loop and the chain continues.

The Connecting dot

Lets say the boundary has been set. What shows up after the boundary isn’t calm. It’s a flatness/baseline that feels wrong. The empty feeling or dip. Now , this feels like something is missing. Like a void maybe? Not because you miss the app. Because the mind is trained on constant small surprises. It starts treating any steady as a problem to fix that we haven’t identified. Hence, the hand reaches for the phone again.

This is why both pieces of advice fail. Delete the app without expecting the flatness/baseline emotion, and reinstallation is done by day four. Trying to be present while the app is one tap away, feels the loses.

Now swap the app for a person

Lets say someone, who runs hot and cold. Replies fast one day, goes silent for three. Love bombing? Occasionally saying the exact thing that needs to be communicated in a consistent manner.

The core issue, is same as the above. Nothing in this changes too. We are not attached to who they are on average. We are attached to the maybe or the anticipation. Blocking them is deleting the app. And the flatness after is the same. A steady, kind, available person suddenly feels boring, because you’ve learned to read predictability as absence. This doesn’t have to be a partner, could be anyone to whom the issue is dealt with.

One question, not two!

So it’s one loop. The boundary has to hold long enough that ordinary time stops feeling empty and starts feeling ordinary again. Delayed Gratification.

But for how long to delay? I am not sure about this. Subjective to the individuals and the context.

Bu, most probably longer than we want. So don’t aim for feeling good but to stay long enough to stop feeling like loss.

Cheers

PS: Haven’t installed IG yet

Check out the previous post: Curse of Terminologies

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Curse of Terminologies

3–4 minutes

We’ve named everything now. Almost word for most of the feelings and emotions. Hardening. Avoidance. Emotional regulation. Staying in or out. The vocabulary is rich and glamours. The actual part of doing remains as hard as it ever was. All these terms looks similar like a solution for a particular kind of situation. i.e dealing with grief. Be it any kind. There is a follow up question as how do you come of it.

Most people reach out for one of two ways. Stay and harden or leave the place. Both sounds like a perfect answer. Yet, it hides the layers of flaw.

%Hardening: It is more of bracing. Building a shell so less gets through. Even in agriculture, right after tissue culture, the plants left for hardening. So that it gets adapted to the environment. In real life, we put the Buddha’s clam face on for bracing. But the image is wrong. Buddha didn’t harden. He turned inward and towards the difficult things until it loosened its grip. Hardening doesn’t solve but it can hold a lid over a it by a brutal force.

Leave has the opposite. There are lot of quotes on remove the distraction or stay out of the triggers. It may work well on the situation but it does nothing to the internal world. It always travels within one self and not in geographical senses. If a small trigger still sets off, then feeling was never finished.

So the real question carries two context here

  • Do you stay in the situation or leave it? If it is based on the circumstance or geography, then leave or change accordingly.
  • If it is concerned with emotions, accepting is the deal. Facing a feeling benefits in the long run rather than avoiding it and letting it grow.

Avoidance is not as same as steadiness or openness. The former says I don’t care while the latter part says I care yet not knocked over. The numb version looks wise but doesn’t help in the long run. Attaining the steadiness across all walks of life isn’t easy or can’t be forced with words. Trying to be clam while the whole larva churning inside is just hardening again. It starts with a gap of stimulus and response and until the muscle can hold the big things. Listening to the body works over the mind. When the waves are bigger, staying open or openness in a flood might be a trap. Sanity is staying at the edge of the wave and not drawing under it.

This Hardening, avoidance and steadiness might look the same but there is thread of level of difference. Hardening is like building an armor/tool to feel less. Steadiness or staying in build the capacity to hold. The avoidance and steadiness might look the same on the external but it is opposite at the core.

  • Hardening – Feel less
  • Avoidance – Feel less now and more later
  • Staying in – Feel fully now and less later.

Staying steady is not about being robotic to emotions. Sometimes, it better to be shaken (more of a human nature). But it just helps not to be thrown around by everything.

Do these words really matter? I don’t know. Maybe in the introspection or in the analysis, it does help. In the end, the everyone has different definitions of these terms including the word insanity.

Cheers!

Check out the previous post: Space for Women

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What Boredom is actually doing?

2–3 minutes

Every time, I end up digging layers around the idea of boredom.

I’ve written about rest, about boredom, about stillness. Three attempts yet never caught at the core. So here’s another layer added I believe.

We take in a lot. A conversation that didn’t sit right. A decision made too quickly. Something you read and moved past. Something someone said that you filed under think about this later and never did. The intake is constant and raising with the social media. The processing isn’t (Not therapy, lol)

That gap is the backlog or unfinished business or tabs. There is no enough time given to the mind to close it.

TBH, we’re terrified of it. So we fill every gap of emptiness with podcast, scroll, task or even music (Found Guilty) that feels productive. Not because we’re avoiding rest, but because the moment we stop, the load/hanging thoughts becomes visible. This visibility feels like falling behind or even failing.

This is what I finally understand. Boredom isn’t the pile/load. Boredom is what clears it. A days ago I was in the ground for my morning walk. I forgot to recharge data plans. I couldn’t play the music nor Starva. Nothing to do, quite annoyed about it. But the walk really help me in finding the data points for the solution I needed. Because nothing else (music) was occupying the space, so the hanging thing finished processing on its own. It was nice.

They call it as Default Mode Network (DMN). When you stop directing your attention or energy outward, your brain doesn’t go quiet. It switches to a different mode. More of internal kind of one. The one it uses for replaying memories, working over unresolved things, or wandering or making sense of yourself to yourself.

This one, can’t run that opened tabs and a podcast at the same time. The input/consumption has to stop first. That’s the part we keep skipping. This is why boredom is the specific tool.

Meditation, Stillness and Boredom might sound the same, but it is not. Meditation is directed for doing something to your mind or bringing to one thought or one sound or light or even trying not to think or chew on anything. Stillness is a place you arrive at once the noise/thoughts has already settled.

Boredom is messier as compared to both. It is slightly uncomfortable and the mind wanders without a destination. And that exact thing, under which the backlog/pending ones clear. Through it despite the discomfort it feels.

So you don’t sit idle to become creative. You sit idle so the pile can finish itself. Hence, already half-formed ones finally has the room/space to surface.

Cheers!

Check out the previous post: Broken Chain of Website Traffic!

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