"Life is so constructed that an event does not, cannot, will not, match the expectation."
Hell yes.. i agree with the above statement. Life can be so manipulative sometimes that you go to the extent of thinking what you must have done wrong in your past life. You never get the results that you expect (it can be worse or better) but never what you expected.
"Life is a joke to the people who think and a disaster for the people who feel"
Very relevant for most of the Indians or i should say most of the Asians who think with their heart and end up decoding their life very differently. It happened to me. I am an emotional fool who thinks with his heart and who believes that everyone is this world is good and if they are bad, it may be for a specific reason.
Recently I was hauled to Delhi by my company for a 2 day workshop (which went on for 6 days) where i had the privilege of spending time with my mentor Mr. BS Pani. Over dinner and a lot of wet eyed discussions i feel he analysed me quite well. The next few days we exchanged mails on what i was lacking and where i should become strong. It was then i was exposed to this new disease called as "Emotional Quotient or Emotional Intelligence". According to BSP I lacked horribly in this department and it was one of the many reasons why most Indians do not climb the corporate ladder very fast. Well I took it up as a challenge and tried to find out what exactly is wrong with my brain.
Man is around 10,000 year old (modern man) and is still struggling with evolutionary pressures while the poor human brain is badgered with everyday problems and the strain of coping up with changing lifestyles. In the beginning the primitive brain was a simple tool which had very limited functions to perform as the basic instinct was survival. It developed a kind of repository of smells and associated each object with a distinct odour for eg. smell for food, danger, mating, etc. This we shall call as "nose brain" which "felt" through smell. As time went on, a layer developed over the "nose brain" which was more refined in its thinking and was able to perform complex functions such as crying, laughing, smiling, etc. This was called "neocortex". I know I am bugging you with all the scientific name-calling but i promise its just a few more and it will be over.
As i mentioned about the neocortex it so happened that 2 almond shaped protrusions developed on either sides of the brain called amygdala. This is the culprit as it is responsible for emotions, affections and passion. This is also capable of "hijacking" the brain in case of an incident.
An example of this statement.. Imagine a situation where you are sleeping very peacefully in the night and you hear a loud crash. You suddenly jump out of bed with a stick in hand thinking it is a thief. You search around to find a small steel glass has tipped over and fallen as it was not kept properly. There is no thief but your body has reacted in a way as if there is threat even when you are in a deep sleep.
Your amygdala has "hijacked" your brain and had made you perform instantaneous reactions before even understanding the cause of the noise. After some time when you actually see why the noise has occured, you start to analyse and draw a logical conclusion. This is done by your neocortex. Hence we now see that there are 2 main entities that we can talk about viz. Neocortex (or the Thinking/Reasoning Brain) and Amygdala (or the Emotional Brain)
Let me end this post today by explaining who becomes the main culprit in any emotional event. The amygdala, we see, is more developed in people living on this side of the globe. (I think my amygdala is the whole bloody brain) So let us all blame the stupid amygdala for any emotional outbursts that may lead to shouting from your wife, girlfriend or mother.
So until next time when i can blame someone else for my mistakes... Ciao...
"The man who smiles when things go wrong has thought of someone to blame it on"
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