The journey I've been waiting for my whole life

I got heavily hooked by a pretty simple idea lately. The idea itself is nothing new. Nothing fancy as well. Just a simple, and thus easy-to-understand and apply philosophy principle. By the end of this article you will find me starting a new chapter in life. Well, not sure about a chapter really. But I am somehow absolutely sure this yields some great experience and changes. For myself, not for you. You're fine.

So, as long as I like writing and the platform needs me to come up with not less than 450 words, let's have a quick Q/A session. Ready? Go:

1. It gets harder and harder to perform daily activities as you used to. Y/N?

2. It's perfect time for your productivity when you are about to fall asleep. When you wake up in the morning, you don't feel that motivation anymore. Y/N?

3. You find yourself achieving not as much as others (in your opinion) these days. Y/N?

Decoding: If you answered "Yes" to all three questions, you are a lazy, not motivated loser. Well done. Good night!

Of course not. I can't say that. Because if I do, then that is exactly what I am. And that's wrong for sure. So let's dive a little into what Pavlov called signal systems. Wait, what? How the hell did we start with "a simple idea" and now we're talking about Pavlov. Who does that??

I do. So here's the deal. Pavlov specified two signal systems: first one is our conditional reflexes. Everything you can clearly feel with your sensors. It's safe to say that this system sends you signals right from the real outer world. That time you got burnt by the iron, the time you heard the plane too close and too loudly, the time you fell on the knees as a kid and got hurt. All of this was received by the sensors and delivered right to your brain. Up to this point everything is real enough to speak about objective reality.

The good and the bad news is that there's one more signal system which operates inside your brain. This one, the second signal system, can help you become a doctor, programming engineer, a driver, a teacher, and a miserable homeless person with no friends at all. AND THERE we go to the point. This second system does not operate with reflections of a real outer world. It uses symbols instead. It's a complete abstraction of what you experienced or imagined. And we are here not to talk about the value of this signal system. Not at all. It has many advantages (c'mon, we're writing and reading because of it. We are human beings as we know them because of it). We are here to discuss a small, yet very destructive flaw of it. It can drown you in itself. Like, completely. Your mind is totally concentrated on it all the time you are awake. Remember all those cases that your mind considers important. That great hangout or a concert you visited, that first car you drove. You can literally recall the tactile feeling of it. Because you were there more wide awake than elsewhere. You were concentrated, focused, feeling every little thing. That is what it feels to be "in the moment". That is what it feels to be concentrated on the first signal system rather than being "in your head".

Phew, you did it! Congrats. Hope this gives you some new glance at the topic. Join me in the journey if you want. And welcome to comments section if you are ready to share the results with everybody.