On Imperfections...

Imperfections are one of those things that can be counted upon - no matter how identical two people/things are, there are those little kinks/nicks that exist in everything. It is these little unique features that help us understand and classify the various things we see and experience in daily life. As a biology student, I have even learnt that the cells in your body, that have the exact same set of genes irrespective of which part of the body they are found in, function very differently based on how and where they are placed. A cell individually or collectively performs a large number of functions that other cells may or may not participate in.

My point in explaining all that was that although people come in much the same basic factory made model, they are so different from each other. As with the expression of genes, the environment, the current health and state of the organism will determine how the organism is shaped, and in the case of humans, how he/she thinks, acts, behaves, speaks and perceives his/her environment. A simple example is, if you have been starved for a week, and you enter a restaurant, you cannot be expected to patiently cut your meat into little bite sized pieces and munch each mouthful 32 times - you'd probably wolf down an entire KFC chicken bucket in 10 minutes. S those who give you the stink eye literally have no idea how hungry you feel. They probably never missed a meal in their lives - so, screw them. Right?

In my point of view, the perceptions of different people differ based on what they have experienced through life, and it is these perceptions that define the individual. Think about it this way - two people could look at the exact same thing and see two completely different things. This is because perception leads to impressions, and the impressions access memories and lead to thoughts; that eventually lead to actions and reactions. When two people look at a person who has committed a criminal offense, for instance, one feels sympathy for his condition, and one feels anger at the damage caused. Yet another may feel complete apathy, because this person can't relate to the perp or the victim, so he just feels nothing. It all depends on how the person relates to the perp. The person who feels sympathy feels for all the wrong that had been done to the person, that lead to him/her making all the wrong choices - wrong friends, to do all the wrong things and to be in all the wrong things. All of the things that lead to this person becoming who he/she is at that point. A good parent or a person with really strong maternal/paternal instincts would be one who would see the good in a child/person irrespective of what the rest of the world thinks.

The person who feels anger looks at the perpetrator from the viewpoint of the victim who happened to get hurt by the perp. In this case, the amount of damage would dictate the amount of anger felt. Anger in this case could be righteous anger or, in certain cases the anger that rises out of bias and blood lust. There are a few cases where the perpetrators had it coming, but in a good number of cases, the perpetrators grew up in an environment where they were treated with an unfair, harsh and unkind manner - anger and hate was all they ever knew. They grew unflinching, hard and cold because the humanity was beaten out of them. That's why, nearly every villain has a particularly horrific back story. For most people who end up in jail, it is the world that was cruel to them first. There's a lot the rest of us take for granted. Some people have never known kindness, or compassion or even safety. They lived in fear all along, and eventually, what helps them deal with that harshness is for them to become tougher, which in this case means that they become harsh, cynical, rude, cold and unfeeling.

When they feel no fear or pain, doing something that would harm another person does not necessarily feel so wrong. To them, it is just a way to get their frustrations with life out of their system in several stages. When they have killed once, it doesn't feel so wrong anymore, so they do it again and again until it becomes second nature to them. If you ask the cannibals who existed in times of great starvation, they would tell you that they did what they did to survive. So it is eventually that - either survive or die, and to some, death does not come quickly, so they succumb to the will to survive, no matter what it takes.

Okay, I hear you - enough of the morbidity.

Look at people like you and me. I'm sure for many of us, the world was quicker to tell us of our faults than to embrace what we are really good at. It takes the will and the courage to keep fighting, to persevere, to prove that you are indeed, good at what you are good at, so that you get accepted as a dancer, for example. Now, that's just the beginning. Once you have been seen as a dancer, people will constantly expect you to outdo yourself and others. Just being talented is not enough. People always take to comparing you with others who share your talent. No matter how good you get, you will ALWAYS find someone who people will say is better than you. Don't worry - that guy who is your competition is also being compared with someone who another group of people find better than him. Maybe he can't stop hearing about you in the circles he is in. Since we don't live in a Disney movie, we can't magically switch places or marry a Prince/Princess in the other's land and go to live in the other land forever, so we must learn to just tune out the background noise and only listen to the more informed, constructive opinions.

It's an unfair system that way, but it's how the world works. You can choose to continue to feel unworthy, or you can look at how far you have come, and actually be grateful of the fact that you have had the opportunity to actually make it as far as you have. This will help you move further, at your own pace. Why I say 'at your own pace' is this - in a world of 7 billion people, you probably are not going to be the best in the world at something for too long without having someone else prove to be better than you. So why strive so hard to have your ass handed to you on a plate EVEN when you are right on top of the proverbial ladder? It would be best instead to just keep doing what you're doing, in the way you know how, trying your best to give your best when you're doing it. That way, you improve, and you are not necessarily under too much pressure. A little pressure of the good kind is good - it keeps you on your toes, but try not to let anyone get you down.

I think everyone should embrace the imperfections that make a person unique - because it is those things that help you identify a person as that person. Everyone should be allowed to be themselves. That way, there will be more love in the world, and less hate. Why are we all so obsessed with standards and categories? Cavemen never categorized. They hunted anything when they were hungry, took what they wanted, came and went as they pleased. Unless another person was interfering in their business, they never actually fought.

Now, we initially categorized so we could understand each other and the world around us better, but the more civilized and uptight we got, the more we used these categories to fuel racism, pitting us against one another.

The more civilized we got, the more unfair we got. The more we craved, the more unsatisfied we felt - we ALWAYS want more. No matter how much we already have, it just is not enough. Contentment is an attitude in my opinion - choose to look at the glass half full in every situation, and you can be happy anywhere.

If someone annoys you, just stay out of their way - let them find others like them, and do as they please. Whatever it is, just don't try to change people. If you don't like them, just keep looking for others like you.

Just a few thoughts. 

Lifestyle

I have spent the past few days thinking and reading about the various things that comprise a healthy lifestyle, and I found one thing about our lives today. It's all wrong. Nearly everything we do is eventually going to either make us very sick, or just kill us.

1. We are extremely busy. All the stress leads to less sleep, anxiety, depression, fatigue, bad choices in everything that we do - we look for shortcuts in every thing. We buzz buzz buzz around, flitting from one task to the next, like our hindquarters were on fire. No time for thought, rest, food, feeling, love, contemplation.

2. We eat all the wrong food. Fried, sweetened, overcooked, processed, much too salty or sugary, highly caffeinated, nicotine/trans-fat filled. Doesn't that sound like everything we eat? Exactly my point.

3. Our values are all completely messed up. When everything becomes a competition, how will you be able to relax and get your eyes off of your competitor's progress? Nasty, stinking, competition is everywhere, and in everything. It's disgusting - absolutely revolting. When you think of competition, picture the most disgusting thing you can think of, something that will make you puke - because that's how bad it is. All that nonsense we are fed about healthy competition is a load of crap. Healthy competition eventually transforms into that disgusting thing you pictured, and then, there literally is no turning back.

4. Our highly consumerist and industrialized lifestyle is sucking the life out of life as it should be. The environment is at risk of being seriously affected, the health of the collective is in serious jeopardy, we are all now programmed to kill or to eat each other alive if it meant that, in doing so, we are closer to success.

5. More alcohol, sodas, drugs use, PSP playing, TV watching - no time to do the real stuff, like painting or singing or dancing - or even just talking.

6. We are no longer focused on doing a few defined tasks to the best of our abilities - but Nora is trying to outdo her neighbour, Sally by taking on everything she does, even if it doesn't come naturally to her - she doesn't do it because she enjoys it, but just to tell her, or show her that she is better. It is impossible to do everything everyone else does - the purpose of community is to give each person due credit for the things each individual is good at, and to help each other out. It is definitely not to constantly try to outdo one another.

Competition is a very weird way of living, in that you are literally telling yourself that you need to outdo someone else to prove to yourself that you are worthy. Competition makes your entire life about being better than someone else. It fuels the ego of the winner, and frustrates those who didn't make it, deeming all the efforts they put in null and void in the eyes of the collective. We go from being a happy friendly world to a cruel, and unfriendly world in a second.

Research has validated the expression - jack of all trades; master of none. Apparently, when you keep switching from one job to another too many times (more than 5-10 times a day), you get dumber, meaning your IQ level literally drops over time. So in trying to become superman, you become a doorpost. It is apparently wise and productive to make checklists of a few tasks, and to give it your complete attention as opposed to taking on an impractical number of tasks - you endanger your health (physical and mental), and you become this unpleasant, tired, neurotic person that everybody hates.

I like to prioritize my work, and to give myself rewards for accomplishing said goals, irrespective of the result. I also like to work in some me time, where I don't plan what to do, but only that I give myself that time to be spontaneous - and do anything I feel like doing. Trust me, I am a happy person because of it - I reward myself for being focused and productive, irrespective of what anyone thinks. I consider myself a successful, irrespective of the results I get.  I set goals that are meaningful to me. That way I know where I am going. In my mind, I am neither a winner nor a loser - I am just not in the competition because none of it makes ANY kind of sense to me because life is subjective. Competition and examinations are not an accurate judge of talent.

The lack of time to think is a big one too, and fewer minds are trained to think about the truths of life these days. It is very important for a human being to get in touch with his/her surroundings and to assess their own progress in life. It is important for an individual to constantly look within, rediscover themselves, and to see if their lives are in harmony with their soul.

Are they doing what they set out to do? Are their choices entirely their own, or are they being pushed into believing someone else's beliefs? Are they being true to themselves? Are they communicating with their conscience? Is their conscience happy with them? OR are they constantly living life to please others, completely destroying themselves and losing their purpose for living? What are the things they are truly blessed with? Is there a way to find contentment with what they have at the moment? Is something causing them to worry? Why are they worried? Is there a possibility that the situation can be dealt with? Or is there no actual cause for worry? Are they being absolutely everything they can be?

These are important questions that an individual constantly needs to ask himself/herself and find honest answers to - not outside, not in other people, but within themselves. People hardly spend time thinking about these things. Even if they do think about some of those things, they are approached in a very selfish, opportunistic way. Only when one is truly at harmony with oneself can he/she find the wisdom to help another. This is why people do not help each other for no apparent reason like they used to. Everything is done with an expectation of profit or some sort of personal gain. That's not being nice to others - that's being nice to yourself.


Back to health now -

The lack of sleep is what is ranked highest in the cause for many illnesses - apparently sleep deprivation prevents the rejuvenation of the organs of our body, and causes serious hormonal imbalances, like the production of Cortisol (the stress hormone) and the hunger hormone (ghrelin) that leads to salt/sugar cravings that; if entertained, will lead to obesity and further hormonal imbalances. It's like a vicious circle.

The consumption of the food I mentioned above, lead to poor heart health, a dramatic decrease in cognitive function, increased risk of neurodegenerative disorders and other serious disorders. One increasing problem in female reproductive health today is the Polycystic Ovary Disease/Syndrome (PCOD/PCOS).

The toll that our high stress, consumerist lifestyle takes on teenage girls is the hormonal imbalance that leads to the improper functioning of their reproductive system. The LH (Leutenizing Hormone) surge that is necessary for the regular release of the finite number of eggs stored in a woman's ovaries is disrupted, leading to a difficulty in conception when she does decide to have children. Further, the unhealthy practices of binge drinking, the use of narcotics, stress and sleep deprivation along with the consumption of food additives in everything lead to poor reproductive health as well. Either they can't get pregnant because most of the eggs in their ovaries have been destroyed, leading to a disappointingly low follicular count. Or, if they do, they miscarry because the uterine environment is hostile - or stress.

None of what we do is real anymore. We eat fake food, we breathe dirty air, we do fake things, we, at best only tolerate people around us, and have little, if at all any time for each other. Although we have all the most convenient ways to live now, none of it is actually real. Keep this going, and it won't be a natural disaster killing all of us - this will be a different kind of deluge - this time, we will be the cause of our own destruction.
It's Armageddon waiting to happen, whichever way you slice it. Only this time, it will be a different kind of flood.