Introduction
William Shakespeare, the magnificent observer of human behaviour and nature, discovered the key to destiny of mankind as well as this world, and artistically presented it for the coming generation in his specific creation ‘Hamlet’ (Act. 2 Sc. 2 at page 11). In course of conversation with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, most intelligent and perspicacious Hamlet uttered the above extract.
If we think and observe even our own activities and their results—good and bad, successful and unsuccessful, well and woe till now, we will discover that everything happened and are happening on the basis of our decision and perception. Our thinking process has two opposites: one that ushers in healthy and favourable outputs is known as positive or good which always keeps us active and encourages us stoutly and confidently undertake one after another action or adventure, while the other results in unhealthy and vulnerable outputs that jeopardise our lives is known as bad or negative. Our positive thoughts and decisions, the output of our thinking, always lead us to growth and improvement while the negative lead us to perils and dangers. This power makes us decide the good and bad based on the human values we own. Our conscience, awareness, knowledge, experience, love, hatred, and other qualities influence us greatly in course of deciding the status of anything. It is natural or God gifted. Only human beings avail this opportunity out of the six senses that God has given all living beings in this planet. We have won the dominant position on this planet by the command of our thinking that has helped us develop our science and technology over time.
Shakespeare’s Elaboration
Shakespeare was once asked to elaborate the above extract. He replied intelligently, “A man cheerfully observed a religious fast seven days a week. His neighbour starved to death on the same diet”.
This very statement makes it clear that our perspective and thinking work differently in a same situation. A thing appears differently to different people. We differ in our thinking, behaviour, acceptance, grasping, mannerism, and reactionary power to a stated situation.
In our head there are two functionaries: Brain and Mind. Brain is analytical while mind is persuasive. There occurs a conflict between our brain and mind, when we take decisions upon a situation. Our ability determines our strength to win over this persuasive mind by making decisions especially based on the output of our analytical mind. Interference of our mind in our activities proves our inability to decision making power. Shakespeare is also considered a wise psychologist who founded the background for psychological therapy formed in future. The modern ‘Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT)’ has been developed on the very idea of the thought process that determines things good or bad. The above extracts prove that Shakespeare had the power of keen observation and intellect.
Influence of Factors in Thinking Process
Human morals, preconceived nature and external factors greatly influence our thought and perception. All these factors intermingle in our head together. We can hardly trace the process that goes on constantly in our practical life. Our life is what our thinking produces.
Human Values
Human morals play crucial role in our thinking process. These are our inborn qualities while we acquire some other qualities since childhood. Our fundamental learning remains subconscious in our mind but comes out naturally through our reactions to different situations. Our reactionary power is hardly discernable which comes out in fractions of a second. Our mind reins our intellect as the mind processes the perceived information with regard to its understanding and then stores into our subconscious mind. This has no relation to our practical perception.
The proverb, ‘Where there is a will, there is a way’, elaborates the significance of the will power that has the capacity to help a man come out any difficult and invincible situation. This willpower is generated by our positive thinking. It energises and encourages us to constantly look for the genuine solution for the prevailing stiff situation. It generates hope for life and makes us feel its importance. This power also charges our sinews and revitalises our lost and defeated power and even leads us to success. It is, therefore, our positive thinking process. Our ability is moulded by our perception and understanding. For instance, we can call a half filled cup as ‘half empty’ or ‘half full’. This is our response that the analysis process of our brain gives on the situation. Our positive and negative notions reflect themselves automatically through our regular expression of words and behaviour both consciously and unconsciously. Again attraction to a thing varies from person to person. For instance, the rose has thorns; still people like to pluck the rose while a few dare not pluck it. Why?—The formers are charmed and captivated by the beauty of the rose though conscious or unconscious of the thorns, while the latters though captivated by its beauty, dare not pluck it because they find the thorns risky.
Influences of Notions
The act of processing information is carried out by our mind before storing it in the subconscious mind. The understanding once gets settled into our mind becomes a notion. This notion highlights the exact situation instead of providing any scope to our healthy intellect to analyse the situation, in case we perceive anything in a similar altitude.
We are excelled in creating the best out of odd circumstances; still in some cases, we surrender to circumstances. But we can definitely control our thoughts if we try. Again, we give uncertain time to any matter for our brain to analyse and carry out the details without any fit of immediate reaction. Thus, we can create the ‘good’ out of any stiff or negative situation. However, it is not an unhealthy situation; it is rather our reaction which determines our outlook and mindset for life.
Situations of the Society
Society has immense influence in the process of our thinking. Man is a social animal. He is always fond of living through sun and shower in a society. This society plays significant role in his life; every moment it creates diverse situations before us. These situations make different people act, react and perform differently. In some cases, the society makes us accept a situation that seems adverse or negative to our life because either it is accepted by the majority or it is a custom based one. Such situations create depression in our mind as we are by heart and soul against the situations. Depression is nothing but our silent reaction to the situation that we cannot accept as true, good or positive. Mostly it is actually our negative judgement on the situation and in that case it is better we change our mindset. A depressed mind begins to expect the negatives or impracticable to happen and this expectation leads the good moments of our life to the worst. This unhealthy state of mind is dangerous to our normal life as it fails to acknowledge the bright sides of life and in reverse it tries to discover the bad in the positive. Thus our thinking entirely changes the course of our life and jeopardises it by snatching away all its good moments and happiness.
Everything Is Subject to Change
Change is the law of nature. As day alternates with night, the opposites: good and bad; sun and shower; success and failure; rise and fall; up and down; joy and sorrow; adversity and prosperity constantly changes with each other. It is eternal. Nothing can come out of the mighty clutch of change. So, there is no reason to be worried or depressed with the point appeared negative in life. Cheerfulness begets happiness and energises us to proceed afresh. A smile on our face can energise us and others too and even give them power to face the adverse situations as we know every cloud has a silver lining. One can enjoy the enriched flavour of gentleness provided he has ever experienced the feelings of ‘bad’ anytime in his life. The process of our thinking too is transitory positive alters with negative. We sometimes call things bad in comparison to some good old ones. The same situation can be considered good provided we can logically compare the situation with some worst ones, though not from the experience of our life.
Conclusion
‘Good begets good, not bad’, should be our mindset. We should have tolerance enough to accept that our thinking is behind everything we act, react, enjoy and suffer. Body is the engine while thinking is the driver. So the driver should be always aware and attentive to the road the engine is moving along, but neither on its truck that it left behind immediately nor on the passengers it carries. A veteran driver is always aware of his duty, so he can drive the engine along the good and bad condition of the road steadily and safely. On the contrary, a careless, unaware and inattentive driver very often faces accident the road is either good or bad. Consequently, he blames the condition of the road instead of blaming himself. We, therefore, simply develop the habit of judgement, for instance, the road is neither good nor bad, the driver is good or bad. A good driver drives well and safely goes miles after miles while the bad driver faces accidents after accidents before covering even a mile. We should always concentrate on the process of our thinking, not on the situations time presents in course of our life.