SUNDAY, MAY 19, 2024
Bryce D’Souza
A while ago I was scrolling through my social media feed. While I was busy keeping my senses pre-occupied, all of a sudden I had an epiphany. I was left beyond mere wonder upon making this crucial discovery and would like to spell out more on it. A creative insight into what I would describe as the ‘evolving conscious mind’ or ‘rational mind’.
Conscious thinking is what I would describe – a state of mind optimally attained where one is able to think rationally in the moment. In other words, adopt a clear lens in distinguishing between a truth, a reality and a fantasy. It is an aphorism to how we live our present-day lives. Conscious thinking in a more broad sense dictates the very choices we make, the decisions we take and more importantly how we choose to streamline the natural course of our existence.
In the early years of our existence, our surroundings are what shape the early beliefs. This includes our parents from whom we inherit our existence including the surrounding community. We initially grow up inheriting these traits as a means of survival. It is what we would refer to as the ‘survival of the fittest’. Our surroundings are what characterize our innermost environment. It is this innermost environment that shapes the way we think or perceive life and the things around us.
As we grow up and enter the early school years, our value systems and beliefs are further shaped by the people we may encounter. It is these constant interactions that we have for the next 12 years of our life that go about further shaping how we start to perceive things and in the process, form a rational re-construction of life’s realities. At this point, there comes a stage where we start to face a dilemma. This comes as a result of conflicting beliefs and values we have inherited from our families, vis-à-vis what we have learnt from our educational environment. At this juncture, it is imperative that we undertake a critical examination to evaluate the pre-requisites needed to thrive in the evolving world that we are destined for, once we complete our formal education. This is also the period where our mindset starts to evolve as we make a significant transition away from our primitive or primal instincts in order fit in with the needs of this ever-changing society.
Then comes in the collegiate or university period. This is the time where all the value systems and beliefs that we had adopted until school years, go haywire.
Next we have thrust upon us, the corporate world. This true world suddenly makes its onslaught upon our lives and it is here that we really start to reason out with life’s realities. We seek to make sense with how our beliefs and perceptions of life were shaped over the years. In the process, we also unlearn certain beliefs about life so as to fit within a broader purpose of our existence in the organization. This cycle continues till the time we grow old. In all these stages of our lives, our minds our restructured or rewired to handle the challenges or adversities that come upon us. All of this adds up to a constant and continuous cycle of what I would refer as a constantly evolving ‘conscious mind’.
