Never we have an inkling that our life is akin to a lawn tennis ball that got entangled and wrapped into a net of thoughts. On the contrary, we have postulated some categories of our “state of mind and through these categories we decide the parameters of our diurnal activities of life. These three categories appertained to our “state of mind” are; firstly the normal state, second of happiness or merriment and thirdly of frustration, despair or fretfulness. The first category we treat as normal is the condition when we enjoy our “state of mind” as free of all tensions. In this condition, we are inclined to presume, we are under no any obligation which may be the cause of some worry to us. In a way, our our mental state is in sort of “tranquility.”
Is there a condition, when in our normal situation we feel our selves in phase of tranquility? I mean, a condition when we are devoid of any thought? No. Never! Our thought process even in that tranquil condition keeps on processing either. In another way, our mind sends us signalling message, “at the present you are under no any obligation to bear some stress. Rest of the matter is, this life is always riddled with diurnal activities.”Here the mind has acclimatized with routine hazards of life.
As a paradigm, with a “normal or tranquil state of mind”, you step out from the home for some shopping. On your way, you may encounter some traffic jam or disorder in the machinery of your vehicle you are riding on. If you take all these small hurdles casually, then you have learn an absolute lesson of life how to survive with peace. It’s the “art of human adaptation.” But, in contrast to this, on facing the issue of traffic jam, you begin to blame the government or the incivic sense of crowd, then your “normal state of mind” shall be disturbed. You may be fretful or anxious. In this situation, you directly jump into third category of “state of mind” ( of frustration or despair.)
Our entire life revolves around these three categories of “state of mind.” In fact we call is “mood.” But the quintessential element of these categories, these are dictated, directed and decided by the “chain of thoughts”, we give them the name of “thought process.” When we are in “normal state of mind,” it seems to us, we are not thinking or not generating any thought. It’s not that! On the face of it, we have developed an art of “adaptation” to ignore the minor problems. In continuation to this maneuvering, when we take our life’s activities in perspective to “jungle of thoughts,” we try to explore the working mechanism of mind. And this exploration as usual always has been proven a riddle to us.
The next phase of “state of mind” is of happiness or merriment. The feeling mechanism of a felicitous sensation is also an output of thought process that is also mysterious. Some delicious food, an entertaining reading contents or visuals always generate a felicitous sensation. And this sensation is nothing but the thought process of the mind that relaying the signals to us. On receiving the signals, we begin to feel joyous. Now, this level of “happy state of mind” may vary from man to man in degrees. On cracking of a joke, nine out of ten persons enjoy the joke with laughter, but a singular maintains a graveness.
This kind of situation occurs when a particular man is already burdened with some encumbrances. And this feeling of graveness or anxiety is also connected to signals emitted by mind. This situation counts as “jumble of thoughts.” The “jumble of thoughts” is the third phase of this jungle of thoughts. It’s like a prototype. A man can feel frustration from any kind of anxiousness. Here also exists different levels of anxiety. The same problem may sound of “trivial effect” to one person but “excruciating” to another one.
As a paradigm, if a habitual criminal comes to know that local police is in search of him, he will simply exert to change his location to become out of the reach of the local police. This helps him to acquire back his “normal state of mind.” But on the same, if a police constable appears at the door of a peace loving, law abiding gentle man, it may disrupt his mental peace or “normal state of mind” entirely. This gentle man at once caught under the “jumble of thoughts.” Why police had a visitation to his place? Who sent the police against him? May this lead him to face some court case trial? This kind of questions will begin to nag him. If after all it comes up, it was routine check-up, even then it will take many days to him to resume his normal state of mind.
When I am talking of living in “jungle of thoughts,” then I purport to say, on the very day we come to our senses in our life, from that day onward, we are fated to live with this “incessant process” of thinking. Merely our span of contemplation shifts on with our increasing maturity level. In our child hood, our thought process revolves around school, gamboling, parents and sibling etc. But even in that age group, we incessantly remain under the grip of thought process in our wake up state. With the growing of age, the periphery of this thought process expands. In college life we begin to think about so many things like love affair, carrier, our fixed goals of future etc.
Never our mind sits quietly. It has got it own amazing structure. Yes, when we are in dormant condition or in sleeping mode, then this process attenuates but not ceases. This dormant condition helps our body get recharged and refreshed. But even in sleep, this thought process takes us into the “dreaming process.” The branch of science dealing with dreams claims, every man goes through dreaming when asleep. It’s another thing, a big number of people are unable to remember the dream. Some of them recall the dream occasionally. But on the other hand, a good deal of number of people on being awake recall their dreams serenely and clearly. This is also the part and parcel of the same “thought process” of mind.
Ironically, one thing is there, if we are given to think about this “thought generating process” of mind, it may lead us to the condition of “jumble of thoughts.” Hence, avoid thinking about this all and try to live the life of a layman, who knows very little about the structure of brain but instead, of head only. To him, this head is placed on the shoulders of every man and something named mind it contains. This concepts helps him live a happy life. Penned by — Vinay Pharasi —–