Anindo Ibrahim
It needs no mentioning that a tiger is stronger than a human being according to it’s physical abilities yet today it is a business for some hunters to track and kill a tiger from miles away with ease and sell it’s skin. How it has become possible to lock the kings of jungle in cages? A tiger surely has the sharpest claws compared to our nails which is only useful when playing with your little siblings and so humans decided to form communities and innovate weapons of mass destruction! From primitive stone spears we are now wielding nuclear missiles capable of decimating any country to it’s knees. We are building huge infrastructures and wirelessly connected smartphones capable of contacting anyone around the globe! New ideas and huge projects are taking place everyday but it seems the speed of our innovative growth has been slowed down? Is it because all ideas have already been executed? Or perhaps is it because the mindset of the individuals living in a carefree life? Innovation is closely related with our mindset.
A study by the charity Relate revealed that 1 in 10 people in the United Kingdom do not have a close friend, and 3 percent reported having no friends at all. In addition, 19 percent said they never or rarely felt loved in the two weeks before the survey.
In a world so connected by internet, why do people feel alone? And also what does mental health has to do with mindset? Dutch researcher Jenny De Jong Gierveld defined loneliness as ‘a situation experienced by the individual as one where there is an unpleasant or inadmissible lack of (quality of) certain relationships. This includes situations in which a number of existing relationships is smaller than considered desirable or admissible or situations where the intimacy one wishes for has not been realised. Thus, loneliness is seen to involve the manner in which a person experiences and evaluates his or her isolation and lack of communication with other people.’
Yuval Noah Harari in his book “Sapiens” also mentioned about our ancestors forming communities and packs in order to survive from predators and hunt for food. Due to the fact that, tigers and lions are much physically stronger than humans, outnumbering them was the only safe method humans could use to survive which therefore led to forming communities and also dividing occupations among our ancestors to select a few who will take the risks of fighting predators and hunting for food.
Therefore, from the times of our ancestors' communication and fitting into a strong group was the first instinct of survival and our brain adapted it as a mechanism as years passed for it was near impossible for a lone human to survive alone without a community or group to support him/her. So loneliness is actually an instinct which is based on surviving and that is also the reason why we feel a mental pain in our brain as it warns us that we might be in danger anytime and causes us to desperately cling to newly formed bonds which also created the policy of “helping others”. It is a very tactical approach to survival, as it is seen as a kind act to everyone yet it is only an instinct to fit in and survive during our ancestor’s time.
According to a study by CIGNA The Loneliness index 2018, 46 percent of the population in America feel lonely often and as expected teenagers are the majority in this population. As for younger people it is very easy for them to form and break a bond without understanding each other leading to mental deprivation of social needs. This can in turn cause teenagers to have a mental scar for the rest of their lives and also leads to their mental energy, strength and productivity decreasing day by day.
This is where mindset is affected, teenagers with intense emotions tend to make decisions clouded by overthought emotions of themselves and this results in failure to effectively handle a situation which is rather very minimum compared to what they might face later. Mindset is a tricky thing! It is certainly not your mental needs, Mindset can be of different meanings according to what people believe it to be. For Robert Kiyosaki (The author of rich dad and poor dad) “mindset most often is the dividing line between those who are successful in life and those who are not.”
In a bad emotional state, the mental energy is very easily drained and causes you lack of sleep which in turn affects your brain function capacity per day limiting you to take in more data than you normally can which is a big challenge in terms of being productive!
Every individual needs to use their basic instincts and senses to be successful in life and yet most people don’t. “Common Sense” is the first step towards success and “Thinking Pattern” is the next one. “The First Principle Thinking” an innovation of thinking pattern by Aristotle proved to be the key to success.
(To be continued)
Anindo Ibrahim is an eighth-grader at BAF Shaheen English Medium School and College.