Yanna Rascala, Mind it!
Brewings of mind for writing and going slow
There awakens a different version of mine. A version that has been dormant for a while. It all starts when a cup of hot chocolate sprinkled with coconut and the tidings of the mind. The tidings that create enormous thoughts and invigorate me with a spark to write again. A feat that has been postponed all through the day in search of what some people may call as writer’s block while others may term it as laziness or procrastination.
There is the urge in everyone to create something. A video interview that I watched today of Javed Akhtar enlightened me with this fact. The urge to create something, especially some art, seeds from a void that a person may have in them. This is according to psychiatry, he mentions. And when I look at myself, I see how that turns out to be. I am here, jamming the keys on my laptop at 2 at night. A phenomenon that is so uncommon for me. A phenomenon that people who know me the best would term as madness, insanity, and would awaken the doors of disbelief in their head for me. It is unusual for my own self to be doing this. An urge to write kicked in me. An urge to just list down this article and activate the dormant writing keeda that has always been present in me from time immemorial. Maybe you have seen me talking about my books or blogs. This is one free flowing article. An article that just has a start and a borrowed ingredient called words which might be sprinkled here and there like how a wise chef would use cheese. No, I still live in Ahmedabad in India and have not been excluded from the city for this thought. YET.
What is writing? Why do we even do it? Why do authors do it? For me, writing is a form of expression. Millions of people do this on a daily basis. You do it too at some point or other. You might write a letter, fill out a form and answer one specific question that would be a requirement for you to achieve a certain goal. Some do so voluntarily because of the satisfaction and the stimulation that it provides. Like how I gain it often. Honestly, it had been missing from the last few times. Maybe because I wrote to finish and not to express. Javed Akhtar in the same interview mentioned that writer’s block is not when you do not have ideas or you do not know what to write but it is the lost hope with which you bathe yourself when you have given up thinking on that topic. Somewhere, I never gave up and the itch to always write came. Perhaps that is why I write on random things without any specific goal. If I write with a specific goal, it is often for some kind of academic purpose.
But surprisingly, it is everyone who writes. I chuckle the hardest and laugh inside when people say that they do not know how to write. I try to question them. “Do you not know how to write or are you just afraid to display or share your mindset to millions of people who might look at you like how a scientist might look at the bacteria under a microscope?” They are clueless. When asked to talk, their words flow like a dam which has just found an outlet recently. It is often said that the wise lack the confidence or the urge to speak out because of diffidence while the foolish scream with the best of confidence. Maybe that is why the social media often makes a lot of noise. Rarely for the right reasons. Or maybe for what is left in the humanity. I stand afar and witness the dard-e-disco.
These reflections blend in my head. I try to figure out as to why do people feel so anxious and restless these days? Why do their heads and hands turn out to be red like tomatoes when they are put in the slightest amount of discomfort or embarrassment? It rings a bell in my head. It is all about the idea to go on and on and not take a moment for yourself. When was the last time you demanded something to be slow? Like asked your friend to come down at the slowest pace possible or your boss asking you to take as long as possible to just do a simple task like sending an email? The mind blasts with a gazillion thoughts that mask the world of peace and happiness as if it is a piece of fantasy only existing in films. The shenanigans of the world make us forget the simplicity that thrives the basic nature of being humans- the ability to be slow. We slowly lose the only thing that makes us different from billions like others and perhaps even the on-setting phenomenon called AI. The only thing that instills a sense of hope as well as the sense of foreboding that humans are grey and can never be black or white. Authenticity. We are so busy in order to please someone. We are so busy in order to achieve a goal that we thought would make our lives better. We are so busy to construct a palace of illusionary happiness that we forget that the dewdrops of simplicity got evaporated and what are we left with is a dry leaf that had been screaming for attention throughout. A slumber of consciousness traps us into an echo chamber of thoughts- often restless, mindless, immediately gratifying, and ever-changing. The story of the hare and the tortoise becomes an embodiment of hard-work, slow and steady being the epitome of life. Somewhere, we forget that no matter how much we criticize and look down at the hare, it prioritized self-care, sleep, and mental peace that the life it lived was better. The tortoise never stopped and it went on and on. Yes, it was slow here but its mind was stuck on the idea of only winning the race and not paying attention to its own health or self. And yes, it is bugs bunny that we remember, not a tortoise cartoon character.
So go ahead, do the thing that you always wanted. Cook that dish no matter how bad it turns out. Write that poem no matter how many likes or dislikes it has. Make that reel even if Instagram bans you. Use your ideas to create. Step out and ditch your phone. Slap your sibling. Okay, maybe not the last part. Definitely not immediately after reading this. Basically, research says that the best way to be mindful is to do a task that requires you to be mindful of using your hands. Can be writing on a paper, can be pottery, cooking, make up, skin care, cleaning, fine arts, playing an instrument. Anything that uses your hand not to use a gadget like phone or computer. That makes you slow. Slow not in terms of pace or speed but in terms of being mindful.
Breathe. Drink water. Stretch. You have forgotten something that embellishes you with a golden charm- Smile.
Take care!
