We have created this world with our thoughts and now we are trying to find meaning in it.

We are asleep. Our life is a dream. But we wake up sometime, just enough to know that we are dreaming.

Meditation

Consciousness

We can not become aware of our most fundamental assumptions until we overcome them.Our goal here should be to broaden our perspective continuously so that we can overcome our assumptions before they limit our options or slow us down.Let's see how we can try to challenge and expand our mindset -

Assumptions Hold us Back

Get clarity on what we need to know and learn. Choose 3-4 different topics. For each topic, create a list of guiding questions that, if answered, would give you a solid understanding of the area.Like, using best-tasting beer as an example topic, come up with questions like, What are the most popular beers? What are different types? Which ingredients were used for them? Country of origin? The age group that prefer them?This will help us to understand what is most important to explore further and broaden our perspective.

Identifying Areas of Interests 

It is a learning technique that involves jumping on and off on different topics or problems, this allows us to see them with different perspectives, solidify our understandings of topics and promote creativity & flexibility. For instance, reading different books simultaneously helps to bring insightful connections between various topics. Ideas from different topics intersect and help us to approach them from multiple angles.

Interleaving

It guided me to escape out of the tunnel vision trap.

Inspired

Big Picture

A great many people think they are thinking when they are merely rearranging their prejudices.

David Bohm was one of the foremost scientific thinkers and philosophers of our time. Although deeply influenced by Einstein, he was also, more unusually for a scientist, inspired by mysticism. Indeed, in the 1970s and 1980s he made contact with both J. Krishnamurti and the Dalai Lama whose teachings helped shape his work. In both science and philosophy, Bohm's main concern was with understanding the nature of reality in general and of consciousness in particular. In this classic work he develops a theory of quantum physics which treats the totality of existence as an unbroken whole. Writing clearly and without technical jargon, he makes complex ideas accessible to anyone interested in the nature of reality.

Wholeness and the Implicate Order

"There are more things.. likely to frighten us than there are to crush us; we suffer more often in imagination than in reality."

The complexity of nature is such that, it is impossible to tell whether anything that happens in it is good or bad. So it is pointless to be worried, since the unexpected events that you fear will may never come and obviously they have not yet come. Stop harassing your soul because worrying constantly keeps us tensed against an imagined disaster.

Self Help

A Stoic’s Key to Peace of Mind: Seneca on the Antidote to Anxiety

“What happened could have happened to anyone, but not everyone could have carried on.”

Since the dawn of our species, human nature has hardly changed. We are capable of inflicting pain on each other as well as capable of healing. Nowdays, human longing for sympathy, desire to have our suffering recognized and validate, is distorted by digital age. Comparitive validity and urge of broadcasting suffering has made the unlucky event a currency of attention and identification.Why regard the incident as a piece of bad luck rather than seeing your avoidance of distress as a piece of good luck?

The Good Luck of Your Bad Luck: Marcus Aurelius on the Stoic Strategy for Weathering Life’s Waves and Turning Suffering into Strength

People tend to be more stressed when they're not sure what's going on. According to a study by University College of London, people are far more stressed when there is a chance of getting an electric shock, as compare to when they know it is certain to get a shock.Uber reduces uncertainty for getting a ride, Amazon does it for the package delivery and McDonald's decrease uncertainty about how their food tastes.

Bring Down Uncertainty

You discussed about a task and the deadline for it with your Boss. On the day of the deadline, you get an email from your boss, asking about is it done? If due to some complications it is pending, What will be your reply?<ol><li>"Not Yet"</li><li>"Not Yet, but I will finish it by [x]."</li><li>Don't reply.</li></ol>The problem with the question above is that your Boss has to ask for an update, it is a sign that he is uncertain. Being an Uncertainty Killer you should have updated him proactively about missing the deadline and the reason behind it, so that he will be at ease and will not doubt your ability for the given task.

You have to make sure the information flows in such a way that you become a trusted resource wherever you go. The more you do it, others will spend less time and energy thinking about you and your ability to get things done.Not just with your boss, do it with your peers also. Practice it till it becomes natural to you. Become an Uncertainty Killer.

On my favorite piece of career advice and why it can help to improve your finances.

Want to Improve Your Career? Become an Uncertainty Killer – Of Dollars And Data

Be mindful of your intellectual intake because just as our physical state depends on the food we take, our mental state depends on the quality of information we consume.Our mind subconsciously process the information we intake and will try to come up with solution for the problems we face. But it can not differentiate between facts or fictions.So next time you start to go down in wormhole of internet, go for the real-life facts that will help you in growing mentally and avoid those random TikTok video or that overrated YouTube vlogger. Take back control of your mind.

Food For Mind

Durov's Channel - The mind is our most powerful tool.

When we make choices about different brands, we are choosing to create an identity. We as human have fundamental need to have a support system, whether it is religion, community or institutions. Now brands have stepped in as pillar of our identity. In marketing there is an idea that we relate to brands in the same way we relate to people. Most of us subconsciously choose brands because those brands have some kind of self-expressive value. The best thing we can do is to be aware of the influence that brands hold. It's important to always pause and ask ourselves, "Why I'm buying this product?"

