GOAL & EXPERIENCE

Let us assume that you have a goal. You work hard in attaining the goal. Finally, after all your hard work that you achieved the goal. Naturally, you feel elated with your achievement. This celebration stays with you for days or weeks or months. But, this exuberance fades away after certain duration. Now, you may start a new goal and then the cycle continues. What is then the purpose of setting the goals and achieving those goals? Obviously, it provides the direction in life. Other than that any numbers of achievements become simply the anchoring tools that remind you of your specific skills in attaining the goals. It is like a medal collected by winning the competition. A medal is an exhibit of your distinct skill.

Then, what is that which stays with you forever in this game of setting the life goals and achieving those? It is those experiences, good or bad that one encountered in the process of achieving the goals. So, what stays with you is your experience in attaining the goal. In fact, each individual is the construct of these experiences. He is shaped as a personality based on these experiences.

If you ask any successful people of those who achieved certain very distinctive positions then it becomes so clear from their view that the position is not giving the happiness but the experience in attaining the position gives them the happiness.

This realisation is so important in setting up individual mindset while working in the solution zone. Remember that all our attempts at the solutions do not yield the favourable results.  Having realised the fact that the experience in attaining the goal is more important than the goal itself, it is then okay to face the unfavourable results. In obtaining a solution, one may not succeed but the attempt that one made is really significant which sets the experience in him.

In other words, try the solutions with conviction. It is important to give one hundred percent effort irrespective of the end result. It is guaranteed that one gains experience.

Accelerated growth: As per the focusing power of the mind, things get magnified and multiplied where one focuses on. So, it is dangerous to focus on the problem zone because the problem gets magnified and multiplied. It is pertinent to switch to the solution zone. Now, the solution gets magnified and multiplied. Here the solution goes right or wrong. When the solution is in the right direction, it puts us on the growth path. But when the solution goes wrong, it puts us in double growth path. Because here we get a chance to learn something new out of our failure. New learning aligns us in the evolutionary path. This is a must for the human. Without which, we cease to grow.

When the solution is in the right direction, it puts us on the growth path. But when the solution goes wrong, it puts us in double growth path.

Happiness comes not from the goal but from the experience in attaining the goal

PROBLEM- SOLUTION ZONES

The problem is that one stays in the problem zone instead of moving into the solution zone. So, the solution is to stay in the solution zone instead of staying in the problem zone. Stress is a problem. We need to come out the stress that means with the right solutions. If we focus and stay in the problem zone then naturally due to the power of focus, the problem gets magnified. We end up entangled with multiple problems and hence stress gets multiplied. On the other hand, if we focus and shift to the solution zone then we will be overwhelmed with multiple solutions that will flush us out of the state of stress.

Entangling in the stress mode for a prolonged period of time is a chronic stress. It is a like a black hole. It sucks all our energy as the mind revolves in a vicious loop that follows from one problem to another problem. In this state, we become the owner of stressful life. Chronic stress has the ability to alter the internal physiology of the body everlastingly. The danger here is that we don’t keep the stress for ourselves.

We give freely to others when they come in contact with us. Do you remember the power of words in the early chapter? “Life is hectic” “office is stressful”. We begin to propaganda stress freely.

So, what is the main difference between a stressful people to a people without stress?  The fact here is that there no single person on this planet without stress. But, the difference is that the so-called easy going” person has the ability to handle the stress mindfully. In other words, he knows how to switch to the solution zone quickly as soon as the stress response strikes him.

A stressed person either gets caught in the vicious loop of the problem zone or takes more time than usual to move to the solution zone.  The so-called “easy going” person has the inherent capability to move to the solution zone right away. This capacity is a skill and it is a learnable skill.

The so-called “easy going” person has the inherent capability to move to the solution zone right away. This capacity is a skill and it is a learnable skill.

EMOTION & THINKING BRAINS

The stress response is based on the trigger which occurs in the form of fear, doubt or worry. Hence, the stress response is emotion-centric. The problem of the emotion-centric response is that it is so well automated that it hijacks the thinking brain. That is the reason one can’t think straight while he is in stress. The clarity of the situation and taking appropriate action is not possible in the automated centric process. Thinking brain intervention is a must in the stressed out situation. But, in reality, in most of the cases, this is not happening.

But, it is possible to bring the thinking brain into the picture while in stress. The stress response can be altered with the thinking brain. This requires brain training and it is a learnable skill. Obviously, this cannot be practiced in the peak of the stressed out situation. This should be practiced when one is a normal state.

