Be yourself; Everyone else is already taken.
— Oscar Wilde.
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Lost art of reading
“Reading (…) is an act of resistance in a landscape of distraction.”
David L. Ulin
We have all experienced it before: while attempting to read, our phone pings, alerting us to the arrival of a new text, email, Tweet, or status update. And try as we might to forget that it happened and continue reading, we simply cannot ignore the itching anxiety we feel at not knowing immediately what it says. We stop reading (oftentimes mid sentence), put down the book, and check our phones, immersing ourselves in a technologically driven world that David Ulin calls “the buzz.”
There was a time when people used to love reading books and they used to read books only for their own pleasure. Can we say that this is still true? In the present time when life is moving at such a fast pace, how will people have the time to read books? Books are not the only pastime left anymore. They have evolved many new hobbies that have substituted reading in some way or the other. The art of reading seems to be lost somewhere.
Book – A forgotten friend
Books have always been a medium by which we escape the reality and go into a fantasy world where we are not burdened by responsibilities and where we can do as we please. They take us to a magical place which can be a fairy-tale, a story full of ghosts or a wartime epic. There are no boundaries and no right or wrong in books. We get to take our pick about the kind of story we want to get into. We can relive the Ramayana or Mahabharata through the books anytime we want.
But if we want to get into the story of a book, we need a lot of patience and focus which we seem to be losing these days. We keep running after our life and just don’t get the time to calm down and relax even for a bit. We seem to be losing the art of reading as we have found alternatives for it. Rather than reading books like Harry Potter, we prefer to watch the movie instead. We can’t seem to invest the time that a book will take and try to look for alternatives if we can find any.
Also, a very interesting thing that has come up in the recent times is the way people try to fake cultural literacy. Many people just act like they read a lot of books in order to fit in with their peers and they feel like they will not be considered smart if anyone found out that they don’t read books. People don’t want to feel left out of conversations. To avoid such a situation, they just read about the book that seems to be the hot topic so that they can be a part of the conversation when their friends talk about it. Instead of investing the time to actually read that book, they just read the summary or the review to be able to talk about it.
Books are for your pleasure and to increase your knowledge. But this way, you learn nothing. You are just trying really hard to gain the acceptance of your peers and for that one should know that faking cultural literacy isn’t going to do the trick. This isn’t restricted to mere books. The same thing goes for TV series as well as sports. Well, with the Football World Cup going on, every moment there is an update by someone or the other about the score. How many of us actually watch and enjoy it? Some of us just want to prove to the others that we watch sports too and we are into football too. Is this really required? Can’t we just pretend to like the things we actually like?
Should we make reading a habit again?
Somewhere down the line, we have lost our commitment to these hard pages that we so eagerly used to stare at. There was a time when we used to grasp every single word of the book we used to read. Now, we just want to rush through the book so that we can get to the end and get it over with. This should not be our reason to read a book. We should read the book to enjoy it and to cherish it. We have these huge piles of books that we like to collect even if we read them or not. We think that they probably reflect our intelligence level but we must realize that a book has no value when it is just kept on your shelf. But a book becomes invaluable as soon as one reads it. One cannot put a price on knowledge or pleasure that is attained after reading a book.
It’s time for us to wonder whether pretending to have read a book is actually of any help or does it have no importance at all. Reading is an art. We must try to focus on giving ourselves entirely to the story that we are reading. We must become a part of Hogwarts while reading Harry Potter and we must be a part of Westeros while reading Game of Thrones. But this will be possible when we sit down and actually read the entire series rather than just reading about it on the internet to blend in with the others who seem to actually like it and read it.
Benefits of reading
- Mental stimulation
- Stress reduction
- Knowledge
- Vocabulary expansion
- Memory improvement
- Stronger thinking skills
DISCLAIMER: Views expressed above are author’s own.
Like what you read? Recommend or share it ahead.
Being Optimistic
”Keep your face to the sunshine and you cannot see a shadow”
Helen Keller
Optimism puts us in a positive orientation towards the future, which in turn affects our beliefs and behaviour. Optimists believe that their own actions result in positive things happening and that they are responsible for their own happiness and they can expect better things to happen in the future.
The greatest mystics and teachers, across the world, have told us that everything is energy. This has now been undeniably confirmed by modern science also that thoughts, too, are energy. While mind is static energy, thought is dynamic energy and its power is vibratory, formed by converting static into dynamic force.
Each time we entertain a specific thought, we emit a specific, corresponding frequency, an energy vibration. Like energy attracts like energy. We attract to ourselves those things and circumstances that are in vibrational harmony with dominant mental attitude, habitual thoughts and beliefs. The more energy we give to a particular thought, the greater its power to attract its corresponding circumstance into our physical world through the law of attraction.
The more powerful and optimistic your thought is, the more creative can be its effect. And more communication channels open up, lending greater clarity and effectiveness to all that you do. Thoughts can drive attitudes, actions and behaviours. We can use this powerful domino effect for empowerment, achievement, success, and self-actualisation. Therefore, replace unwanted thoughts with their positive equivalent.
