Of late, snippets of the movie “A Beautiful Mind” starring Russel Crowe has been playing on my mind repeatedly. This movie which won plenty of accolades including four Academy Awards was based on a real life story. It was a biographical film about John Forbes Nash, the Nobel Laureate (Economics) mathematician who developed schizophrenia in his obsession with finding an original idea or theory. Throughout the process of coming up with the “next big thing”, Nash’s mind could hardly stop working and he started hallucinating, became delusional, increasingly paranoid and started behaving erratically.
Whilst Nash’s schizophrenia was not cured, he managed to move on with live and was ultimately able to largely ignore his psychotic experiences which included “ignoring” the imaginary people who were often surrounding him. This movie definitely ranks as one of my all time favorites and I could not resist drawing linkages between this movie and recent experiences I have encountered.
I was driving home on a Friday evening and there were several invitations from friends to chill out. At any other time, I would probably be the first to say yes to such invitations and that too if I had not been the one arranging for it. Nonetheless, it was very different this time around for as much as I would have loved to have a cold beer; I was both physically and mentally exhausted. Looking back at the week leading up to the slow drive home that evening, there was nothing too gruesome or taxing which left me wondering why I was feeling so lethargic.
It was then that I realized that a big part of the lethargy was due to my own doing. In the past couple of weeks, I have probably been working my mind “overtime” and to make matters worse, it was unnecessary thinking that took its toll on me. In case one might be wondering, I’m definitely not schizophrenic and I’ve yet to start meeting imaginary people. However, I have recently developed this “habit” of trying to read between the lines for almost every situation. Each time I have a conversation with someone; be it in a work-related or social environment, I’ve had the tendency to analyze if what was being said by the other party was meant to be understood the way it was addressed or could there be some hidden meaning that the other person is trying to imply.
I’ve had late nights trying to draw out various potential conclusions to simple conversations and this was definitely taking the zest out of many things. Being reclusive and not wanting to mingle much was probably some of the aftermaths of this unhealthy episode. Now that I’ve realized the kind of unnecessary torture I’ve been putting my mind through, it’s about time to take things easy and not think too much. Nevertheless, the resting could only happen once I’ve penned down my thoughts on the power of the mind.
I’ve read somewhere that an average human only utilizes between 10 to 12% of the brain’s capacity and Einstein whose name is probably synonymous to “genius” was utilizing 20% of his brain capacity. If a genius utilizes only 20% of the greatest gift to mankind, does it then mean that the power of the human mind knows no boundary? Come to think of it, a computer, a calculator, a space shuttle and countless other revolutionary and live-changing technology (including the PS3 and I-Phone) were all conjured by the human mind. This is probably testament to the fact that the human brain can do almost anything if we were to set our minds to it and the list of things would probably include some thoughts too scary and unbelievable to even mention.
Thankfully, there’s only one Einstein whose mind was mainly dedicated to sciences and physics for I cannot imagine a world with several million people utilizing 20% of their brain capacity thinking of how to outdo each other. It would be disastrous for that to happen as every other person you meet on the street would probably then be a Saddam or Hitler in the making whilst the remainder of the population would then be a Bush not knowing what’s happening next. I for one would not want to be living in such a world.
In that context, I should probably just put my mind to rest and not think about anything else apart from what is necessary. In the same spirit, we should all start calling a spade a spade; and interpret the spade as a spade if the other person says so instead of trying to read between the lines. That way, the mind would always remain beautiful!
Whilst Nash’s schizophrenia was not cured, he managed to move on with live and was ultimately able to largely ignore his psychotic experiences which included “ignoring” the imaginary people who were often surrounding him. This movie definitely ranks as one of my all time favorites and I could not resist drawing linkages between this movie and recent experiences I have encountered.
I was driving home on a Friday evening and there were several invitations from friends to chill out. At any other time, I would probably be the first to say yes to such invitations and that too if I had not been the one arranging for it. Nonetheless, it was very different this time around for as much as I would have loved to have a cold beer; I was both physically and mentally exhausted. Looking back at the week leading up to the slow drive home that evening, there was nothing too gruesome or taxing which left me wondering why I was feeling so lethargic.
It was then that I realized that a big part of the lethargy was due to my own doing. In the past couple of weeks, I have probably been working my mind “overtime” and to make matters worse, it was unnecessary thinking that took its toll on me. In case one might be wondering, I’m definitely not schizophrenic and I’ve yet to start meeting imaginary people. However, I have recently developed this “habit” of trying to read between the lines for almost every situation. Each time I have a conversation with someone; be it in a work-related or social environment, I’ve had the tendency to analyze if what was being said by the other party was meant to be understood the way it was addressed or could there be some hidden meaning that the other person is trying to imply.
I’ve had late nights trying to draw out various potential conclusions to simple conversations and this was definitely taking the zest out of many things. Being reclusive and not wanting to mingle much was probably some of the aftermaths of this unhealthy episode. Now that I’ve realized the kind of unnecessary torture I’ve been putting my mind through, it’s about time to take things easy and not think too much. Nevertheless, the resting could only happen once I’ve penned down my thoughts on the power of the mind.
I’ve read somewhere that an average human only utilizes between 10 to 12% of the brain’s capacity and Einstein whose name is probably synonymous to “genius” was utilizing 20% of his brain capacity. If a genius utilizes only 20% of the greatest gift to mankind, does it then mean that the power of the human mind knows no boundary? Come to think of it, a computer, a calculator, a space shuttle and countless other revolutionary and live-changing technology (including the PS3 and I-Phone) were all conjured by the human mind. This is probably testament to the fact that the human brain can do almost anything if we were to set our minds to it and the list of things would probably include some thoughts too scary and unbelievable to even mention.
Thankfully, there’s only one Einstein whose mind was mainly dedicated to sciences and physics for I cannot imagine a world with several million people utilizing 20% of their brain capacity thinking of how to outdo each other. It would be disastrous for that to happen as every other person you meet on the street would probably then be a Saddam or Hitler in the making whilst the remainder of the population would then be a Bush not knowing what’s happening next. I for one would not want to be living in such a world.
In that context, I should probably just put my mind to rest and not think about anything else apart from what is necessary. In the same spirit, we should all start calling a spade a spade; and interpret the spade as a spade if the other person says so instead of trying to read between the lines. That way, the mind would always remain beautiful!
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