I saw a hanged man once. Once by a busy road. With a broken neck in his office suit. Freshly hanged in the morning. Some walked by unseen Some could not look Some did not bother Some hanged around To investigate But I felt, I felt him a good half an hour What he felt before he hanged And I cried his tears Because I could not be there To cry with him I could not share his guilt He wasn't there anymore So, I hanged with him, a stranger. True account of a hanged man. It is not a common scene, once you see it you would not be unsee it. It is something to see a hanged man from a movie scene, but it is entirely different to see it in real. I saw a hanged man once and it had carved an image in my memory. Like in Anna Karenina, obsessed with the image of an oncoming train, it had created an image in me. I saw the hanged man about fifteen years ago, in one morning when I was walking to the university. Just adjacent to the faculty wall there was a tree, and he has hanged himself. He was in an office suite. Lifeless body hanged on a rope, arms by the side, and I did not see his face. The neck clearly broken, just hanging. What a life? I am 100% sure, everyone walked by who was curious have long forgotten the hanged man. I can assume the coroners forgot that there was a hanged man. I am so sure that all the men and women who walked by the road had forgotten him. I am sure not every day his loved ones did think about him. Maybe he did not have loved ones at all. Maybe he was all alone and bankrupt. Maybe he could not face the guild of facing the society about a crime that he had done. Maybe it was love, maybe it was depression. I am sure he could not bear the pain anymore. How often do we forget our real problems and decorate our pretty faces at work with a fake smile. Just like a fake plant. Just like a fake plant I gifted. You could water it, you could not water it, you could ignore it you could hug it. But the fake plant will not feel anything. That is the reality of some of us. Maybe the hanged man was a fake plant, and he could not feel anything anymore. Just like everyone else, I forgot him. I've got on with my life like everyone else. We cannot live others' lives; we cannot help others. I have even played "Hang a man" with my friends years after that. I have learnt "hangman's fracture" and knew how to identify a suicide from a murder. I have seen broken neck bones and never thought of the hanged man by the road. Yet, after all these years, I have to write about the stranger who hanged himself by the road. Insignificant it may seem; we own a world inside our heads. So, only us know how heavy it is. In a previous article I wrote about the worst kind of mental pain and how to overcome it, With an analogy of carrying a heavy ball in the hand and diving into see. So, if you ever feel like a fake plant. Please feel free to share your thoughts.

Chinese is cheap right? It surely used to be. Still, it is, yet Chinese becoming more and more expensive nowadays. Have you experienced this lately? I had a Chinese phone once. I had a Chinese phone once. In around 2010. When the world moved towards smartphones, I couldn't afford a super brand phone. So, I bought a Chinese phone. It was fun. I was living far away from home in university at that time. So, I needed a phone. We never had phones until we left our homes on our own. That was the norm, not by rules those days. This Chinese one was maybe my second one. I can remember going to the market to buy a phone. The shop owner showed us different phones. Budget was minimal, expectations were high. I wanted a big, screened phone, so chose a cheap chines one big screen. The phone was not a real android smartphone. It didn't have many apps installed. It had an antenna, and I could watch TV on it. Just with TV signal. And when he showed me the phone it made me smile with happiness. With glistening eyes, I grabbed it. I know I am cheap; I would be labelled as cheap when I take it out in public. I did not care. Who cares, often I spend my time alone. If it doesn't matter to me, it won't matter to anyone. I can remember those days. Having a smartphone was like showing off. It's not so much today. But that was the time where transition occurred. Everything is smart today. We lived in a world where everything was analogue. Sometimes I wonder what happened. Surely, I was lonely and surely, I was less informed in analogue world. We had to wait for the television programs to be broadcasted. We could not skip those TV advertisements. If you miss the program, you will miss it. There is no way to rewind. But still, I cannot say we did not enjoy. We did enjoy a lot. And the experience still remains viable for today. I can remember as small kids we used to pretend that we had small TV in our hands. And watch imaginary cartoons in those imaginary TVs. And that may be the reason for me to have a TV phone. Few of my friends at the university also had TV phones. But they broke. Often within months. But mine did not. It worked for three years! I know I had no excuse to buy a new phone. I was dependent of my parents until I passed out and got my first salary. So the legendary TV phone carried three years with me. I can remember we used to watch cricket matches in it in our dormitory with few of my friends. I think that Chinese phone did work for me like a slave for three years giving value to every penny I played for that. Chinese is not cheap anymore. Recently I went to buy some gifts for kids, at the Hemley's. Guess what, lot of toys were made in China. Surely, they must be cheap, but not so much. Of course there are cheap ones out there. But everything looks great had a nice big price tag in them. So, I thought what happened to Chinese after all. Maybe Chinese went from being cheap to being quality now markets are flooded with their items and as others products are over powered do they have a monopoly in the market? Well, I am not an economist. I am just a customer with few hundred dollars in my pocket. Although it seems that increase in wages, oil prices and material costs all have affected the price tag. Even the covid had a global effect in economy in recent years. Going back to my Chinese phone, I can see that I was both proud and ashamed at the same time? Can it even occur? These feelings have opposite effects. How can they occur together? I was proud I didn't spend too much on a phone from my parents hard earned