Stress is an emotion-centric response that hijacks the thinking brain

Mind Focus

Do you know the power of focus? It is the penetration power of the mind and this power is given to all of us equally. What happens when one focus on a particular task for a prolonged duration of time? He can get the penetration power to handle the task. When he penetrates into the task, the world around the task explodes. He tends to see things that a normal unfocussed eye can’t see around the task. This is how he solves the problem related to the task while others struggle to solve. The penetration power is like the magnifying lens that allows the world around the task to see in high definition. This new visibility gives the probabilities of the means and solutions related to the task.

This means to say that the task itself is simply magnified. Such is the power of focus. But, unfortunately, the attention span of the individuals decline heavily in the recent years. Because there are too many distractions which deplete the ability of an individual to stay focussed.

In other words, if one focuses on the problem then the problem gets magnified. On the other hand, focussing on the solution, the solution gets magnified. So, it is wise to focus on the solution in order to solve the problem related to the task. But, the question at hand: How focused are we practically?

Attention is a learnable skill & it is our rights to stay attentive. One can train the brain to enhance the attention faculty. Attention is again a power. The question now is how to harness this power for our growth.

Focused eyes see things that the normal unfocused eyes can’t searound the task in hand.

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BODY–MIND CORRELATION

The body follows the mind. This is the psychological effect on our physiology. Have heard about the prevalent medical field called Psychoneuroimmunology? The immunity system of the body can be altered by the psychic state of the mind. Psychosomatic diseases are the illnesses that arise from the disorder of the psychic state of the mind.

It is important to create the free space in the mind. This space allows our ideas to move around freely in the mind. When the mind space is cramped then there is no free flow of fresh ideas and one gets stuck in a particular mode. Wherever free flow is not possible, energy transference will not be smooth. This causes tension in the mind. Tensed mind creates a stiff body. The body becomes stiff when the mind is tensed. The muscles and joints mobility will be lost. Now, this becomes a good start for an array of all other illnesses.

So, create a free space in the mind. How to do this?

"Create a free space in the mind in order for the body to move freely '"

STRESS CIRCUIT

Our brain triggers stress response based on the threats. It is an automation triggered by the emotion. It is carried out by the ANS (autonomous nervous system) and the response is completely involuntary. It is an activation of the sympathetic nervous system to provide the right source of energy and prepares the body to face the threats. Once out of threat, the parasympathetic nervous system kicks in and the energy level is pulled back to normal state.

Certain hormones such as adrenaline, cortisol, and noradrenaline are secreted with the triggers and sympathetic nervous system activation. These hormones initiate certain physiological changes notably increased blood flow, increased blood pressure, increased heart rate, increased breathing, dilation of pupil and relaxation of the bladder.

All the physiological changes prepare the body to provide the additional energy to face the threats. But, these are temporary and stay as long as the threat is present. Once out of threat, the parasympathetic nervous system kicks in which withdraws the hormones secretions and bring the physiological changes to normalcy. These, in turn, bring the body back to the normal state.

The response is a cycle of turning on the sympathetic nervous system, bring up the energy level, turning on the parasympathetic nervous system and bring down the energy level to normalcy. This is a temporary process and stays only in the presence of the threat.

"Stress is a cyclic pattern of turning on/off the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems."

Stress- Mind Game

Virtual tigers are in the individual's mind frames. What is real to you? It is not things that happen around you or within you. What is real is what you think about the things. Even though plenty of things happening around you, you automatically and selectively pick up few events that are of interest to you. Rest of the events will be discarded by your filter. This is a selective attention. Even then the selected events will not get into your mind as they are. They are coloured and projected to the mental screen how you wanted that to be. This colouring is based on the life experiences and individual faith & value system. So, it is a kind of double filtering process that happens automatically.

Because of this double filtering process, the mind thinks in a certain way. Since these filter and tint are different for different persons, the mental projection for the individual's is different. Hence, they think and act differently for the same incident. As said earlier, what one thinks that is what is real to him and hence, he acts differently than others. If he thinks that the incident present in front of him as a threat then it is one hundred percent threat for him even though in reality the incident is absolutely safe. Simply, because what one thinks that is what is real to him.

The entire system then follows the cues of his mind and responds accordingly. If one feels the event is a threat then automatically stress response kicks in followed by the whole array of the physiological and psychological cascade of responses. This can be easily explained in the context of a dream which many of us would have experienced at least few times. Let us assume that one gets a dream where a tiger chasing him. The body reacts to this thread by pumping up his heartbeat, increase the level of sweat gland, increase the breathing rate and so on. Even though the threat is not real but still the body reacts as if the threat is real. If one instantly comes out of the dream to his consciousness, he can still feel those rapid changes and the body reactions clearly.

This is how sometimes when the filter and glasses that are used for the projection into the mental screen are not perfected then probably one may live completely in a kind of a situation similar to the dream state. He thinks the event is a danger while in reality, it is completely safe.

"One may end up spending the entire life unrealistically if the mental projection glass and filter are not perfected "