Every time I turn on WiFi on my mobile phone, some
application begins to get upgraded automatically. It doesn’t even ask my
permission. Can this phenomenon help us learn about the virus in our thought
process? That is what we will explore in this article.
When we buy a new phone, it comes with some default
applications. For example, for an Android phone, Google Maps, Gmail etc. come pre-installed
on the phone. We also download new apps e.g. Uber cabs as we see that they
could help us in our day-to-day life. These applications are constantly getting
upgraded. Sometimes these upgrades are fixing some problems with the apps,
sometimes new features get added, other times the app gets a better protection
against virus attacks etc. In short, these upgrades are trying to make our
phone future-proof.
In general, these upgrades should be happening when the
phone is idle i.e. it is not being used for a call or a message or reading a
mail or watching a movie etc. Our phone,
even when it is not busy making or receiving a call, is involved in checking if
somebody is trying to call us or send a message. It also has many other sensors
such as temperature sensor, accelerometer for speed / direction sensor etc. It
is also constantly checking date and time and triggering alarms at an
appropriate moment if they have been set.
In short, phone is a sensitive device, constantly engaged in scanning
the signals and meaningfully responding to them.
Now, imagine a situation where the app upgrades become all
important. i.e. the phone goes into a mode where all it is doing primarily is
app upgrades and nothing else. It considers upgrading itself to be more
important than everything else – even making / receiving a call etc. Even when
somebody tries to call us, the phone rejects the call because it is busy upgrading
itself. It is like the phone has lost its primary function. Who would like such
a phone?
Now, let’s compare this upgrade mechanism with our life. Our
attention is required to do what we are doing in the present moment – say
eating, walking, driving, listening etc. However, these activities have become
so automatic that the thought feels that it can do some upgrades while these
activities are happening. So it starts running “What if” scenarios – “What if I
don’t reach the meeting on time?”, “What if I lose this job?”, “What if people
discover that I am really not that smart?” etc. We feel that these ‘what if’
scenarios help us take some actions that will reduce the probability of
failure. In short, the thought process helps us in making our life
future-proof, similar to a mobile app upgrade.
Now, imagine the thought process goes berserk perhaps due to
some virus on the ‘what if’ simulations and grabs all the attention all the
time for the simulation. Almost no attention is left for the present moment
activities. We are eating our lunch but the attention is in the “upgrade”
scenarios. We are driving a car but thinking about the upcoming meeting. When
we are in the meeting, the thought is simulating the next activity etc. Effectively,
we are not giving any activity its due attention. The future-proofing is
happening at the cost of the quality of attention in the present-moment. In an
overdrive mode, the thought process is also affecting the sensitivity to signals
sent from the body such as hunger, sleep etc. and from surrounding such as
feelings of the family members, team members, how we are treating nature etc. It
is as though we have become insensitive to the reality and begun to live in the thought
created future-proofing simulation.
Now, you might ask. OK, this is life, what to do? The first step is to watch this process and see if the upgrade simulations are indeed serving a useful purpose or they have become repetitive, compulsive and wasteful. You have been thinking about selecting the best school for your daughter for the past one month. How long do you want to keep thinking? This awareness can be powerful. Alternately, you can step out of the simulation for a few moments and bring attention to the present moment activity –breathing, eating, sitting, walking etc. Try it out for yourself.