money. I was happy when it helps me have my childhood dream come true. I was ashamed of my kid like attachment to a cheap Chinese phone, sometimes I did not want to bring it out in public. Yet now two decades later when I think about it alone at the Gatwick Airport, typing in my modern smartphone. I can feel I miss my old Chinese phone more than any friend I had in the university (introvert problems). More than anyone I have met along the way. Maybe I will have a Chinese friend one day. Time is the greatest teacher, only if you take your time to study the book of time. How often you have seen the antiques shops, sell seemingly valueless items with big price tags on them. Even a painting gets more valuable when it gets older. Of course, I am not saying everything will be valuable when it ages. But the idea of value is not in the car, not in the toys at Hemley's or not in the phone. it is in our minds. Price tag is in our minds, and it changes with time. Maybe my cheap Chinese phone was not cheap in my mind. Maybe it had a price tag of a modern iPhone at that time in my mind. Who is anyone to judge. IN summary my cheap Chinese phone: Life is too short to give attention to haters and hooters. Something cheap today is not going to last forever cheap, with the time it will become vintage. Values are in mind, not in material

Have you seen a garden inside a bottle ever? If you haven't Let's see what it looks like. We will look into the smallest garden to the biggest garden ever and look at our life from space. Terrariums and closed ecosystems A terrarium is essentially a miniature garden enclosed in a glass container, creating a small-scale ecosystem. The name derives from the Latin words ‘terra’ (meaning earth) and ‘arium’ (a place or receptacle). These charming displays are mostly and sometimes totally self-sustaining, as the plants inside perform transpiration and condensation, effectively watering themselves. The sealed environment of a terrarium captures moisture and heat, which helps maintain a consistent climate conducive to plant growth. While some terrariums are open, allowing for more direct interaction and maintenance, closed terrariums can operate with minimal human intervention, recycling water and nutrients within their own little biosphere. David Latimer's echo bottle and biosphere 2 David Latimer’s closed eco bottle is a fascinating example of a self-sustaining ecosystem, first of as such. In 1960, Latimer planted a spiderwort (tradescantia) in a 10-gallon glass carboy and sealed it after adding some water. Remarkably, the bottle was last opened in 1972 to add water, and since then, it has remained closed. The ecosystem inside the bottle has thrived for over half a century without any external intervention. This closed environment demonstrates the principles of photosynthesis and the water cycle in a self-contained system. Many such followed from his example. Similarly in previous article The Silent Shrimp I wrote about self-sustaining aquarium. There are plenty of online resources for someone interested to make a biosphere at home. Biosphere 2 is a remarkable scientific endeavor originally designed to be a self-sustaining ecological laboratory, which was larger and more in massive scale than Latimer's little home experiment. Enclosed within a glass and steel structure, it spans three acres in the Arizona desert and includes various biomes such as an ocean with a coral reef, marsh, rainforest, savannah, desert, and agricultural areas, along with a human habitat. The project’s initial function was to study global ecology and support eight people living inside for two years, from 1991 to 1993, providing invaluable data for future space colonization efforts. It set records in human life support and environmental impact monitoring, producing about 80% of its food internally. Today, Biosphere 2 continues to serve as a unique facility for research on Earth’s ecosystems and the development of strategies to combat climate change. And surely Space X, have their own laboratories with self-sustaining biospheres to colonize Mars once the Starship is underway to Mars. The Man who stepped on the Moon. Now Let us look at the big picture from the Eyes of the man who stepped on the moon. Let's look at the earth from the Eyes of Neil Amstrong. From space when he looked at the earth, he could see this little sphere of life floating on otherwise vast un-inhabitable universe. for millions and billions of kilometers of empty space. Earth is self-sustainable. And although massive from our eyes essentially it is a billion-year-old biosphere. What are the characters such a biosphere? and now we know these. Let's apply this new intuition. Except light hardly anything goes out and come into the earth. (of course, meteorites and space crafts are exceptions) And whatever changes occur, whatever the life on earth is start from earth, live on earth and die on earth. Earth is an almost closed echo system. A gigantic one. More than one occasion, I have been asked, or advised to be like earth. Although there is a big, functioning biosphere out there, essentially, we all share the same atoms, same elements over and over again. If we just forget that souls exist outside the earth, we are just part of a gigantic reaction which is called earth. So, when someone says to "Be like earth" there are several meanings to it. What is the meaning to be Like earth: It may represent to be silent like earth. Earth hardly moves on a visible scale relative to us. It seems stable and although life sprout and die, earth remains same. It may represent, to be self-sustainable like a Terrarium. To be independent inside ourselves, to generate power and recycle thoughts to sustain till it eventually changes its form. It may represent, to think of us as a part of nature. Although life we think is belong to us. Maybe we are just elements which are in delusion to think that we own something. Which is wrong. We are just earth, due to forces of nature, raised above the ground, detached from ground and move for some time before getting mixed with earth back again. We are bounded by gravity and other forces to the earth in an inseparable way. Only when you look at from outer space with the analogy of a terrarium in mind that we will be able to appreciate this fact. What is it being like earth feels to you? You may also like to read: Into the wild Blue yonder or why do birds fly?

