The ancient Greeks were well aware that a paradox can take us outside our usual way of thinking. They combined the prefix para- ("beyond" or "outside of") with the verb dokein ("to think"), forming paradoxos, an adjective meaning "contrary to expectation."
Source : Merriam Webster Dictionary
Hi there! I'm surprising myself coming back here already. There is so much going on so I will have to take a lot of breaks while writing this and try my best to keep it short. Here we go.
Busrting someone's bubble literally means shattering someone's illusions or simply put, to show someone that their beliefs are false (not in a very gentle way I think). So these cheerful images of me playing around with bubbles actually don't quite match the title you see. Perhaps now you may understand why I started writing this post the way I did (right on the top if you've got a questionable attention span 😆). Happiness in pain and sorrow in joy, if you know what I mean.
Looking at these pictures my first thought was - 'this one's gonna be one cheerful post', but I instantly backed off because it didn't quite align with what I was truly feeling. The bubbles took me somewhere else. They reminded me of all the times I was naive and blissful but later landed flat on my face to realise my bubble had burst. A lot of you might have experienced the same. Believed in someone, thought something of yourself or had your own perceptions of life and one fine day it all came crashing down. When reality hits us, sometimes it could be devastating, but it is always about what we do next, the immediate next action and then the action after that and so on - one step at a time. That determines where we're headed next, whether we have learnt our lesson or are we going to get ourselves stuck in a loop?
Time to burst some bubbles.
1. We struggle with expressing. That's because most of us aren't really great at thinking and are even worse at articulating our thoughts and feelings. Yeah! To be the most concious living beings on earth and to not have the ability to fully understand ourselves and to be the ones gifted with language but finding ourselves unable to communicate as we'd like, shows that we have a long way to go. Our strengths as human beings also seem to have the potential to become our biggest weaknesses. One hell of an antithesis right!
That doesn't mean we should go back to being animals. Sure, it would be a lot less complicated, but why go backwards as if there's no hope? We are just a little different from the rest of nature. That little difference has a significant value but that doesn't mean our existence is wrong. We just haven't figured it out yet or else we would be Gods, and we aren't that either.
I believe we're getting somewhere, or at least we must try to, be closer to the ideal.
2. We often suffer more in our thoughts than in reality. That doesn't mean all our scary thoughts are false and that they have no connection to actual possibilities, but we do not particularly ace at keeping a check on our chain of thoughts. One of the tasks fulfilled by thinking is that we can access our memories to remember what might have harmed us before and to prepare to protect ourselves from any imminent danger. The problem is, some of our unresolved past issues might have had such a long term impact on us that without even realising, a small trigger which might not even be a problem, would put us on our toes, ready for battle, using up our body resources that were meant to be saved for future threats, thus making us exhausted. To put all of that in one word - ANXIETY. Big letters because anxiety is such a common problem. Most people struggle with it but very few talk about it.
It is not really a bad thing. Every emotion we experience has its own purpose. Understanding that and being as self aware as we can be is important to truly live life. However, constant anxiety, like I mentioned earlier uses up our resources, compromising our immunity and eventually affecting our health. I would like to go in the depths of this topic some day but for now here's what I think-
Anxiety becomes bigger if we let it consume us. If we just take one simple step of stating out loud what makes us anxious, it paves a definite way to become calmer. It makes that big problem in our head become smaller the moment we articulate it because now we have something much more definite in our hands to work on.
3. Confrontations or arguments aren't necessarily bad things. If anything, concealing or tolerating too much can be dangerous. This is similar to my previous point as well. By not addressing the issues, we not only expose ourselves to becoming more resentful, defensive, aggressive, depressive or even lunatic, but we might also cause a lot of harm to many meaningful relationships and to the people involved in them.
Call a spade a spade. Discuss or confront with the intent to solve and NOT TO WIN. Argue for an actual solution and not to prove yourself right. The moment your intentions falter and your ego becomes bigger, rather than you actually listening, understanding and solving, your arguments go south. That is when stupid fights happen. Just listen that's all. Don't be in a hurry to speak or react. It is always best to remember that the person in front of you, no matter who, might know something more than you do (and that's always true).
4. There is darkness in us, as there is light. You can't ignore it. If anything acknowledge it, accept and understand it.
Know you have the ability to use your darkness but choose not to (as far as you can take that). That's what makes a good human being I guess, to know you can be bad but to choose to be good. If you're born nice, you're nice. But it is really so difficult to have a dark side and to know that you can give in and yet to have the will to keep it in check for the sake of humanity. In my opinion, that's what a great human being looks like. To me that looks like sacrifice.
5. Your word is your honour. If you break it, it breaks you and everything else that matters to you. Stop lying. At least to yourself to begin with.
Just like drinking lots of water is the most fundamental solution to most health issues and everyone knows that but they keep ignoring, same goes with honesty. It is the fundamental solution to most life problems and the easiest one to ignore. Our talent for illusions and delusions is incredible. Creating a fake world comes easy, but reality will always find a way to crash down your version of the world.
Phew. I'm gonna stop here. Hope I didn't lower your spirits 😂 But again, why sugar coat anything when you can simply speak your mind :)
Wish you the very best for the new year that's coming. I hope you get closer to reality and your own selves this year and then of course you'll be way better with your loved ones too.
Lots of love ❤️
Photography - Sushant Junnarkar
Hair - Shraddha
Makeup/Styling & Concept - Megha Ray