We Believe What We Tell Ourselves: And the Hero Within

The second year had just started at IIT, and I felt I had a diminishing interest in engineering and even less in the subject Mechanics of Solids. The course reciprocated and in the first two semester exams of this advanced mechanics course, I had scored marks in single digits. If I had to avoid my first F grade, I would have to top the end-semester exam. 

In the first year, I salvaged some pride, but by the second year, the courses were reaching new heights of difficulty. As happens with everyone who enters IIT, you are suddenly reduced from a school topper to one competing with brilliant students. The relative grading makes one realize there are "Bahuratna Vasundhara" or many pearls on this earth. 

And then something within me said I could not give up without a fight. The first challenge was to convince myself that I enjoyed the subject. I told myself I always loved Physics and this course was an extension of that. Every morning, I tried to remember the joy of solving questions during the Joint Entrance Exam (JEE) Physics preparation. It was not easy, but once my brain was convinced that it was more my reluctance to work hard rather than lack of interest in the subject, rest was the easier part. I scored almost the highest marks in the end-semester exam, and owing to my earlier performance settled with an average grade. 

We believe what we tell ourselves. We can tell ourselves that nothing is going right and soon we are convinced that doomsday is nearby. We can tell ourselves that we do not enjoy boring parties and before we enter one, we have self-sabotaged chances of enjoying that. Or we can tell ourselves that there is half-full water in the glass and slowly we start believing that.

Try this for a failure or rejection. We can be dejected and feel offended/sad or we can tell ourselves we can only control what is in our hands and pat ourselves and feel proud for doing the effort. Any struggle or journey first begins in the mind.

For a long time, I believed hormones are an after-effect of the emotions that we have but later I learnt we can trick our brain even in that. Hormones are secreted when we are happy or sad, but they also mimic our physical actions. Research shows that when we are happy, happiness hormones are released and we smile, but vice versa also works. If we simply force a smile, happiness hormones are released in our body creating a similar effect. 

What if a person felt she/he was sent with a purpose on earth? They would suddenly focus on what truly matters and avoid unnecessary distractions. It's a shift in perspective that matters. Practices like meditation or journalling also help us do the same.

All of us are at times amazed by our capabilities. There is a hero within, but we are not always sure if that is just luck or if we have that. Joseph Campbell's "The Hero’s Journey" covers this well. There are flashes of brilliance within all of us, waiting to be discovered and nurtured but we often wait for a teacher to tell us that. All superhero stories follow this narrative where the hero hones his powers with the help of a mentor.

Michelangelo sculpted a beautiful marble angel and when people asked him how he could do that, he would say, "I saw the angel in the marble and carved it until I set him free." This captures the essence of our inner journey. Each of us has an angel within, a hero waiting to be set free.

So, the next time you face a challenge, try to trick your brain into positivity and focus on your purpose. The angel within all of us has immense strength!

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