Meaningful Activity and Outsourcing

 

Humans by their nature think. Brooding over recalled memory is part of thinking. This nature of humans makes them revisit the good and bad episodes of their lives, as if our mind projects a movie over and over again on the mental screen. Unkind, recalled memories become one of the reasons for depressing thoughts and depression.  Thoughts leading to sadness or bad mood can be effectively curbed by invoking a neutral thought as a predominant thought.

There is a practical way of fighting depressive thoughts and depression by indulging in a meaningful activity. A meaningful activity is any task that gives a sense of purpose, joy and satisfaction. It can be a creative idea, it can be creativity, it can be art, it can be pursuing or developing a hobby, learning new things, indulging in social work, keeping surrounds clean, indulging in deep studies on a subject of liking, it can be as simple as setting a routine and adhering to it or it can be repeating a healthy thought and making it a predominant thought.

Some people have no agenda for the day. They don’t read, they don’t indulge in any hobby, they don’t carry out primary cleanliness of their surroundings including their house, their sleeping area. They have no routine, they don’t exercise. They are not creative and are miles away from art. There is a typical pattern shown by those who are bored, have depressed thoughts or reeling under depression. The bored community are late risers, have very less physical and mental activity, and indulge in mindless outsourcing of simple day to day tasks which otherwise would have kept them busy motivated and happy. People outsource everything – instead of going to market they call for 10 min delivery. Instead of fixing common problems by themselves they call for a service provider. Now a days everything is there on mobile, so they spend more time onscreen, outsourcing day-to-day work. Once a mobile is in hand, we get distracted by social media posts and the chunk of the time is spent on these reels, checking status of others and getting sadder! Buying or ordering art pieces online is not a meaningful activity its outsourcing. Decorating the house with bought out art pieces is a meaningful activity. Pursuing an art as hobby is a meaningful activity. In that one gets involved from designing to gathering of raw material. Raw material put to use to create artwork and to achieve the desired art effect is a meaningful activity. Conceptualizing art piece and giving direction and getting it done is a meaningful activity. Mindlessly buying art pieces is outsourcing and not a meaningful activity. Social service is a meaningful activity whereas outsourced social service is not a meaningful activity. Artistic creation is a meaningful activity and so is healthy hobby. It gives great satisfaction. Joy of creation is paramount than any other form of passing time. Recitation, repetition of name in which one has faith is a time tasted simple effective meaningful activity. In contrast to meaningful activity outsourcing falls under the category of automation. Meaningful activity rises when scaling down of outsourcing starts. Outsourcing in moderation is good when one is already deep into meaningful activity. Both are bad, Inactive person indulging in outsourcing brings in boredom and unbridled outsourcing leads to inactiveness. Meaningful activity takes time, keeps us engaged as it is an involved process, as against watching reels and arranging outsourcing.  Key is to scale down outsourcing of any meaningful activity.

Some people wait for motivation to start an activity. Instead try starting a meaningful activity. Activity leads to motivation and motivation in turn propels activity. The cycle then consumes the person and gives purpose to life. Joy achieved by meaningful activity lasts longer than the Joy achieved by any outsourced outcome.  The journey brings in joy rather than the destination itself. In outsourcing we miss the journey and arrive at the end result. Such outsource masters will never get to experience the joy accrued during the journey. The destination or end result brings in limited satisfaction and is lost the moment the item is unpacked or the destination reached or the end result achieved. Meaningful activity and a predominantly neutral thought ensures a healthy mental health.