Once upon a time up on top of a tree there lived a coconut family. Two coconut daughters lived with their coconut father and mother. One day little daughter coconut asked her father a question. Father, Father I need some water. I am hungry. My stomach is empty. And father said, my little daughter, you just wait. The tree is going to provide us with some water. Daughter coconut asked. "How come we get water? the well is far down below. Can't you see? How are we going to get there?" Father Coconut said. "No no, we are not going to go down. The tree will absorb water from its roots, and through the trunk it will deliver water up to the branches and us. When you get bigger, I'm sure you will be filled with water inside of your tummy." So, did the coconut family waited and waited and waited on the top of the tree enjoying beautiful sunsets day after day. One day, the coconut father fell off, then the mother. But the little coconut got bigger and bigger and ended up with full of water inside. And she said to herself, "My father was correct. I am full of coconut water now." And she spent the rest of her life until she too fell off. Little coconut story written inspired by a little coconut.

This is a story about prioritization. It is important right? How important? I think it is important enough to write a story about. Maybe you have heard the story, it is old enough to be there thousands of years. Story is as followed. The monk who did not prioritize Once there was an old monk. He had very few students with him. He taught them about life, meaning of life, about liberation from suffering, peace and silence. Everything you would become a monk for. Everything that you would try to find out being away from the formalities of a society. There was another monk, who was younger. He also was a chief monk in a nearby village. He was surrounded by full of energetic enthusiastic young monks. He was optimistic, about growth and development of the practice and equally Dearing to listen. He had mastered the art of meditation so much that he can reduce his weight and levitate. He could even move in air. And it took years of practice his meditation to get to this level and he occasionally did it in front of a crowd even. And people love to see such magic, and he had shown results of meditation unlike the monk who had nothing to show off. So, obviously followers are more, and he was famous. One day both of the monks came to a river. The young monk saw the old monk with his followers, on the other side of the river. And he levitated over the river. With astonishments and whispers started on the opposite camp. One brave follower asked the old monk " Dear teacher, why do you let them to humiliate us? You must be knowing more tricks than that proud young monk. Why don't you do something. Maybe you can walk under the water." With a kind smile old monk got on the ferry and crossed the river. And on the other side, he tossed a coin to the ferry owner and turned his disciples. "See, would you spend years of time meditating to gain something you can buy for half a penny?" He asked. His disciples had no answers to his words of wisdom. Prioritization for mindfulness- words of wisdom. So, the moral of the story is you can end up in a wrong place if you did not prioritize your tasks. It is a key ingredient if you want to be somewhere at right time. True for many things we do in our lives, and it is true for mindfulness as well. In mindfulness prioritization is called wisdom. In previous article, do not start with mindfulness, do start with wisdom, I emphasized the fact that wisdom is key ingredient in mindfulness practice. Like the Yong monk, years of your practice would not make you end up being in the correct place. So, we practice mindfulness/ living for correct reasons, which are, To observe silence, to observe the nature, to observe the mind in wisdom on the process of living. To observe our greed and defilements, and to observe these when they arise, like defeating the angry monster. Wrong reasons, to practice are, To stop defilements or try to defeat them, try to levitate at the end of the day. To gain, wisdom, silence, psychic powers (observe is the correct word, not gain) To get away from anything we dislike, stress, work, or problems in life. It is so Suttle, that every word: gain, get away, stop, fight - has a doer in it who tries to gain something, while all there is to life is observation. Do not worry if you would not understand this at this time. It takes years of solidarity for wisdom to generate. I know you are disagreeing with a lot of things. If you have, please post it. I will answer to best of my knowledge. What is your story of prioritization?

