Opinion and Influence

In this beautiful journey called life, every single day we come across people of different kinds. There are few who are meant to stay forever, while others are there for different wavelengths of time. But each one of them gets a part in the story of our life, just like we add to theirs. While some may take a single paragraph or a page in the book of  life, some are chapters who are meant to stay  through the course of time. As we grow, our stories diverge in different directions with different people, as sub phases of the main plot of dear life. And in this process lies the very beauty of  life, making it even more varying and versatile.

But with this diversity comes in the concept of acceptance, rejection, judgment and perception. We as humans attach notions with every experience, interaction and feeling. They say we have no right to form an opinion of someone based on how they appear on the face of it unless we know their story and step into their shoes. They say be as kind and compassionate as possible to the ones you interact with, for you never know what the other is going through emotionally, mentally or physically. Yet we end up judging and forming an opinion of anyone and everyone, be it consciously or subconsciously. Of a lot of people who you meet in life, you will find some who are warm, caring and emotional, and others who appear rather cold and reserved, some who are chirpy and happy, while others who keep quiet and enjoy the silence. Some may make you smile, while the others may leave you feeling frustrated all the time.

The combination of attributes in these people is never-ending, for two persons can be somewhat similar, but never the same. For people are made out of their past, situations, ambitions, feelings and their state of mind. And what matters is how you deal with such opinions, instead of imposing them or letting them out in the open, being human enough to keep them privately to yourself. For we may not know or realise, how one unkind word, gesture or reaction could affect someone’s self-confidence, push them deeper into distress and make them feel even more undermined. It could make them question their worth or life, and break them down completely from inside. We are gifted with the power of influencing lives, why not show some compassion and make someone rise?

Everyone is fighting a battle of their own, some which we might even be aware of, but we can never feel it in the same way as someone who actually deals with it every single day. For smiling faces often hide and the silent ones are strong inside. And if once, for once, we could keep our prejudices, opinions and preferences aside and see people in a new light, the world would be a different place. A better place.

The One who Loves “More”

They say in life, your greatest wealth is not the that money you earn or the things that you own, but it is the relations that you build. If you have even one person who will stand by you through the ups and downs,highs and lows, then you’ve earned success in this game called life. Relations are the foundations and pillars of survival in the journey of life. There are some relations that we’re gifted by blood, and others that we build through the feelings of love and trust. But more than anything, a relation is a special bond of your emotional vulnerability that you share with a person. The extent to which you expose the colours of your inner self, is what defines the relation between the two.

What we grew up hearing was that mutual effort, trust and respect is required to make any relation work. But as we grew up and came face to face with reality, the harsh truth of life started to dwell upon us. We realised that firstly, no two relations can ever be the same, and secondly, there is hardly anything that is put in equally by two people. There isn’y a concept of half and half, there is always an unequal ratio. There is always the one who is more loving , or more sacrificing, or putting in more efforts than the other into the relation in order to sustain it. And emotionally, one of the most devastating things you could do to yourself is to be the one more giving. If what you give is what you get, why is the one putting in more left with a void of unhappiness?

But one thing which undoubtedly true and absolutely unquestionable, is the fact that this class of “more” people possess an exceptional amount of courage and strength. On the face of it they may seem weak for holding on too much, but they are the ones who learn the art of giving and expecting nothing in return at a very early stage, without being taught. They know the pain of hidden desires, yet they act as shields and mentally protect the other. They know how to suppress their own feelings in order to deal with someone’s emotional unavailability. And most importantly, they know how to not give up even when they see little or no light from the other end of the tunnel.

Being the more loving one in any relation is heart breaking, but it is also an act of great selflessness, something we find rather rarely with mankind today. It depicts how relations and people are valued over the feeling of always being taken for granted, and also how love overpowers ego. And nothing deserves more appreciation and respect than such courage, because no regret is greater than the loss of something so irreplaceable.

 

Love and other Norms

As we walk along this journey called life and take steps into this world, as we see and hear with gifted senses, and feel by touch, there is one thing which always stays with us, this thing called love. A source of happiness to some and the cause of the greatest pain to others, we often forget that love is not bound by any limits, it is present in every piece around us.

Love – on the face of it is just a four letter word, but it can wrap the entire world in itself by the immense power it contains. It’s not just a feeling, it’s an emotional aspect, a belief and a route to freedom. But the question arises, why do we have to look for it in others? In other people or other things? Why don’t we turn to our own selves when someone mentions the word love? In today’s world, when more and more people around you are sinking into anxiety and depression, have we really forgotten the concept of self-love?

By all means and honesty, this has never been our fault. Right from our childhood, we have been subjected to the norms of beauty and behavioural standards, success, and the definition of an ideal life. You’ve been told how much you should weigh, how your body approach towards life is careless, that your color is too dark or whitish, you’re not too good in studies or sports, or your goals are not acceptable. From the time we start growing up, we’ve been subjected to shaming in one way or the other, and we too have shamed others willingly or unwilling. And the result of this? We’ve grown up with insecurities beyond repair. We’ve been compared so much, that we forgot how to be ourself and began trying to match those standards somehow or the other. Instead of striving to be a better version of ourselves, we have been striving to match those pre determined standards. Ask the child who grew up with complexes, how he always turned to others instead of the mirror for acceptance?