Brands are New Identity

How Apple and Nike have branded your brain Watch the newest video from Big Think: https://bigth.ink/NewVideo Learn skills from the world's top minds at Big Think Edge: https://bigth.ink/Edge ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Powerful branding can not only change how you feel about a company, it can actually change how your brain is wired. "We love to think of ourselves as rational. That's not how it works," says UPenn professor Americus Reed II about our habits (both conscious and subconscious) of paying more for items based primarily on the brand name. Effective marketing causes the consumer to link brands like Apple and Nike with their own identity, and that strong attachment goes deeper than receipts. Using MRI, professor and neuroscientist Michael Platt and his team were able to see this at play. When reacting to good or bad news about the brand, Samsung users didn't have positive or negative brain responses, yet they did have "reverse empathy" for bad news about Apple. Meanwhile, Apple users showed a "brain empathy response for Apple that was exactly what you'd see in the way you would respond to somebody in your family." ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- TRANSCRIPT: NARRATOR: Coke is just soda. Tylenol is just acetaminophen. And Levi's are just jeans. Yet consumers go out of their way to select these specific brands over others. AMERICUS REED II: An economist would say,"How is this possible, that a rational consumer would be willing to pay more for exactly the same thing?" We love to think about ourselves as rational. That's not how it works. A very famous study done by colleagues at Duke University flashed either the Apple logo or the IBM logo to two randomized groups of participants. NARRATOR: The study found that after being subliminally exposed to the Apple logo, compared to when you'd been exposed to the IBM logo, participants performed better on creative tasks. AMERICUS REED II: And the argument is that Apple has been telling you this story over and over again, that Apple is the brand for hip, cool, fun, creative people. NARRATOR: This is the true power of brands. They can influence our behavior in ways that extend way beyond the point of sale. So to what degree can the influence of brands wreak havoc on our ability to make rational spending decisions? This is your brain on money. This is Americus Reed. He studies identity and marketing at the University of Pennsylvania. AMERICUS REED II: When I make choices about different brands, I'm choosing to create an identity. When I put that shirt on, when I put those shoes on, those jeans, that hat, someone is going to form an impression about what I'm about. So if I'm choosing Nike over Under Armour, I'm choosing a kind of different way to express affiliation with sport. The Nike thing is about performance. The Under Armour thing is about the underdog. I have to choose which of these different conceptual pathways is most consistent with where I am in my life. NARRATOR: And once a consumer makes that choice, their relationship with a brand can deepen to the point where they identify with that brand like family. And once you identify with a brand, it can shape the way you behave. AMERICUS REED II: And it's really interesting because they will also, if someone talks bad about that product, brand, or service, they will be the first to go out and defend. Why? Because an attack on the brand is an attack on themselves. NARRATOR: Michael Platt is a professor of neuroscience, marketing, and psychology whose research demonstrates how our perception of brands influences our decisions. MICHAEL PLATT: There's an idea in marketing, which is that we relate to brands in the same way we relate to people. It's like, "I love this brand," or, "I hate this brand." Of course, what people say can often be different from what's really going on in their heads. So we thought, "Well, why don't we just ask the brain directly?" NARRATOR: Michael and his team observed the brains of iPhone users and Samsung Galaxy users with an MRI machine while they heard good, bad, and neutral news about Apple and Samsung. MICHAEL PLATT: Apple customers showed a brain empathy response toward Apple that was exactly what you'd see in the way you would respond to somebody in your own family. NARRATOR: Strangely, Samsung users didn't have any positive or negative responses when good or bad news was released about their brand. The only evidence that Samsung users showed was reverse empathy for Apple news. Meaning if the Apple headline was negative, their brain reflected a positive response. MICHAEL PLATT: You know, it really shows us that Apple has completely defined the market here. Samsung customers, it seems, from their brain data, are only buying Samsung... To read the full transcript, please visit https://bigthink.com/singleton/how-apple-and-nike-have-branded-your-brain

Psychology

How Apple and Nike have branded your brain | Your Brain on Money | Big Think

Rather than relentlessly pursuing a “perfect match” career that will make us happy, a better approach is to remain flexible on the exact job, while searching for the values and culture that fit with ours.

Inner Satisfaction

Your job doesn’t have to represent the most prestigious use of your potential. It just needs to be rewarding.

The Secret to Happiness at Work

Overloading our senses can make us believe we are moving in the right direction, or at least in a direction. But the constant cycle of tasks we tackle without ever thinking often leaves us stagnant.Being busy is a defense mechanism. It’s a way to avoid just being.The problem is we usually don’t even take the time to consider the alternative, which is that we’re numbing our minds with work. Being busy with exciting work is good. Being too busy to enjoy life, spending time with the people you love, and exploring your full potential is not.

Stop and Think!

Instead of measuring progress by the quantity of work we produce, we should consider the quality of our work. “Did the work feel intellectually stimulating, did I learn something new, did it help me cultivate my curiosity, did it give me the opportunity to connect with interesting people?”

Bite-sized knowledge
to upgrade
your career

Abhas Raghuvanshi
@abrg

Consciousness

Big Picture

Wholeness and the Implicate Order

A Stoic’s Key to Peace of Mind: Seneca on the Antidote to Anxiety

The Good Luck of Your Bad Luck: Marcus Aurelius on the Stoic Strategy for Weathering Life’s Waves and Turning Suffering into Strength

Bite-sized knowledgeto upgradeyour career

Abhas Raghuvanshi@abrg

Consciousness

Big Picture

Wholeness and the Implicate Order

A Stoic’s Key to Peace of Mind: Seneca on the Antidote to Anxiety

The Good Luck of Your Bad Luck: Marcus Aurelius on the Stoic Strategy for Weathering Life’s Waves and Turning Suffering into Strength

Bite-sized knowledge
to upgrade
your career

Abhas Raghuvanshi
@abrg