Once there was a wise teacher who had a greedy student in his class. Although he was bright, he was greedy, and he had a hard time getting out of this habit. Unlike nowadays, in those days teachers used to teach everything from knowledge to attitudes which can shape the route of generations to come. Hence, the teacher did not give up on him. He thought of doing a trick. Picking up Corn. He walked with the student to a corn field and told him to walk into the corn plantation. Forwards, until he sees the biggest corn. Once he sees this, he has to pick this up and, if his corn is the biggest, he would be rewarded. And he cannot come back to pick up whatever he has left on the way into the field. Rules were simple, and off he went. Rules: He has to move forward looking to pick up the biggest corn. He cannot choose his corn on his way back. He will be potentially rewarded if he wins with the biggest corn. Off he went into the field. To find the biggest corn, and surely, he came back with a Fairly medium size of a corn, definitely not the winner. And the teacher asked, is that the biggest corn that you saw? The boy said, no teacher, there were many other larger corns I have seen along the way. Teacher: Then why did you pick up not so much big of a corn? The boy: Well, as were the rules, I had no choice to pick up when I come back, so when I move forward, I always thought, this corn is big, but what if this is not the biggest? I should find a bigger one more forward, surely more often than not I found a bigger corn, but at some point, I came to the end of the cornfield. With no more corn to pick up, I chose the last one. I know my greed had failed me. Optimal stopping problem - and answer Before moving onto the philosophical insights, if you want a quick answer to such a question, when should the boy have stopped looking for big corn and picking up instead, the answer is 37%. The boy should have assessed the sizes of the corn 37% of his journey and after that if he finds a bigger or equally big corn, he should have picked it up. This is mathematically answered question of optimal stopping. And if you ask me why, I will say, because that is proven by mathematically. We do not have to learn deep theorems of why that is so. But, more importantly where and when we should apply the rule. Following are few case scenarios where you can use the 37% rule. Imagine you are looking for a property to by. You have six months to move out from your current place. How are you going to do this? You cannot wait until the last moment. The answer is 37% roughly two months, you look for places and assess them. After that you buy whatever the next best option you are getting. Imagine you are looking for a partner, have ten years to go. And you can date, maybe one person per year, and get to know few per year, So, maybe for three years, you can try and pick up the best one from fourth year. I know it looks harsh on the first three. Roughly they have no chance if you stick to this rule. But on the other hand, if you are mathematically oriented you have no data to compare with before three years. So, you may not agree with this yet, these are only facts. I am not asking for you to become a inhuman machine. Similarly, you can apply this to any difficult choice you have to make over time. On being content Now, let's move from case scenarios and look at life. I think more than the mathematical probability of optimal stopping, this story teaches us about life. It is about being satisfied with your choices. Sometimes we have to be content early. And even the 37% rule proves that fact, 37% of something is fairly too early to be satisfied. We sometimes cannot reach the maximum we want. But, if you are satisfied with whatever small achievement you have made, you would be happy. Being too greedy can make you unhappy failure at the end, if the life is like picking up corns in a field. (read happiness paradox) Would you agree from morning till night everyday what we are doing is picking up corns? What biggest corn have you picked so far? Are you happy and content with it or looking for more still? Thank you for reading: Picking up corn, Optimal stopping problem or being content.

In modern days learning is a fundamental skill for anyone who wish to become successful in any career. From early student ages we were taught that to become more successful we need to concentrate more on our task at hand. I can remember I used to train, or at least practice some meditation in order to help myself to concentrate more on studies. It was hard! Outline: Introduction - the problem What is focused mode of thinking and diffuse mode of thinking? Benefits of diffuse mode of thinking Maximizing Study Efficiency: using Focused mode of thinking in our studying Maximizing Study Efficiency: using diffuse mode of thinking in our studying Imagine the following Scenario. Imagine you are studying, math. It is hard right? After a while tackling with a problem, you will feel tired. And you would not want to continue. But initially, you stated with high level of motivation. You wanted to continue with a six-hour study session. Now after a half an hour six hours seems to be overwhelmingly big task. Even after taking a break, you would not feel like coming back to the same problem. You would want to give up. What does your mind would do in this scenario. Definitely it is not going to come back. You have lost the battle and mind will distract itself with Television, social media or some other tasks. Now after years into my career, I learn that that was really not necessary. My mind wondering away from the book was actually not a problem at all. If you find your mind wonders away from the text, like mine, keep on reading you will find some answers to why. It is recognized that thinking happens in us whether we liked it or not. Thinking happens every time even if we study or not. So, what is the difference, why is it hard to study, and studying feeling overwhelming? Understanding focused mode of thinking and diffuse mode of thinking? During studying we tend to do a focused mode of thinking. While in relaxed mode, we do a diffuse mode of thinking. As you have guessed focused mode of thinking is energy consuming, and it gets us exhausted in few minutes. Diffuse mode of thinking on the other hand is like drifting clouds over the sky. It carries on without any exhaustion. Often when we study, we count our success by measuring how much material we covered and how much we understood. However, this mental process has its own limits when we use our focused mode of thinking. How can we get maximum use of these two modes? What other differences