Wave Theory

So the past few topics have been along the lines of a new philosophy that helps folks in today's day and time without relying on an “interpreter” to interpret millennia old folklore to retrofit the problems we face today. And all philosophies have different ways for people to be their best versions. Every philosophy calls it with a different name. I don’t want to get into those nomenclatures or call them out to be extremely vague and also super stringent at times. Most of these are supposed to take the practitioner towards “Bliss” or a state of “Transcendence” which is beyond all feelings! The former is too elusive and the latter not possible for someone who lives in the society interacting with hundreds of people. I wanted something that could be used by common people who are going about their normal routine life and want a better experience around them without asking them to abandon anything or indulging in rituals.

The basic observation was that usually people work at their best when they are neither side of extreme emotions. We tend to make bad decisions when we are either too happy, sad, emotional, or angry. That is not to say these emotions are bad, but that making decisions when we are in that state of mind is usually counterproductive. Again, it is very easy for someone to say, don’t let a certain situation get the better of you, but more difficult to actually guide them through it. And that is exactly what the first tenet of the new philosophy should be able to do.

So what could be done? I had been thinking about it for the last year. And finally came up with a system that works really well, at least for me!

I call it the Emotional Wave Theory (for the lack of better name). As mentioned above, the peak operating space for any individual is usually when they aren't dominated by one or more emotions, so that these emotions dictate their perceptions, judgements and decisions. Assume this to be 0 on a sine wave. Everytime you are hit with an emotion due to any circumstance, be it any emotion; happy or sad, good or bad, think of it as moving away from 0 to either side of the sinewave, towards +1 or -1. The goal then, becomes to return back to 0 to be at your peak emotional state again. This theory, again, does not ask you to negate your emotions or sit with them; but to identify that you are misaligned and put efforts in coming back. So, it doesn’t say something like, “you shouldn’t feel emotions” or “bliss is the place to be”, but rather, “all emotions are fine, but you shouldn’t sit with them too long or they will start hindering your daily life”. You should acknowledge your emotion, but also acknowledge that going back to 0 is more important than being either at +1 or -1 states.

The first thing is to tune yourself to realize that you are riding a wave of emotion. This might take time, but this forms the core tenet of this whole theory. Whether you are extremely happy because you got that promotion or sad because you didn’t. We tend to think that happiness should last while sorrow should go away, but that never happens in life. That promotion you toiled for a year or more, would not feel as important in a year when you would start vying for the next role in the ladder! It’s not like you shouldn’t be happy for the promotion, but to remember that you have to turn back from this wave to your 0 where you can start performing your best. Similarly, when you are down and out, it’s okay to feel blue for sometime, but it’s then imperative to remember that staying on this emotional wave will not do you any good and that you need to go back up to 0 and start performing your best again.

Someone would say this is over simplified, but the easiest things can be very hard to achieve! Try telling someone who just achieved one of their life’s biggest milestones to be less happy and see how they react! Or to someone who has lost a loved one to not feel as sad!

One way this can be done is what I'm currently calling the moments method(again for the lack of better terminology). When you are riding the wave of a certain emotion and you realize it, the next thing to do is remembering and internalizing moments from your life that get you back to the 0 state!

When you are overjoyed by your success, you think of moments when you were pushing hard and the sweat and hard work you put in to get here. Or think of moments of contentment, where you had once felt a sense of having just enough in life. And then move back to that zone remembering that's what is required of you to keep moving forward. Similarly, when you are extremely sad, you remember the happy moments in life. Phrases like “This too shall pass” are important motivators to move back to 0 and restart with a calmer state of mind. If you had a fight with a loved one and are seething with anger, this method does not ask you to keep it aside. But mindfully remember that when there's love, arguments and fights can be resolved amicably, and words spoken and decisions taken in anger rarely bode well for anyone.

The end goal is to have a life that goes towards all emotions that come our way, stay there for sometime but ultimately return back to 0. We neither negate nor propagate these emotions for a second longer than needed. For they can hinder our rationale and daily lives. We feel them, be joyous, sad, jealous, angry, etc. and then return back to our 0. The place where we turn to our most optimal performance in our daily life.

Again, this is just one of the many ways you can find your way back to 0; to your peak operating mental level. There could be multiple ways that work for multiple people! I think any philosophy that's trying to show a new way of life should also be flexible enough to let people find their own sub paths, and not create dogmatic and rigid point of views that everyone should follow even if it doesn't work for them.

To this end, the philosophy that I shall be enshrining would, at every stage, leave multiple off-ramps for people to deduce their own paths and merge back to the highway at a later point. This will help with the no interpretation point I mentioned earlier as well. It shows you a couple of ways from point A to point B, and also tells you there could be a few more and that you are free to explore if none of the prescribed ways suit your mental acuity. But the end goal would be point B.