The problem is deep-rooted, but it is not incurable. It’s about taking pride in your own self, having the self-confidence and choosing not to owe anyone an explanation. If you don’t find a fault in yourself, then who is anyone to criticise you? If you’re happy and content with your present situation, who is anyone to question your hard work?  Your happiness is all about you and only you. Choose yourself and love who you are. Self love is one of the most liberating and empowering feelings in this world. It is the most effective antidote for the worldly diseases of our generation.

Embrace yourself and believe in yourself before it’s too late, before the power of regret becomes greater than the power of acceptance.

 

The law of Action-Reaction

Isn’t it amazing, how life changes every time the hands of the clock tick? How change is inevitable, and how what you have can turn into what you once had? How one moment or that one chance could completely turn everything upside down? But is it true that the incident is solely responsible to make things either better or worse for you? Dwell into yourself and think, the answer will be a ‘NO’.

There is much more to that turning point, which goes beyond the negatives and the positives associated with it, and that is you and your response to it. How you adapt to a situation or grab that one opportunity. But most importantly, how you implement it into your system. How that one incident affects your attitude and behaviour from the moment it enters into your life, is what shapes you as human being. You may make the most of it or you may waste it, it may give you everything or leave you with nothing, but worst of all, it could change you as a person from within.

You might do it unwillingly, sometimes you don’t even realise how an incident affects you and makes you indifferent. Or maybe even oblivious. You just can’t see through it. But sometimes, you forcibly lock yourself up and build an invisible wall right in front of yourself. According to the law of action – reaction, “the force exerted by object 1 upon object 2 is equal in magnitude and opposite in direction to the force exerted by object 2 upon object 1”. So is it fair if our reaction to every person or emotional situation is the same after an action from one situation or that one person? Why do we become cold or why do we develop trust issues or why do we start hating life just because that one incident ruined everything for us?

The beauty of life lies in the fact that it is dynamic. No matter how much we try and control one end, some or the other end is going to flow loose. Like a batsman can’t hit a six at every ball thrown to him, we can’t excel at every challenge life throws at us. You may often feel like the bad times are much longer than the good ones, but you have it in you to go through a situation and come out stronger. You have the will, spirit and patience and you have your time with you. Wounds take a while to heal, and it is okay to be absolutely lost when you’re in shock or pain. But once you decide that you want to heal, come out with the best version of yourself. If something is going to change you, let it be for the positive.

Let every morning serve as a ray of hope after a dark night and the sunrise as a motivation to smile. Get up, take a deep breath and shed the baggage of those not so pleasant past experiences. Let the child in you who was never touched by the tactics of the cruel world thrive again. Let that trust and innocence revive, and let no doubt clog your mind.  Discover yourself, find something you love to do and whenever in life you feel low, do that one activity which serves as your release. Compete only and only with your own self and pat your own back at your smallest achievements.

Do it for your own self, because you and only YOU DESERVE this.

The Introverted Extrovert

The kind of person you are, at this breathing moment, is not always how you would have imagined yourself to be. There are still those goals you didn’t achieve, those words you couldn’t say, the chances you couldn’t take and the ideas you couldn’t implement. You tend to regret some of those, while some just stay at the back of your head, some turn into “I wish” and some we simply forget. We may think we’re a bi-product of good and bad decisions and even our situations, but is it always so?

There is another very important element to how we are and how we behave, and that is our very basic nature. So broadly categorising humans into extroverts and introverts, I would like to talk about a very interesting mix of this category, something very close to what I’ve seen : the introverted extrovert, that someone inherent in most of us. These are the people you see all around you, or right in front of you, in that mirror. These are the people who appear to be happy, fun-loving, out going and mix around well, but in those dark moments when the lights go off, they carry unknown inhibitions. Yes that smily person that you see being friendly with everyone, has a lot stored in that small little heart. They are people who keep things in, they are emotionally available for others, but when it comes to discussing their own problems, they shutdown.

Imagine the feeling of having to say so much but not being expressive, of having being hurt but not being able to convey it, of having all those words roll down as tears in the silence of the night. Does it even feel right?  They would rather keep it all in and suffocate themselves, than to let it out all and hurt another. They know what pain feels like, and believe keeping quiet is the only way to save another. It’s like growing up with an invisible shell, something that really shapes up how you are as an individual. It’s like being outraged by the mishaps all around you, but being unable to raise your voice against the injustice. Why? Because You just become so tolerable to the pain.

So the next time you see someone so silent to happenings, wait a moment and think, not why but how. And yes, like everything has a saturation point, these people too. So what happens when it gets too much, or how much is too much? The answer is an emotional outburst. When years of accumulated pain comes out at once, as a combination of anger, words and tears, you know it’s been too much. And this basic nature we unknowingly carry, where does it come from? It is basically a product of your response to your upbringing, the people you live around with, and mainly the kind of society you are raised in. In a society like ours, where the response to every situation has been to stay quiet and bear it, people have just become more and more locked down. We wish to be strong and raise our voice, but we don’t know how. So now, take a moment, Look at the people around you, observe them and analyse them, because not everyone can let their heart out. Just a little attention to behaviour could really help someone open up and build up. Take a moment off your phone screens, and start taking clues. We’re all going through something or the other, but who do we have, except each other?