are there in these two modes? Focused mode is more creative, as it has access to different information from the past. Our brains do not store information in a single place. It is usually all around. Remember you had light bulb moment when you tried to find an answer to a problem. Often or not, these light bulb moments happens when someone is in relaxing mode. Really speaking Thomas Edison, himself who made this light bulb, knew how to tap into diffuse mode of thinking. Nowadays we try to fill our lives with distractions when we have the opportunity to find out what our minds will provide if we are able to listen to it. you will find more on diffuse mode tips down below in the article. In focused mode, We are thinking in a small context, trying to understand a concept or memories a concept, solve a problem. It is energy consuming, hence tiring. It is like trying to solve a maze while you are inside the maze. In diffuse mode, We are relaxed, particularly not thinking about anything but we are getting on with our lives and there are plenty of unrelated things come into our mind than what we are currently studying. Often, we label diffuse mode as bad, and waste of time. However, there is another school of thought which gives more value to the diffuse mode of thinking. Benefits of diffuse mode of thinking It is argued that diffuse mode of thinking allows us to be more creative, and during this state we can access the background knowledge and make connections to existing knowledge to new ones. If you know about blooms taxonomy and higher order thinking, you will understand that the power of diffuse mode of thinking is allowing us to create connections with existing ideas inside our brain. This is very helpful in providing us higher order thinking skills. Namely, analyzing, evaluating and hypothesizing. To put it into an analogy It is like looking at a maze from above from the sky, then trying to solve it like a flatlander on the surface. It is like having 3d vision in a 2d. world. Maximizing Study Efficiency: Understanding the Focused and Diffuse Thinking Modes Using Focused mode of thinking Focused mode of thinking is efficient when distractions are less, hence try to minimize distracting activities during this period of time. Try avoiding background music if it is distracting and do studying in a dedicated place with similar non-distracting environment, if you cannot find a library. (Why we get hooked, by smartphones) Find out the duration of your focused mode can go on. If you start to feel tired during focusing that is time to stop. Rather than continue. It is not a race against your brain. When it needs time out, it needs time out. Once you find out the duration of your study period, focus on the time. You can use a pomodoro techniques to do this. Advantage is you will get away without feeling overwhelmingly tired before next study period. There will be feeling of accomplishment even if you do not complete the dreadful math problem you are working on. (On Pomodoro and growing trees) Using diffuse mode of thinking in our studying Taking breaks. During study sessions, it is important to take breaks and relax. This allows our brains to into a slow gear and wonder with the new information. Allows time to settle down and make connections. Let's imagine you are stuck at some point in the text, or feels it doesn't make it stick, that is the best time to break the cycle and fall back into relaxed mode. You can start in a different section of the text and come back to the difficult part later. More importantly you can write down the topics of new concepts you learned, keep it a small piece of paper in your pocket. When you are relaxed later at your coffee, or even during a walk, just have a look at your paper and think about it. It doesn't mean you carry your work everywhere. But you will understand how much you have learned and not learnt if you do that. Embrace silence. Sometimes even in diffuse mode of thinking, distractions can be a problem. I would suggest silence will help. Think of it as a form of meditation. Watching the mind. As our minds contain all the information you gathered from the past, it always outputs something. So, to find out its output it is necessary to stop the process of input and try to listen to it instead. More on being silence is found here. (Embrace Silence to empower mindfulness) following video by Barbara Okley on diffuse mode of thinking. Where she described how she learned mathematics, how Thomas Alva Edson used to sleep during his thinking and tap into novel ideas using diffuse mode of thinking. In summary: Focused mode of thinking is about concentration, diffuse mode of thinking is relaxation. Diffuse mode of thinking is creative, and it can combine our previous knowledge with current knowledge to help with higher order thinking. In simple steps you can tap the power of diffuse mode thinking to enhance your study. Thank you for reading. "Maximizing Study Efficiency: Understanding the Focused and Diffuse Thinking Modes". You may also like to read Focused attention as a distraction, magician's trick Who is the best teacher of all times?

Once at a junction, I spoke with a color light. Red and green were happy yellow had a complaint. 'I'm tired of being compressed in between, the Mighty Red and Green' he said. 'No time to shine no escape. Purpose is clear path is laid, For red and green there's a future ahead Back and forth passing the message. I'm stuck here forever until I age.' London is full of color lights. There would be ten color lights for a stretch of a mile. I was looking at these the other day on the bus when I remembered a little game I played back at home. YOu guessed it right. Its a mindfulness game. Mindful driving game. Unlike here in the foreign land, I used to drive a lot back at home. Often alone, often at night. Sometimes I notice I am too much wondering in my mind when I drive. Often unnecessary unwanted things. More often I find out that I did pass through certain towns certain stretches of the road without even knowing it. I would realize this only when I come back to reality. The train of thoughts seems to be of in a fast pace. So, I decided to focus on lights. Yes, red lights. The mindful game was like this. During the drive I am going to notice red lights. Thats all I am going to do. So, When I decided, to notice red lights, guess what happened. I noticed red lights. Oten more than before, and when I noticed red lights, I was mindful. There was no thinking involved. I did not think "Oh beautiful red light, Bright red light, dim red light etc." Of course, thoughts come to mind. Yet I ignored them. I just noticed light and accepted it as it is. This way I could drive with a blank mind for longer stretches and felt as fresh as and a Suttle satisfaction as well. Try it next time. And comment what you have noticed. Or Do you know a better way to mindful driving? How would you drive mindfully during the day? Don't tell me you listen to music. Thank you for reading color light complaint How to be mindful driving. You may also like : What is time? a novel way to understand. Golden hours rush (poem)

