Being Human
Humans: Two Types of the Remarkable Species
They are everywhere
My honeymoon was a month-long stay in UAE where we experienced our romantic time away in newfound marital bliss. The right combination of extravagance, luxury, prosperity & peacefulness is what made me fall in love with Dubai.
The last time my partner & I were there, we rented a Lexus IS 300 Sport for the duration of our stay. It had a sunroof, sleek dull orange leather interior and shiny exterior.
Driving around on Dubai’s roads with a sports car was exhilarating and full of thrill. You get to witness mammoth-sized buildings on either side of the Sheikh Zayed road. The daytime drives on the Sheikh Zayed Road and the nighttime drives two completely different experiences. Couple this with rain and you have hit a jackpot in terms of setting a romantic scene for the long drive.
On our way to check-in into the hotel at Palm Jumeirah in the evening, it started drizzling. At the very next moment, I opened the sunroof, turned the music up and pushed myself up to get out of the sunroof. Leaned on the edge of the sunroof, my hair fluttering in the air, I felt liberated and joyful to be out of the moving car like that.
Music was thumping and light rain was pouring on the face
So there I am, enjoying music, rain and the sunroof experience. After a while, I started to notice other people who were passing me by:
Some of them smiled as they pass me by… some were unbothered… some people waved at me while smiling… some frowned a bit…
I did not think much of it then. After a few days and some contemplating, it occurred to me how important and revealing that situation was. I realized that people are of two types:
1. Those who want to find ways and reasons to be happy and content
We will call them believers; believer of the notion of long-lasting content and happiness
2. Those who are a bit wary of the notion of innate happiness and contentment
Let’s call them non-believers; non-believers of long-lasting content and innate happiness.
The believers are not fools which, sometimes, the non-believer thinks them to be. The former is well aware of the hardships that come in life yet they make the conscious effort of finding, the smallest act or a thing of, hope.
The non-believers are not “too cynical” either. Their experiences shaped the way they think and behave. They protect themselves from many things and contentment is one of them. They operate on mediocrity; things that bring mediocre sadness and mediocre happiness, it is their comfort zone and their safety.
Now, I do not know the story of every person that passed me by that evening. Maybe some of them had a tough day at work, maybe some were going through the burnout stage in life, bearing deep-seated fatigue. And for the others, maybe some of them received a bonus that day which explained their positive projection towards me. But I do know this:
They made an effort. An effort to project their positivity out into the world.
All the easy things in life are dangerous. Be it easily obtainable food; fast food, certain emotions like anger and negativity, Get-rich-quick schemes or cheating on a test.
The things which require effort and practice are, and will always be, worth it.
Our minds are very powerful, it is difficult to learn new things but with enough practice, the action or the repetition becomes almost automatic. Same is the case with positive and negative thought patterns.
When we let negative thoughts come and reside in our minds, a pattern is created. Slowly, all thoughts lead to negative thinking pattern and this becomes an automated response to any and most thoughts. Negative thoughts have a certain heaviness to them, which, if keeps piling, weighs the person down sooner or later.
Similarly, positive thoughts create healthy patterns in our minds, they remove the weight of heavy emotions, making us feel secure and safe. They reinforce the positivity, which then, the mind gets accustomed to.
This world needs more believers and fewer non-believers but we have to be careful. In the process of shaping the believer mindset, we should not disregard or downgrade the experiences that shaped the non-believers.
Empathy, Acceptance, Openness and being in the Present are the ingredients to a content life.
— I am Fatima Khan and you can reach out to me on my socials here:
