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.