Recently, while having a walk with a friend, he shared a small anecdote from his childhood, and there couldn’t be a better way to start what we are going to talk about here:

“When we were kids, my friends and I were playing hide-and-seek. Near every house there’s always some strange spot with its own story, and for us it was this little straw hut like shelter. Places like that usually have snakes or scorpions living inside, so we were always a bit scared of it.

When my friend started counting, everyone ran to hide as fast as they could. I don’t know how, but I ended up running toward that straw shelter. By the time I realized where I was, I was already standing in front of it, and there was nowhere else nearby to hide. So I had to step in.

It was pitch-black at first, and I was really scared. But slowly my eyes adjusted, and I could start to see things. I noticed a long stick lying in the corner and a narrow path leading further in. I followed it a bit, and to my surprise, there was even a tiny toilet built inside.”

Growing up, we all had similar experiences where there were spooky places, dangerous spots, or certain activities we were told not to do or go to. Because someone sometime had an accident or faced a misfortune while doing so. The society wants to protect us and tries to keep us as far away as possible. However, does it protect us from all the bad experiences of life?

These places or activities slowly start to turn into our general perception. It does not stay restricted to only childhood, but even when we are grown-ups, we will think twice before visiting those places. Perceptions are developed and based on what we feed to our senses. If we feed our minds that dark places are scary, and repeatedly tell our minds the same over the years, along with stories where people were hurt and harmed, we will be scared of the darkness for the rest of our lives.

It doesn’t mean that darkness is not scary, or totally safe; it is subjective. However, perceptions are now just not limited to certain places or activities. With the coin of social media, and now AI, some groups and organizations tend to develop, affect, or destroy our perception into bits and pieces. No wonder the world seemed like a peaceful place, and then with some changes in power, the dynamics and speech changed. What happened to be a humanity and brotherhood perception, the hate speeches, ill comments, and violent actions, have divided the perceptions so enormously that life has become nothing but an illusion.

With the enormity of events happening around the globe, and in the hunger for knowing and broadcasting every news, every person sometimes becomes an expert and reporter. A team wins the match, there are WhatsApp stories, a superstar expires, there are WhatsApp stories, a major outage happens, there are stories, and so on. Just imagine, if someone spreads fake news and presents it with fake AI doctored pictures, how many of us will fall into it, and post it. How will the perception change, maybe not just about a place, but maybe about a community?

Sometimes, it feels like we don’t have any perception left now, or whatever there is, it’s just an illusion. One moment we like something, and the next we see a meme on it, and question ourselves why we liked it. A society that had the responsibility to keep each other safe, sound, informed, and protected from such illusions is itself transformed just into a social media group, and has become the source of misinformation.

When the outside world is gloomy, the only place we can find answers is when we look inside. Our body, mind, and especially subconscious mind always know the best, only if we knew how to talk with it. Yet, it tries to tell us, through strange feelings inside, sweat in hands, a gut feeling, all that we call intuition. The problem with intuition is, it has no base or proof, just a strong feeling. If you tell that this doesn’t feel right, the first question will be why, and there is no answer to that.

Being 31, all I hear from every part of the world is, “Get married”. Okay, they are right, but what is the input or the perception that society is telling me? Friends and even from family who are married or getting married, all they tell me is how tough it becomes post marriage, to handle a relation, how things get tough with little comment, how their better half is still not accepting their family, or simply they are unable to live their life the way they would like, how they are not getting the time for themselves, and then scaring me that how all those things that you do, from writing to reading to music, how they will be changed. And when I reach out for genuine suggestions, “you are living the best time of your life”, “staying single is the best thing,” are the only replies. With that perception, who will want to marry? If I leave aside a couple of people, none of them come and tell how supportive life becomes knowing that someone is there to care for them. Someone to go out and have lunch with or simply to share the highs and lows with. 

In the midst of all the perceptions, illusions, and intuitions, reality still remains unknown. What has to occur in our destiny won’t change. Things will happen the way they have to, and the moment they are bound to. Your perception can either warn you or make you biased. So why not take life as one moment at a time? Why bother to create the whole life perception and live by it? Why not live the reality as and when it comes?

Because we are scared. We fear life itself. The scarier the perception (dark places are dangerous, or marriages steal your freedom), the stronger we believe in it. The noise of these perceptions is so loud that we don’t want to take a chance and put our intuitions on stake. The reality is happening, right in this moment, as you read it. Maybe this blog will create a perception as you are feeding it, so why not feed ourselves with the reality that these moments won’t be back, your 20s, 30s, 40s won’t return. Why not live that dream that we thought of without any perception, why not make it true today? Who knows, the dark places we are afraid of, bring the light to us! 

– Navneet