PREDOMINANT THOUGHT

 

Each thought brings in good or bad feeling. The moments associated with the feelings shapes the mood. Especially when things go wrong, bad memories get ignited and then whole day one plunges into unkind memories, as if somebody pulled the thought bob of the mind pendulum and left it to ding dong the whole day! This disturbs the mental balance and releases the chemicals that inhibit happy hormones leading to a bad mood. There are several ways to elevate the mood. One is to indulge in mood elevating drugs or other is to remain busy in work or indulge in creative art or think about some unsolved mysteries facing mankind. In short, the good, bad, happy or sad feeling stays till the thought prevails like the ever-increasing concentric wave circles in the mind pond when a thought stone is dropped. Thoughts don’t leave us in sleep also. Connected and unconnected thoughts flash as episodes and we live the dream till it melts when we wake up. Scientist August Kekule lived such a dream of six snakes eating tail of next snake in a ringed fashion which explained the mystery of Benzene molecule. Was it so easy that the elusive molecular structure got explained by a mere dream? The dream would have been an outcome of a predominant thought on his mind during the days of his research. For sure those days leading to that famous dream would have been the best days of August Kekule. Healthy thought, which is predominant acts like an anti-depressant, energy giver, mental soother.

 On emergence of a thought, person with stable mind, devoid of any feelings of anger, happiness or sadness is a saint. To have thoughts without any associated feelings is best for mental health, but it is difficult. There is no guarantee that the invoked thought would result in happy moment. Moreover, unhealthy thoughts tend to latch on to a person’s mind. To keep our self away from the unhealthy thought, cultivate a skill of healthy thought and make it predominant for the day. Base the predominant thought on a chosen theme. The theme can be future plans, world politics, unsolved mysteries of the human race, social issues, current politics, daily riddle, puzzle, crossword, skill, new topic. Anything larger than life and not directly connected to self is good to be taken as healthy thought. That thought which does not stir emotions - sad or happy feelings but still consume the mind as if you are in a trance, is a neutral thought. Neutral thought is healthy thought.  This trance due to a predominant thought does wonders for one’s mental health and time flies. Aim is to bring in neutral thoughts.

Is there any way to have a predominant thought which is neutral? Here are few steps as an exercise to have predominant neutral thought. There are three ways to get a predominant neutral thought. First and simplest is start the day by chanting your favorite GODs name or reciting a prayer. Continue this whenever there is void period – in between conversation with someone, in between mobile use, in between two tasks or during idle time. Idea is never to keep mind idle, but it should overflow with chants. The second way of bringing in predominant neutral thought is to get submerged in a creative hobby, Job or skill which requires focused attention or to get into some kind of social service (a service without any expectation in return). That social service should be carried out by self not to be funded or outsourced. The third and most difficult way is rational thinking, reasoning it out the purpose of life and thereby training our mind to be in a zone of neutral thought and make it a predominant thought. Easier said than done. All three ways can be tried and adopted depending upon one's liking viz – devotion, service or reasoning. Person can try combinations of all three and then decide the route for oneself.

A predominant neutral thought brings in wonders. In times as ours, ability to delve in a predominant healthy thought is equivalent to drugs which control body hormones. The drugs which are available to sooth the nerves and upswing the mood induce side effects like dry mouth, weight gain, drug dependance, lethargy, drowsiness. In the treatment of lifestyle deceases, getting a predominant healthy thought is a big win for the person as it complements the therapy.

 

Additional reading -

·       In chapter 8 verse 6 of Bhagwat Gita - Lord Krishna explains that a person’s predominant thought at the exact moment of death determine their next state of existence-

 

·       यं यं वापि स्मरनभावं त्यज्यत्यन्ते कलेवरम्।

तं तमेवैति कौन्तेय सदा तद्भावभावितः ।।

 

·       English translation - whatever state of being one remembers when he quits his body, O son of Kunti, that state he will attain without fail, because of being always absorbed in that thought.

·    To introduce this topic Krishna starts in the verse 5 that those who relinquish the body while remembering Me at the moment of death will come to Me and to summarize the topic Verse 7 says - because no one knows when death will arise, Krishna advises practicing constant remembrance while carrying out daily duties – therefore think of Me at all times and (fight)

·       As a matter of fact, it is difficult to artificially force a specific thought at the just moment of death – therefore, the mind naturally defaults to whatever it was most obsessed with or accustomed to during life and it attains that – like a final exam – suddenly no new learning emerges but it has to come from earlier whatever the student has practiced.

 

CENSUS 2027

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