It sounds stupid right? But I think you may have done the same. Imagine you hear a nice song. It finishes in three minutes. It is nice when I hear it and leaves a void when it's finished. What would you do? Listen to it again? Now when I think about it, I can see that is not very uncommon thing to happen. We all do that, in a DJ party, in family gathering music party, we request the same song. I had once or twice decided to go beyond listening once or twice. As you all know, if you have read my posts in the past, I like to challenge myself, this time a little experiment. Outcome of listening to the same song? So, I listened to the same song, for a one day. (maybe more than one day) following are my observations. Music is something I like, this song is nice, I can hear it all day- those were my initial thoughts. You know the feeling right? That sensation, when you hear your favorite song for the first time, you do not want it to finish. After few times hearing it, I started learning the lyrics, I could sing it (ha ha, not like a professional) If you are into learning, from a new skill to anything, repetition is the key right? Obviously as you guessed it my mind got bored after some time, I needed a new song, this one I know, it ruminates in my mind now even when I am not listening. What is wrong with me? Kept going on, sometimes until I feel like nauseated, of the same rhythm I loved so much in the beginning. Now after so long, things have settled, and when I think back and listen to the song, I feel like I am bringing back good old memories with it. And I feel like I can listen to the same song again, all day. I have learned enough not to trust my mind. At least on the above. Does this sound familiar to you? After all, listening to the same song is the only thing that we do repetitively. It may be a relationship, your good old job, maybe something you had to eat all day, and the same old route you take. Maybe you are exhausted like me listening to the same song life plays at us day after day. What is the solution? I can give you some solutions following traditional pathway of question -> solution. But please do not ever forget to question the question. That is where a real solution can be found (read - question is a missed opportunity to question) Let's not make this a missed opportunity. Following are my suggestions: Do not believe that would be happy listening to the same song in the beginning in the first place. Bring some variety, learn the lyrics, try to sing it, maybe that will keep you going. (at least Queens knew this when they produced Bohemian Rapsody.) If you are vomiting or sick, please please change the song. You must take care of yourself for the sake of others and you. If you pass the test, listening to the same song, one day it will generate a good outcome, this can motivate you now. Again, don't trust your mind. It changes over time. What about the fact that they say, "Repetition is the key?". Does this mean we should carry on boring tasks until we learn it? The flow state by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi Obviously, this is not the case. Although it is repetition is the key there should be a balance between your level of skills and the challenge. If you are too skilled and doing an easy task repetition will just make you tire yourself into boredom. But if you are pushing your boundary a little more with each repetition, then there is a window for improvement. However, you have to be very careful not to give challenges impossible to do. If that happens there will be over-exhaustion and anxiety as which is counterproductive. Finding this sweet spot between degree of challenge and level of skill is difficult. This is the main idea of the "Flow" the world-famous book by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi In summary: There is some sweet spot of balance between skill level and challenge so you are having optimal experience. Otherwise listening to the same song is boring and tiering. Thank you for reading: Have I learned anything listening to the same song? You may also like to read: To catch the happiness before it hides. (A poem to think about)

I had the opportunity to visit the wisdom of the retired not once, not twice, but on multiple occasions. And this is the peep into the 'retirement' that all of us with Jobs, are wishing for. Maybe you are far away from it, maybe you are closer to it. But for everyone this will provide insights. Retirement Problems - physical health First of all, a true account from a retired. According to this person, he expected no more problems in retirement. However, he noticed that there are new set of problems which come in the retirement. You are at your latter part of your life. Although your mind is sound, the body is not, and it will start to fail like an old car. Some problems are mendable, some are not. Things you take granted today can be challenging in retirement. Things like walking, hearing even peeing. No need to talk about the eyesight and sleeping. Retirement Problems - Mental health For someone else, it may be the other side. Although there is reasonable function in the body they will deteriorate with mental health. There can be loneliness, and depression combined with dementia, slowly we will start to lose the connection with the world as we know it. These are inevitable and everyone knows diseases are just the beginning of the end. Retirement Problems- financial On top of this your financial capacity will be reduced. As long as you are saved some you will be saved. Often this is not the case for most of us. We might need additional help, from everyone around us. Once independent now depended on will be the new normal for the retirement. Of course, with proper planning we can avoid trouble. But as you see not everything is avoidable and nobody can predict the future. Even the covid pandemic hit hard on elderly and it is a fact retired are more vulnerable a population. So, the retirement is not without problems. You just trade new set of problems to old set of problems. So, when can I truly rest? When can I retire? Better attitude for retirement. When I think about the problem, I