"kabhi kabhi mere dil mein khayal aata hai"
"dil ka khel dimaag se khelo"
A Bollywood person would surely be familiar with these phrases. But if not and for others- loosely translated in English they read:
"sometimes a thought comes to my heart"
"play heart games with the mind "
What comes to the mind on the first glance of these phrases?
These seemingly ordinary and poetic phrases appear to be quite normal, but are infact quite deep- and now that i think of it - the reason for all the psychology, psychiatry industry and research.
Looking closer the two seem to be opposites of each other.
First, the song claims that a 'thought is coming to my heart' . Medical folks will be totally against this because science dictates that the brain thinks and perceives. But on the other hand, the second one suggests playing games affecting the heart with the mind. Can one really isolate and decide consciously what to do in such matters ?
Recently i read a book, Blink, which delves into the subconscious and analyzes the seemingly behind the scenes decisions we make in split seconds without us being consciously aware of why we chose to do/think in a particular fashion at the time. Im not into reading such types of books- self help, personal growth, management etc- mainly because i think (or should i say feel ?!?) they explain the same point again and again in a round about fashion. I found the same to be true with this book as well, although it couldnt be called self help or personal growth, it certainly did stress the same point with numerous examples. It was an interesting read though- exposing to the minutest detail what goes on in our subconscious in the split seconds we have to make decisions. Blink also got to the fore the notions of stereotypes, psychology and what one explicitly says one thinks v/s what one subconsciously believes. The difference was apparent even when one does not have mere split seconds to decide - but in a more relaxed leisurely setting as well.
It is these grey areas of our decisions where our subconscious mind has more effect than our conscious thinking mind. Is this where hunches and feeling may seem to take precedence ?
In daily conversations too this can be seen, people often ask; when talking about some issues or a discussion in a company group meeting for example, 'what do you think about xyz' ? on some particularly touchy issues it may be 'what do you feel we should do' ? Could one try to draw a line in sand and separate our responses to these two questions? Would your answers to the above be the same ? all the time ?
So, what do you do-- do you think? or do you feel ? :P
