OUR BRAIN IS SLAVE OF REPETITION

Nature has given us this beautiful gift - our physical body. Many of us rarely know or observe its functions and how it works. I am sure if we are asked where is liver or where is kidney in our body and what are their functions then many of us will not be able to tell. We are not taught about our body during our education period and we remain unaware of what is good or what is bad for our body. I am not doctor or medical student but I thought whatever I have learned through observation, experience, I shall put it down.

It is said that one of the wonders of this nature is our brain and if we carefully observe then it is very true. One property of our brain is it becomes slave of activities that we repeat. It gets used to it and then our body functions automatically like that without any efforts.

If we remember our childhood when we were learning numbers or alphabets what our teachers/parents were getting done from us, we were asked to write number ‘1’ 10 times or 100 times or move our pencil on ‘1’ again and again. If you observe what we were doing we were repeating that activity till the time we master it and just observe today we can easily write so many things without much effort but at one point of time we were struggling so much even to write simple alphabets. Even this article I am writing so easily. Our brain has become slave of it and we can do this very quickly without realizing this phenomenon.

When we were growing up and started learning & playing new sports, remember how much we struggled to learn those, football, basketball, badminton, cricket, archery etc. We played those again & again & mastered it. What did we do? We repeated it again and again and our brain became slave of it. Have you observed so many complex moves of particular sport we can do so easily because we have enslaved our brain by repeating things again and again. What is practice? You repeat your methods of playing and master over it. What is core to it, repetition!

Do you remember how we learned to drive Car! When first time we sat on driver seat how conscious we were. We were unable to perform so many functions of pressing accelerator, releasing clutch, using brakes, changing gears (if your car is not automatic) at appropriate timing. It was so difficult. We continued learning and today we can drive car so easily. We have repeated this activity so many times that we even do not realize that we are pressing accelerator, releasing clutch, changing gears. We are singing, thinking, even few are smoking while driving Car! So many complex activities our body is doing and many times we are not even aware of those. Our brain has been enslaved to it and it gets these functions automatically done.

When we were kids we all must have enjoyed bathing the most, playing in water, enjoying shower or enjoying each mug of water on our body. Now when we have grown up, many of us are constantly engulfed in many thoughts. We are thinking even taking bath. Even though we are lost, our brain is applying soap on our body, it is washing our body. Many times afterwards we think ‘Did I have a bath?’ as our mind was lost somewhere but our brain did the job. If we observe this phenomenon it is just amazing. Our brain got enslaved because of repetition of our bathing activity.

Remember when we started using first time computer/laptop how consciously we were pressing keyboard, looking at each button and pressing it consciously. After repeatedly using it now how fast we are using it and few people sometimes even look very minimal at keyboard and get their work done.

Sometimes we hear music so much, we listen few songs repeatedly and you will observe when later on we are not listening automatically we mumble those songs. Infact sometimes we wonder why particular song is coming in mind. We have repeatedly so much that it start showing its effect.

Few people have this habit of having tea or coffee as soon as they get up in the morning. If they don’t get it then they become restless, they get headache or they don’t feel fresh. They have repeated this activity so many times that their brain is enslaved to it.

Look at the people who are addicted to alcohol, smoking etc. Their brains are enslaved to it. Infact I have heard that few people can’t do their routine work unless and until they consume this. Their brain is enslaved to this and in turn they destroy their body and life!

You look at today’s marketing tactics, advertisements and their frequency. We are continuously bombarded by advertisements on television, internet, print media, radio, hoardings on road, on bus stations, train stations, airports, even on our tickets, theatres. We are continuously bombarded with advertisement. If you look at them most of them sell crap and look at advertisements, they are so ridiculous. Look at our brain how it works. When we first time see some ridiculous advertisement on television how we react – ‘What nonsense’, then few more repetitions and we start ignoring this nonsense, few more repetitions and then we are not even aware that it is non sense, further more repetitions & subtle mind gets used to it and further more people buy those products. This is how most of the big brands are created today who are making huge money. I checked nutritional facts of one of the cola brand, it has 0% vitamins, 0% minerals, no fats etc. Even though everything is zero, people are drinking those and companies are making billions of dollars. Look at continuous bombarding of so many beauty creams, beauty products, shampoos etc. Have they really benefited or we just buy by succumbing to advertisements. They could achieve this because they enslaved people’s brains by continuous bombarding of their advertisements.

Look at with what movies, TV serials, print & electronic media are bombarding us these days. Extra marital affairs, break ups, divorces, multiple marriages, vulgarity, movies filled with violence, serials filled with conspiracies, actor/actress drinking liquor & portraying it as cool thing to do. It is getting continuously bombarded as they want us to accept it as normal thing. Just see few decades back 'Divorce' was such big thing, people used get shocked to hear such news. Look at today, families are breaking up for small small things. Most of the wisdom we get is from our family & once it is broken then people lose wisdom and they can be easily fooled or trapped in any propaganda. It drives consumption & related business. When people separate from each other, they need different houses, television, fridge, utensils, furniture and so on. It creates big demand and big corporate houses make big money!

If we observe ,if we repeat whatever that is good then it will uplift us and benefit us and if we go on wrong path and repeat bad things then our downfall is imminent. If one wants to stop some bad habit then one of the ways they can do is do not repeat your activity for one week. Set target of one week. Don’t decide for whole life then it becomes big burden. Once one week is over then set target of two weeks and continue. One more thing you must ensure that do not look back and count since how many days you have not smoked or had liquor etc. I am sure this will help.

In India there is saying ‘Mooh me RAM aur haath me Kaam’ means one must have & repeats lords name and must have good work in his hand and move ahead in life. You repeat divinity’s name while performing your daily activities and make your life also divine. This is how ‘Mala’ (In India) or rosary also works. You repeat god’s name!

I am sure good repetitions will uplift us, I am also walking on the path and improving myself!