Mind vs. Heart

"My heart says do it. My mind says don't". There has been an eternal battle between what we perceive to be our minds and our hearts. When you can pit two things against each other in simple terms, it makes life easy. Good vs. Bad. Right vs. Wrong. Mind vs. Heart.

We've all heard two different voices in our heads. One that is practical and logical - the Mind. And one that is emotional and impulsive - the Heart. Usually we segregate the creative people from the analytical people. But these two traits are present in all of us. Be it - abstract creativity or logical reasoning - they are both just perspectives. Two sides of a coin. Two sides of a human being.

These two sides are marked by a very thin yet strong line called emotion. Lesser the emotional quotient, higher is the ability to think practically. But if you live with zero emotion, it wouldn't be long until you realize that you've learnt all that you had to. And that's when life becomes monotonous.

The Mind. Most of the time it wants you to tread paths that have already been taken. It makes decisions taking into account your past experiences and ensures that there's a safety net for your future ones. Indirectly it ensures that the path forward does not make you visit/revisit any unpleasant emotions. The mind also makes you feel that emotions are a waste of time. It is purely mathematical and makes decisions with probability and statistics. The mind is organised, structured and methodical.

The Heart. It allows you to appreciate emotion. It makes you feel that nothing can ever be more powerful than emotion. It makes you prioritize your relationships against materialistic entities. It makes you care! The heart does not believe in learning from the past or preparing for the future. It believes in living for the moment. And living it, king-size! The heart is impulsive, sensitive and true.

Most often you might not be able to view situations from both perspectives. One will definitely dominate the other. But when both perspectives are quite strong - that's when the battle begins. What do you do then? Do you listen to the mind or the heart? And who makes this decision - the mind or the heart? Its a vicious circle.

Appreciation. Its quite a difficult quality to inculcate. Frankly, I don't think appreciation can be taught. Everything around us awaits our appreciation. Nature, music, people, the list goes on. The ability to appreciate is from the heart. But what will the mind say? - It's a waste of time.

Philosophy is another tricky subject. If you are open to different views and believe in abstract thinking, you'd appreciate philosophy. Your mind will say - Why bother trying to understand something when its impossible to arrive at a conclusion?

Its a devil vs. devil fight! Feel what your heart wants you to feel. Do what your mind tells you to do. Listen to them both, and you'll survive. I'd advise listening to your heart a little more because there is no fun otherwise.

Book a ticket, fly on a plane, grab a parachute and jump out! If you're alive, your mind will tell you that you were an idiot. Your heart will say - it was worth it! :) 

Women of the 21st century

What does this title bring to your mind? "Ah, she's going to ramble on about feminism and the how strong women have evolved to become" ? Nope. This is what the general notion is. And I'm guessing it's because we see a majority of such posts every day. But this is different. 

What is perspective? When somebody presents a new idea to you, your mind looks at the same situation differently. Someone else's perspective aids in helping you think different. This help is required unless you discover a new facet yourself, in which case, you'd have a new perspective yourself. 

I'm going to talk here about what I've discovered. What I've noticed. There are two very distinct types of women in our society today. And I have seen good quantities of them both, so I can assure you they exist in big numbers!

1.   Damsel in distress: 
You may laugh at this expression since we're only used to seeing such women in TV serials. Reality check - they are present everywhere. These women love to claim that they have no clue about what they're doing/what they're supposed to do and love to seek help from men. Of course if the damsel is pretty, the man has no qualms about getting this work done for her. There are several rules these women play by:

o    Sometimes they know what they have to do, yet find it easier to delegate the task. Sometimes they don't know what to do and don't bother learning it themselves.

o    These women most often seek help only from men. Perhaps they think they'd receive a cold shoulder from women, if they ask.So they find the easiest and fastest way to get things done.

o    They go to any lengths to ensure the work is done either knowingly or unknowingly (even demand for it, in some cases). As long as they don't have to do it themselves, they are happy. Either they do not think about the consequences of their actions/behavior or they simply do not want to.

2.   Independent woman:
She is most often misinterpreted for someone who feels superior to men. The Google definition for feminism itself is: "The advocacy of women's rights on the grounds of political, social, and economic equality to men." Equality. Read that? Equal to men. Anyway, these women like to do things on their own and are polar opposite to the first category. These women sometimes take offense if someone offers to help because they feel its an insult to their capabilities. If I had to compare with the former, their rules would be:

o    Sometimes they know what to do, sometimes they don't. Either way they will learn what they have to do, and complete it themselves.

o    They do not like seeking help from anyone. And in dire situations, if they have to - they ensure that such a situation never occurs again.

o    They have only themselves to blame for their actions and are quite happy with that. Since they don't depend on anybody else, they can predict the output of the work.

These are not the only two kinds of women in this world. These are just the extremes. There are quite a few varieties in between these poles with overlapping characteristics, but the mere presence of these poles is mildly hilarious. If I were to ask women in these categories to explain the other, I'd receive a lot of names in return - 'shameless', 'leech', 'loner', 'bossy', etc. (you can decide which names fit which category!). 

Now the interesting part to note here is that, if one pole exists - the other pole isn't too far away. Both poles may repel each other, but you'd always find them in each others' vicinity. I don't completely understand how/why that happens ... and also how/why that works. But it does!

So before you typecast all women of the 21st century to be exactly the same, stop and think. There's a lot of information right in front of our eyes - and those are what we always fail to notice!