Last Tuesday, we ran our weekly book sharing: The Consciousness Instinct by Michael S. Gazzaniga. In short, the sharing brought by our dear partner Novianta Hutagalung explains how our consciousness should be treasured with the utmost respect.
Why so?
Because consciousness is a part of our instinct, for survival at times. Let’s flashback to the first time you learn to ride the bike. Way before we were able to roll the first turn by pedalling, we learned to balance ourselves. The next thing we know each time our feet touch the pedal, we are riding the bike. And then we proceed to ride the motorbike because we have stored the automated behaviour of riding the bike beforehand. We have developed a sense. We are able to do wonders because we have learned to store many automated behaviours in our cache.
The challenge, however, is to be conscious of our consciousness, lest we the slave of our passion, perhaps at the expense of our own peril made clear by many examples. To regulate our emotions or learning new things is not an easy feat because it involves higher-thought processes that drain enormous energy in the first trial. It is proven to be a lesser challenge still, comparing the internally sustained discomfort to externally projected damage by the actions usually dubbed as “losing control”.
Humanity should instead be represented with kindness and compassion. We should ace the assessment of imaginary judgment by extraterrestrials seeking to lay waste on lesser beings. We can do that actually in a really simple manner: to give without hoping return.
Does it work? We have seen at a small scale the Pay It Forward concept documented on the movie A Small Act (2000) where an unprivileged child was able to turn his life around an anonymous donation of someone across the country. We have seen an experiment where 378 people paid Starbucks for the next people buying. At the very least, the life of some people change mentally, if not physically.
It would be an unimaginable power at a greater scale, isn’t it?
A new story is up on our Medium!
Our friend, Wenny, has been managing her own beauty studio for a year. But due to COVID-19 outbreaks, she has to close her studio for a while. After a month she figured out that she did not have a lot in hands to live for the next months. She has been reflecting a lot about her work and life, what can she do better, her next plans. Sure she had another thing coming by hearing people talk, comparing herself to others and feel like she’s not enough until a friend told her something that put her at peace.You can read the whole story, “Jangan Buru-Buru” (Take It Easy) in Bahasa here.
