This "State-of-the-mind" thing ... part 2

Link to my earlier blog: "This state-of-the-mind thing - part 1"

Comfort Zone is a wonderful thing. It is home to us – and if the home is as we want it to be, why should anyone venture outside at all?

We know of management stories about people refusing to move out of their comfort zones. I think all of us also create an emotional comfort zone where we like to stay. This much of “happiness” … mixed with that much “melancholy” … add a wee bit of anger – and we have our perfect mood. That is where we always want to be. This position need not be the happiest one – it’s the one where we are most comfortable. Our Emotional Comfort Zone ! Let’s call it ECZ for short, and since we create it ourselves ... it is the perfect parking place for our train of emotions.

Put a sad-ECZ person in a very happy situation, and he finds his way to become sad again. Put a happy-ECZ person in the gutter and he will end up seeing how the dirty water hits itself upon the rocks and creates coloured bubbles … find optimism … and finally he will find a reason to be happy in the gutter. Happiness is not a result of what is happening around us. It is a sub-conscious choice of our favourite ECZ … where we want to be.

Sub-conscious?? Well … maybe – till we realize the truth in the cliché … ‘happiness is a thing of the mind’

The depression patient in my earlier blog became well with a pill. That was temporary – because once the effects wore out, he would be back into his depressive shell. If a constant dose of pills is given to him, he will slowly learn to wear out its effects till the dosage needs to be increased to make him happy. His tendency would always be to go back to his ECZ. More often than not – the choice of friends we make and the company we keep is motivated by who will help us remain in our ECZ.

So how do we break out of our ECZ?

Honestly, I know not. I am trying to understand where my ECZ lies and trying to position myself differently. Maybe that will work. I do find that I am very less “sad” and more “happy” with the simple realization that it’s all about the chemicals in my mind and the ECZ that I have chosen for myself. A start – if I may say so.

I have decided to be more vocal about my ECZ and ask friends and acquaintances where they think my ECZ lies – and try to work on that. And once I know where my ECZ lies, I can probably evaluate my actions in a more unbiased way and break the jinx.

Wish me luck !!