Consciousness, pervading the entire universe, is omnipotent, omnipresent and omniscient. The mind is part of that one, universal, intelligent consciousness and since thoughts are products of consciousness, its power is limitless. The mind is also one with that single Source and this power within us makes anything possible, provided one accesses the Source by connecting inward.
INNER WORLD
“Circumstances do not make a man, they reveal him.” Everything that we perceive in the physical world has its origin in the invisible, inner world of our thoughts and beliefs. Every effect we see, hear and speak in our outside or physical world has a specific cause that has its origin in the inner or mental world. This is the essence of thought power.
Put another way, the conditions and circumstances of our lives are as a result of our collective thoughts and beliefs. Every aspect of our life, from the state of finances to the state of health, success, happiness and relationships, simply mirrors our thoughts and beliefs. Happiness is the most intrinsic human nature, and hope is a primary, learnt condition, which can lead to happiness. Optimism is a primary, cognitive condition that spawns hope. In turn, happiness seems to reinforce optimism, leading to a cycle of happy, hopeful and optimistic life.
Essentials for being optimistic
- Create your positive mantras
- Focus on your success
- Get a role model
- Focus on the positives
- Don’t predict the future
- Surround yourself with positivity
- Challenge negative thoughts
Importance of optimism
Being optimistic implies being a positive, constructive, and creative thinker. Which implies that when a man is optimistic, success cannot be far from him. He sees opportunities in every aspect of life, whether positive or negative situations. According to Peale, he says “when you expect the worst, you get the worst, and when you expect the best of life, you get that best.” People who believe in optimism are always plugged into believing that all things are always possible even in the sight of impossibility. The mental system is the human nature that causes things to happen. Our lives are based on our psychology, which is the process of our behavior with respect to our immediate environment.
When the mind of a man is geared towards success, he is seen to actualize everything through his realm of possibility. (Peale, 2006) Although, this doesn’t mean that a total believe brings everything to you, but adjusting one’s lifestyle to seeing positivity in every situation brings one to a limelight of life. Therefore, in every ramification of life, attaining success demands a positive mind which recognizes success and not a failure, sees strength in the face of obstacles, see greatness in one’s ability and recognize opportunities in all areas.
Tips to be optimistic:
1. Remember: It is not too late to change your life.
“Nobody can go back and start a new beginning, but anyone can start today and make a new ending.”
-Maria Robinson
It may feel like you have been on the same path and stuck in the same habits for so long that you are stuck permanently on your current route.
You may not be able to change your life in any way you want right now. But work with what you have where you are right now.
Make just a small change if that is what is possible. That small change and success will give you confidence and optimism and you can build upon that to make more and perhaps even bigger changes over the year.
2. Find a more helpful way to view your troubles.
“What seems to us as bitter trials are often blessings in disguise.”
-Oscar Wilde
“If you will call your troubles experiences, and remember that every experience develops some latent force within you, you will grow vigorous and happy, however adverse your circumstances may seem to be.”
-John Heywood
Not all troubles in life are molehills (or simply made out of air).
And these more substantial challenges can easily to get drag you down.
But if you view them in a helpful and optimistic way then, yes, they may still hurt. But they tend to often hurt a lot less and can even be a source of optimistic excitement.
For example, I did not to like making mistakes or failing at all. I often chose to stand still and to not do anything to not risk anything.
But nowadays I have learned that these things tend to truly be a blessing in disguise.
What has changed?
I view them differently and act upon them differently than I used to. I ask myself:
- What is one opportunity in this situation?
- How will this experience help me in the long run?
These two steps help me to calm down and to think more clearly about things once again.
DISCLAIMER: Views expressed above are author’s own.
Introduce Yourself (Example Post)
This is an example post, originally published as part of Blogging University. Enroll in one of our ten programs, and start your blog right.
You’re going to publish a post today. Don’t worry about how your blog looks. Don’t worry if you haven’t given it a name yet, or you’re feeling overwhelmed. Just click the “New Post” button, and tell us why you’re here.
Why do this?
- Because it gives new readers context. What are you about? Why should they read your blog?
- Because it will help you focus you own ideas about your blog and what you’d like to do with it.
The post can be short or long, a personal intro to your life or a bloggy mission statement, a manifesto for the future or a simple outline of your the types of things you hope to publish.
To help you get started, here are a few questions:
- Why are you blogging publicly, rather than keeping a personal journal?
- What topics do you think you’ll write about?
- Who would you love to connect with via your blog?
- If you blog successfully throughout the next year, what would you hope to have accomplished?
You’re not locked into any of this; one of the wonderful things about blogs is how they constantly evolve as we learn, grow, and interact with one another — but it’s good to know where and why you started, and articulating your goals may just give you a few other post ideas.
Can’t think how to get started? Just write the first thing that pops into your head. Anne Lamott, author of a book on writing we love, says that you need to give yourself permission to write a “crappy first draft”. Anne makes a great point — just start writing, and worry about editing it later.
When you’re ready to publish, give your post three to five tags that describe your blog’s focus — writing, photography, fiction, parenting, food, cars, movies, sports, whatever. These tags will help others who care about your topics find you in the Reader. Make sure one of the tags is “zerotohero,” so other new bloggers can find you, too.
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