Our negative feelings, as all of us know, 'seize' and 'throttle' our positive thoughts. Harmony cannot exist in a vacuum. It cannot also percolate to all comers when our heart is beset with trepidation. A critical mass of negativity is a bait – it 'snaps' our mental focus and emotional resolve
Your hand is able to touch things, because it is a touchable thing all by itself. It is also a part of the tangible world that it explores.
This illustration, as nature ordained, holds good for your eyes.
You spot things that are themselves apparent – the glossy surfaces, the colours, the hues, the printed photograph, a piece of granite or the turquoise sky. When you stroke the sparkly surface of granite, you feel yourself being touched by the glistening stone itself.
You see the world, likewise, around you– it is a visible experience.
It is like feeling yourself seen from the outside. You experience things –and, see, touch, hear and also taste things – primarily because your body is included in the sensible field with its own textures, sounds and tastes to contend and experience, all right, but they are all there – a part of the whole, and sum of the parts.
We can perceive things because we are part of the tangible world in which we live and also see, feel and experience.
You may relate to this uniqueness as perceiving the world itself through oneself.
When you walk in the park, you gaze at its green canvas and shaded depths.
You smell the freshness of grass, the serenity of the leaves and the flight of a beautiful butterfly.
You feel refreshed with the breezy fragrance in the air.
You may also suddenly feel that the trees are looking at you - you feel you are being watched from all sides, too.
When you are 'touched' by someone you love, you feel as if it is all part of the sensuous – the exchanges and changes that arise from your conscious physical self to the conscious feeling deep within. It is a fascinating drama – a gift of nature in you and of nature itself.
You can't quite explain the extraordinary feeling – but, feel it intensely you sure will.
This form of experience is quite strange, also fascinating, and somewhat puzzling to our so-called civilised ways of thinking, or knowing.
Yet, it becomes evident as soon as you accept the give-and-take value of direct participation and perception – the fact that to touch is to also feel yourself being touched, or to see is to feel yourself 'seen.' These are perceptual feelings. When consciously acknowledged, they greatly influence our behaviour.
If, for instance, you think that your locality is beautiful, sensitive and vigilant, you will take care that your actions are also just as conscientious and polite.
This will stay with you even when you are far away from your surroundings.
The reason is – you think you belong and you also care for all things, big and small.
It is rightly said that a person 'living' with nature is never alone. Why? Because, they are as conscious of the surroundings as the surroundings are of themselves.
What's more, they keep the conversation with themselves and others going – this is a healthy, also vibrant, prerequisite to achieving physical and emotional balance.
It is also purported that most conversations don't get the best out of us, because we tend to generate, or proffer, the humdrum.
We also, as a rule, don't distil every given situation to make sense of it. We are simply obsessed with stray thoughts.
The irony is – the more gripped one is with drifting thoughts, the more inclined one is to repeat, not reinvent, them.
This is the foundation of stressful feelings – because, what we don't do naturally is a latent trigger for stressful distress.
This is also the 'real-life' version of sitcoms – where every backdrop replicates a previous occurrence, notwithstanding their continuity.
It is not just human nature, but also predisposition, to be fixated with a past event, thanks to a certain angst that we harbour – more so, because we are all 'iced up' to the future.
This is, perhaps, a reflection of our internal fears – that something can happen to upset the applecart of our life, career, health and well-being.
It exemplifies the Freudian element – of dreams, apprehensions and frustrations.
What we 'clutch' is what we emote.
This, therefore, has a sustained bearing in our conversations and also interactions – be it with our family, friends or colleagues.
Our negative feelings, as all of us know, 'seize' and 'throttle' our positive thoughts.
Harmony cannot exist in a vacuum.
It cannot also percolate to all comers when our heart is beset with trepidation.
A critical mass of negativity is a bait - it 'snaps' our mental focus and emotional resolve.
It attracts amplified negative energy for us to 'carp' about.
The outcome – we allow ourselves to be engulfed in the vortex of negativity, with no light at the end of the tunnel.
Yes, there is no use in mulling over the past, or the present, or looking at future events with a crystal ball.
The best thing to do is to shrug your shoulders, hold your head high, move on and get ahead in life, no matter the troubles that may loom to quiver the ground beneath your feet, like the spooky situation we are all in today – the COV- ID-19 'Horribilis.' When negativity gets into the skin of our thought, the consequence is also anything but confounding – it not only affects our emotional well-being, it also impinges on our physical well-being.
All it takes to reverse the pattern is a new perspective – the ability to face the world by taking a fresh 'guard', like a Test batsman, even after they have notched up a sparkling century.
Remember – it is your outlook that celebrates your identity. This is your personalised rainbow synthesis that splashes colour into your life and world.
It holds a canvas – the urge to live in the present-moment.
You will now evolve; you will grow. You will also be able to see the universe in a blade of grass, not the woods.
Nidamboor is a wellness physician, independent researcher and author
A version of this article appears in the print on October 6, 2021, of The Himalayan Times.