noticed that it is wrong attitude to look at life. It seems life is always with problems. We cannot expect 'retirement' as a true rest. Instead, we should look at retirement just as a transition from your 'work' to 'retirement job'. I am not a destroyer of your happiness if you are planning to retire next year. Instead, a better way to look at this problem is knowing how to 'rest'. First, we need to understand what a rest is. Rest is a space physical and mental for us to heal from the wear and tear. Imagine this as a time to turn off your mental machine. For someone it may be sleep, or a vacation, a run or a walk. Type of rest depend on the individual and the personality. For someone like me being an introvert silence and being closer to the nature with mindfulness helps to charge the battery of life, so I can come back strongly to make others happy. To make you happy writing this article. I suggest you look at your life and identify things, places and people who or whichever made you feel rested and supercharged. Maybe you can write them down. Welcoming Rest, in place of retirement. Next step is to stop yearning for retirement. Like I said, it is so far away for most of us and not so fancy for most of us. There is a fair bit of chance that I would never see my retirement at all. Instead, we can replace the retirement with "Rest". A rest is a good little achievement you can do. You can do Rest today. You can even Rest now. If you close your eyes and be mindful for a couple of minutes, it has the power to make you feel good. It doesn't have to be fancy like retirement. If you include plenty of rest into your life, that is all we can expect from life. You would not agree with me today. I suggest you come back to this article once you are so tired of the rat race. And remember the important message. Do not retire, instead Rest. You can never retire, that is an illusion created by our society. But you can rest, even when you work hard today, or even when you're "Retired". When you rest properly you will never be tired, so you have to retire. Truely speaking you can be retried while you are awaiting your retirement. Some people call it work life balance. I would say it is just life. Life is work and rest. Life is problems and silence. Life is craving and satisfaction. Life has two sides, always trying to be hanging onto one is impossible. So, after some time of resting, eventually you will feel the need to 'rest the resting'. In summary: Retirement has its own problems. Physical mental and financial Instead of retirement we should aim for resting. If you are yearning for your retirement, I suggest you are tired and invite you to have a rest, because true retirement only happens when you exhale your last breath. Thank you for reading you may also like to read: Root cause of all problems Eskimos and demodex- home sweet home.

I first learned the term a paradigm shift when one of my chemistry teachers talked about this in high school class. He also introduced the term metacognition. More than chemistry he used to teach about things, things about life. This was one such thing. He gave the following example to illustrate the fact. What is a paradigm shift? Imagine you are walking home. You take the same bus route day after day from your workplace or school to home. This is common right? You fall into the same routine, and you will just fall into same pattern of thoughts day after day while in the bus. Usually places pass by without even being noticed until you reach your destination. Now imagine one day your bus route changes due to some construction, or wreckage of a bridge the bus had to take a long route. But on this specific day you will see a different neighborhood and you will start to notice things you have not seen before. This is a paradigm shift. Now imagine this time it is not the same bus, but you have chosen to travel on the top deck of a double decker bus. Still if you haven't done before you would see same junctions, same shops with a novel perspective. And those routine patterns of thinking will be replaced by new data and new ways at least for the duration of the travel. Does this mean thinking outside the box? I would not say so. It seems to have a deeper meaning than just thinking outside the box. It is more like the change which occurs when you have a thinking outside the box. In this article I talked about viewing the world from top of a tree. Now even after years of having not done that when I walk in a park or even outside in a bus stop, I can imagine myself being on top of a nearby tree and I can see myself doing what I am doing. So, because of the previous experience, now my internal structure has changed that I have this new way of looking at the world. The paradigm shift is like a major change in a way we look at the world. Paradigm is a pattern of thinking. We will look at more and more examples to understand this. Everyone knows the earth is round. Yet few hundred years ago people believed the earth to be flat. But once Galileo Galilei developed the telescope, he gathered more and more data to show as evidence that earth is spherical. As we could see, other celestial bodies, like planets and their moons. Finally, when Ferdinand Magellan travel all around the world without falling off the edge to eternity, people started to see the true nature of a spherical world. But all these data are indirect right. It was not until we start to travel far into the space, with our cameras and telescopes and look back on the earth, when had this amazing view of our round planet earth we are sure of i. Now even a five-year-old boy knows the earth is round. These kind of paradigm shifts occur in every part of our science. It may be quantum physics, it may be DNA structure, it can be even a people's movement to stop the war. Once a paradigm shift occurs the way we look at the world changes, more often permanently. I can give you some simple examples from the modern-day world. Steve Jobbs did it with his introduction of iPhone. Elon musk did it with introduction of private space Race and green energy. Definition of paradigm shift. Paradigm shift is a change in a pattern of thinking in an individual or a community, often with some strong hold. formal definition in Merrium webster an important change that happens when the usual way of thinking about or doing something is replaced by a new and different way. The term paradigm shift was coined by the American physicist and philosopher Thomas Kuhn. He described dramatic changes in pattern of thinking in scientific world as paradigm shifts. Are paradigm shifts always good? This is not true either. It is good when new