Good or bad - your thinking makes it so.

Good or bad - your thinking makes it so.
Introduction

This topic under discussion is from one of the famous plays of Shakesphere “Hamlet”. Shakesphere was a true genius and his work on literature has an ever-shining coat of eternity. This quote was given in the play in Act 2 Scene 2 Page 11, when his main character spoke:

“Nothing is Good or Bad, Thinking Makes it so.”

Very truly said, it is our thinking and perception that paves way to our life. God has gifted us humans with the special feature of sixth sense. It is the one that makes us superior to all the other organisms in this universe. This is the feature that makes us decide the positives and negatives. The decisive power in humans is both a boon and curse, which gets regulated the way we use the same. It is we who direct our life. Our will power and our cognitive behaviour decide whether we want to move ahead cheerfully or get stuck in a gloomy state in our life. The positive is the energy and the negatives are the chains that drag us towards the darkness of the past.

Shakesphere’s explanation to the quote

Beautifully narrated through a small example, Shakesphere presents his talent through his explanation via few words – “A man cheerfully observed a fast seven days a week. His neighbour starved to death on the same diet.”

This is how a single situation varies drastically for two different people. No two people are same. Everyone differs in their behaviour, mannerism, thinking, grasping, acceptance, and reactionary power to a defined situation. These are the characters within us human beings which makes us decide the good and bad. Our mind and brain always gets into a conflict, and many a times it is the mind that drags the human beings to their way of proceedings in the life.

‘Brain is analytical, mind is persuasive.’ The strength of a person is determined by his ability to overcome his persuasive mind and make decisions giving importance to his analytical mind. The more the mind interferes, the less is the clarity of the circumstances and vague is the decision making power. Shakesphere had been a psychologist who has brilliantly laid the foundation stone for the psychological therapy established long after in future. The ‘Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT)’ is based upon his very idea of the thought process making out things good or bad. His intellect and keen observation can be experienced through his beautifully woven words carrying a deep moral and guidance for the generations to come.

Factors Influencing Thought Process

There are mainly 3 factors that greatly influence our thought process. Intermingled with our psyche and their expression in the routine life schedule, we could hardly perceive and differentiate them to gather the same for analysing the circumstances for good or bad. Life denotes what we perceive, accept and think.

Let us discuss these factors one-by-one to have an in-depth analysis of the topic.

• Internal Morals

These are our in-built traits, few of which we inherit and other acquired since childhood. These morals play a definite role in our thought process. Our deep-rooted learning goes to our sub-conscious mind which gets projected out through our reactions to different situation. We cannot define our reactionary power which comes in fraction of a second. Now, this is the time when our mind overrules our intellect as the mind process the perceived information as per their understanding and store into our sub-conscious mind as per our understanding, rather than what we have perceived in reality.

Understanding the same in a crude way, all of us aware of the quote “Where there is will, there is a way”. Our will power is supreme which has the capacity to drive us search for the way out of any circumstance. The will power denotes our positive thought process. If we have the inner strength, we can think wisely and positively in any hooked-up situation to smartly exit the trance.

Our perception and understanding moulds our thinking ability. We can call a half filled glass as ‘half full, or half empty’. It is our brain that is analysing the situation that the content is half, but our mind puts that to words. Our positive or negative notion gets reflected through our regular expression of words and behaviour that is not expressed consciously. The Rose has thorns, still majority of us like to pluck the rose as we find it beautiful. Still there are people who find the thorns more risky in comparison to their captivity.

• Pre-conceived notions

Next to the perception, comes the act of processing the information, which is carried out by our mind before storing that to the sub-conscious mind. This understanding part when gets settled into our mind becomes the notion, which doesn’t get altered that easily. Once the notion gets formed, whatever we perceive in a similar altitude in future, our notion paves way to express the situation, rather than providing way to our healthy intellect to analyse that as a fresh note.

We are helpless to control our circumstances, but we can definitely control our thoughts. Provided we give time to any matter for our brain to execute the details without having a fit of immediate response, humans can excel in creating the best out of odd circumstances. This is how we can create the ‘good’ out of a so-called negative situation. Precisely, it is never the situation that is unhealthy, rather it is our reaction to the situation that determines our mind-set and outlook for life.

• Pressure by society

This is another great influencing factor. The society is the one that creates an atmosphere, or in other words that alter the situation and reshapes it to a set default, which may or may not be correct in all aspects. The society denotes the majority opinion, and that is not necessarily the good or positive. Human beings are social animals who live, perform and reform with the society, so they care for the public opinion and let their mind think in the similar manner. Though our own mind doesn’t accept the happening, still the society consciousness makes us accept the scenario forcibly. This is where the depression paves in.

Depression is nothing but our negative judgements to the day-to-day responses. A pressurised mind starts expecting the negatives to come and this expectation converts the good part of life into the worst. This unhealthy state of mind fails to acknowledge the positives of life and conversely tries to find the bad in the positive. This is how the thinking makes situation bad to worse.

Nothing is Constant, Everything is Changing

Life is a vicious circle. If one side goes up, the other has to come down. This keeps on going infinitely. Neither good nor bad is stagnant. If we think rationally and maintain our smile in odd situations of life, we can definitely charge ourselves to fight any gaping circumstance. Energy is power. A smile on our face can energise others and give them power to face the dare consequences. Darkness never prevail forever, light cannot be enjoyed in eternity. One can enjoy the flavour of goodness, only if they have tasted the ‘bad’ anytime in their life. Everything is relative, so is our thinking. We call things bad in comparison to some good old ones. The same situation can be accepted as good, if we can ably compare the scenario with some worst incidences, though not experienced in our own life.

Conclusion

To conclude, we can say

“Evil is Bad, Angel is Good”

It is our thought that demarcates things to be evil. If the mankind start working out an angle to frame out the exit for every trance in life, then the nature would itself boost us with the fighting spirit to face any and every tough situation. Let us consolidate our inner energy, our inertia to focus on our act and performance, rather than wasting time analysing and creating pre-conceived notions. Be nice, smile to everyone; be cheerful and spread merry all around.