The Human Mind

I'm having one of those "Life is incredible!"/"Marvel every aspect of life!" moments and just wanted to share my epiphany with the world (or mostly my blog readers... heh heh...)

It just hit me how incredible our human minds are. I mean, yeah... it's in charge of everything our bodies need to do to survive and, well... live. We all know that... that's what we've been told and have learned in science classes and whatnot.

But it's much more than that. It's a bit hard to just explain. Looking at it as we have learned... defining it as just that... being in charge of our bodies, actions and thoughts... is so simplistic and doesn't really show the power of a brain. If you just think of it that way... it completely loses its amazingness. You just think of it as another organ of your body doing what it's meant to do.

No no... that just won't do.

Take this simple example, for instance:

I'm here cutting up stars I made to give to my graduating students. Quite a mundane task as you can imagine... cut cut place... cut cut place... ever repetitive... ever mind-dulling boring.
Without realizing it, however... I suddenly became deep in thought... thinking of various things other than the task at hand. And I was really focusing on these things, not even realizing that I was still subconsciously cutting. After about 10 minutes... I'm snapped back into reality, a neatly cut pile of freshly-cut stars to the side... me working on a new sheet of stars.

I had not even been paying attention to my actions as I was engrossed in my thoughts.

Holding scissor in hand, following the black lines while I cut... all this meticulous detail and action (since I'm a perfectionist)... was made automatic. How?

See... breaking it down and realizing (even if just simplistically) what the human brain is really capable of... makes you realize the marvel that it really is.

Sure, you might think that it's not that amazing because our brains are responsible for subconsciously breathing, blinking, swallowing saliva, etc... but those are autonomous actions necessary for us to live. If we had to consciously think and make ourselves do it... well, we'd never get anything done. And think about people with ADD... man, I wouldn't stand a chance and die relatively soon. Even people that would be able multi-task and really focus on doing those autonomous actions... well, you'd all be dead at then end of one night... or at the very most... a week. You'll eventually fall asleep... and, yeah... good luck since you won't be able to tell yourself to do all of this!

But, I digress... those things need to be automatic to survive and live. That's why I'm not focusing on that. I'm pointing out things that have absolutely nothing to do with our survival... things that will help us keep our sanity.

It's a bit dramatic... I admit... that focusing on cutting non-stop for an hour would drive me to the brink of insanity... but what about when I'm done with this mundane activity and move on to the other one.

Then also take away our abilities to dream and daydream... our ability to multi-task... think about something we're seeing and/or hearing. You'd have to focus and be like "listen, listen, listen..." or "watch, watch, watch..." so on and so forth and yeah... you can begin realizing how a lifetime of this can drive anybody crazy.

Then... we have the mind. I'm going to separate the brain and mine here. The brain is the organ capable of all these actions... but our minds are what makes us who we are. It is the vessel that carries our thoughts, feelings, emotions, souls and spirits.

All of these things... are just an iceberg of the possibilities that our brains... our human minds are capable of.

The brain doesn't just seem like an organ that controls our bodies now... does it?

It's so much more... thus the need to share this revelation with others...

Mind = blown... for lack of better words.

This is one life we're given to live... it's important to make the best of it! Admire everything... especially the small things! Take everything in... go out there and... and...

Just live!