knowledge makes us reach one step closer to truth if at all something is there as it is. But paradigm shift can occur in a bad pathway if the facts are not true or misguided into a society. So, it is utmost importance that we do not follow the heard blindly but think for ourselves. It takes courage to think alone. So, under each paradigm shift there is underlying creativity and 'Thinking outside the box.' Natural paradigm shifts. Natual paradigm shifts will occur. They can occur in Geological scales or in individual level. Imagine the world where we had the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombing in Japan. once this happened, the world changed. Even heartless political leaders came to their senses for a good couple of decades that we put forward an agenda that something like that should not happen in the future. Death of a loved one or an illness, a separation can cause someone to shift their perspective on life. Some change their lives for the better. Some change their life for the worse in lines of depression or suicide. So, we have to be careful that when these events should occur. Near death experience is one such occasion which has the capacity to change thinking patterns. How can we use paradigm shift for our advantage? To change the way, you think about the world you have to give yourself more opportunities to be creative. Then when it is time, a paradigm shift will occur naturally. Even if it doesn't it won't do no harm as new experience on world is going to help your relief your stress. So, following are my simple advice to make it happen a paradigm shift. Imagine you are taking the same bus to come home every day. Why don't you change the route, you do not have to wait until the road is broken until you do this. Imagine you are very friendly with people, why don't you try to spend an afternoon alone with yourself. Imagine you are a big fat introvert like me. Why don't you start a blog so you can connect with people and start listening. Imagine you are greedy, why don't you spend a good amount from your next salary to donate for charity? Have you ever tried eating on the floor? Did you ever try to spend a week without the television or the phone? Did you try to quit smoking once in a while? Let's say you are not talented to draw, have you tried to draw a cartoon? I am not saying you will be a master cartoonist. But the idea is to see the world differently to get away from the monotonous routines of life. A paradigm Shift, thinking about Hiroshima bomb incident. (following is a paragraph from the book from what is time to illustrate a fact) Imagine when we talk about the Hiroshima bomb incident. The picture of the gigantic mushroom cloud comes into our mind. But if time has no instances, we cannot talk about the Hiroshima bomb. It would be meaningless. There is no specific point in time which can be pointed out as the Hiroshima bomb incident. Hiroshima bomb incident, It is not the plane that flew with the bomb over Japan, It is not the release of the bomb. It is not the travel of the bomb through the air. It is not the impact of the bomb on ground. It is not the detonation. It is not the explosion. It is not the nuclear blast. It is not the shock wave. It is not the collapse of the buildings and the clouds that followed. It is a collection of every one of these events. But if any of these events cannot be considered the Hiroshima bomb incident, is there anything to be labeled as such? Thank you for reading What is a paradigm shift.

Well, I asked the question from few different people, and these were the answers I have got. How would you answer the question? I asked a tired chemistry professor Why do birds Fly. he said, because they can. And I was not satisfied. So, I asked Richard Faynman. He was kind. He thought about it and spoke. "Well, I can give you easy answer or I can give you a longer version of it. Easy answer is the force generated by the flapping of wings of the bird is enough to lift its weight against gravity and the forward thrust generated is more than the resistance. So, they fly, my boy that is how an airplane fly. That is how we build our airplanes to mimic the nature. But, if you truly want to know how birds fly, I will say fundamentally it is due to interactions of four forces of nature, Gravity: The force of attraction between masses. Electromagnetism: The force between charged particles. Weak Nuclear Force: Responsible for radioactive decay and neutrino interactions. Strong Nuclear Force: Holds the nuclei of atoms together. That is all there. Anything you see happening is happening due to these interactions. Not only this, you ask this question and I answer the question because of these forces. You and I live and die due to same reasons. Then I asked Robert frost. Why do birds fly? He said, birds do fly in search of food, to get away from the enemy and to chase their partners. Birds fly when they are happy and when they are sad and when they are scared. Birds fly, as it is faster than walking. They do have feet after all so it's all about speed. Speed so they can survive in the wild against the odds of the nature. Against the cruel nature and its forces which try to engulf their lives all the time. Birds do fly so they can be above their prey to dart onto a fish or a butterfly or a bug in seconds to swallow it in whole. Birds do fly because they have higher chance of survival on treetops than on the ground below. And flying is easier than climbing to get there. Robert frost on nature. I asked David Attenborough Is it true? Why do birds fly is for their survival? He said, maybe yes. Maybe there is more. And he showed me a video on a baby eagle taking its first flight. How it first jumped from a branch to another. And like it had no choice, like it was born to do. Like because it can. Next was a big leap into the sky. And that was a beginning of a lifetime of flying. Then he showed me baby ducks fresh out of their nest on a tree top jumping off the tree to land on the forest floor, hearing their mothers' cries. Like they had no choice. He said to me. Of course they can, they fly because they can. And also, they fly, fly because they must, as it is essential to fly not to die, and to be alive. I asked a child why do birds fly? He said, I don't know. Do they fly? What is flying? and what is a bird? Is the eyes of the bird a bird? Is it wings make a bird a bird? Is it beak makes a bird a bird? Is all of it a bird? And what is flying? Is it flapping wings flying? Is it pushing up the ground flying? And why did you say it is flying looking at the still image of a bird in the sky? Thank you for reading Why do birds fly.