Instagram… Instagram is…

Wow, this is a difficult definition.

Well, let me attempt to identify the most accurate “real” definition I can for this term. And to be clear, a “real” definition, according to philosophers and the book Ultimate Questions by Nils Ch. Rauhut, is a “[definition] that explain[s] the essential nature [or essence] of a thing or a phenomenon”. Philosophers use the term ‘lexical definition’ to refer to dictionary definitions which define terms through explaining how they are utilized in society and through language rather than the term’s true nature, containing necessary and sufficient conditions which convey the genus of a term as well as its differences from other terms that could have the same genus. And a genus would simply be the category the term would fall into.

A bit complicated, huh?

And probably more than necessary for what this blog post mainly entails, but… why not? This is what I do when I write- make things complicated. It’s just too fun.

Anyhow, back to that definition I was creating.

Instagram: A social media platform used to share photos and/or videos.

Genus: Platform

Differences: Social media, used to share photos and/or videos

And that’s your most precise strategy to forming definitions. Now you can finally go home and tell your mom you learned something in school (school being my blog! ha ha so funny).

And I also completely lost focus of what I really wanted to put into this piece of writing.

I wanted to insert here a short dialogue that happened to prevail between myself and another instagram user under a photo. The photo was of a written quote by philosopher Alan Watts who, by the way, is one of my favorite people to have ever lived and this will become annoyingly evident the more I post, claimed that,

“a person who thinks all the time has nothing to think about except thoughts. So, he loses touch with reality and lives in a world of illusions.”

Who else sees the undeniable beauty of his language and substance? He blows my mind.

I decided I’d insert the actual photo that was posted just to provide a potentially unnecessary visual.

This astonishingly eye-opening quote happens to be in the beginning of one of my all-time favorite songs as well, except, in the song, he speaks more and you hear what follows thereafter. It’s funny because I’ve been following this man’s works and sayings for quite a while and have always had a passion for the genre of EDM (Electric Dance Music for those of you weirdos who aren’t familiar with it) and the idea of his speeches being incorporated into my favorite music now is exquisite. Listen to another one here. Weird, right?

Moving on, this dialogue occurred in the comments section of this post which was put up on April 18, 2019. I took a look at the saying and that song just popped into my head, of course. Then I noticed in the comments how many people seemed to be struggling with the point Watts was meaning to put across through the quote. I saw multiple comments asking “how can you stop thinking” or “you can’t stop thinking, it’s impossible, I don’t get this, it’s bull” (not exactly, but basically).

spose

I wasn’t surprised and I don’t blame them; I mean, comprehending ideas as such aren’t simple. I decided I’d offer up whatever I could to help whoever was interested in order to interpret it better.

My first comment:

“A way to slow your thoughts is through the practice of meditation, but if you want a simpler way to really shut your thoughts up, try stepping away from your head. Your thinking is located in your head so that’s where you’re present right now. But you want to be present HERE in the atmosphere you’re in. Step out of your head and imagine your soul apart from your body… watching you and your MIND “think”. Basically watch yourself and observe how you think. This will expand your mind and allow you to see how senseless and a waste of time it is to be thinking the way you are. And how harmful your thoughts can be to your health. But meditation is really important and it can be done in any setting at any time… just force yourself to pay attention to what’s going on RIGHT NOW instead of thinking about what just happened or what you’re going to do later. The more you practice these things, the more you realize you’re actually beginning to critique your own thoughts. That’s the first step in progress. Keep it going and you’ll finally begin to notice that you are noticing so much more about your atmosphere than ever before. You only just noticed an open field by your house that you drive by everyday. You noticed how immensely gorgeous the clouds are. You noticed the pattern on your wall and the dust on your mirror. And the more you drive, the more surprised you are about how much around you that you’ve missed not being observant/in the present moment rather than in your thoughts. It makes a drastic difference on your life. I really suggest prioritizing this because all it takes is to truly want to be in touch with the present moment. And the present moment is ultimately all that exists.”

Here’s another unnecessary visual.

Follow me 🙂

So, of course, everything I say or anyone says is open for disagreement as well as interpretation. But I wanted to allude to two points I made in the above comment. As you may or may not see, depending on whether you’re blind or not (jk), the two points I’d like to elaborate on are underlined. Everything else is absolutely just as crucial to pay attention to, but I either feel I’ve already gone into detail about the rest of it here or in my previous post or it’s just self explanatory.

“…you realize you’re actually beginning to critique your own thoughts. That’s the first step in progress.”

What exactly is critiquing your thoughts?

This is the act of a subtle form of commentary or acknowledgement on/of your thoughts. For example, you notice yourself having a thought about how ugly someone is… or how ugly you are. And in the background of your mind, you’re able to view that thought, understand that you just thought it, and realize it wasn’t necessary or something you solely shouldn’t be thinking about.

“Seriously? Why am I thinking about how ugly she is? Is that really how I think? Does that thought help me or that person? Am I actually that judgmental?”

This is a step in progress because you’re able to step away from your thoughts and notice them. You’re able to make inferences regarding them. You’re understanding that thoughts like these are useless, a waste of space and energy in your head, and detrimental to yourself.

And yes, the act of critiquing your thoughts can only be considered thinking, but you may have to think to not think.

On to my next point.

“…all it takes is to truly want to be in touch with the present moment. And the present moment is ultimately all that exists.”

This is a vital notion to comprehend. Think about this: the past and the future- thinking about the past and the future. Understanding them. Remembering them. Embracing them. Whatever it is that you’re doing with these two things is IN THE PRESENT. These two ideas don’t actually exist. This is probably extremely difficult to understand. It is for me, too. And it’s super easy to deny. I deny it, too. But right now is legitimately all there is. The past already happened. It’s gone. The future isn’t here yet. The present is all that we can live in. I have to say that again. The present is all that we can live in! It’s all there is! It’s the only place that we can be! Why would you want to relive something that already happened when you can live in real time? And why would you want to think and stress about the future when it isn’t here yet? You’re ultimately going through something twice or more (which is completely unnecessary) when you stress about your past or future. One already happened and one is yet to happen. Neither are current so neither are relevant. One may argue that they must contemplate the future as they must plan ahead to know what they will be engaging in next or later on. Of course. This is fine. Write it down. Do what you have to do, but don’t let yourself get stuck in either of these places (the past or the future). It’s a waste of your precious time NOW.

And when you to truly want a place in the present moment, you’ll find it. Achievements first come from strong desires.

So, in response to my comment, the user said:

I replied:

He replied:

Then I sent him a dm with this advice:

“Yes yes true (this is my reply to your last comment) I can relate and with that, you’ve gotta take baby steps to solutions. Maybe write down possible solutions to one problem you’re dealing with, choose your best option, keep it in your head and slowly begin working towards it. Let’s say your parents treat you like shit, for example, and you don’t how to change that. And that’s one difficult thing is changing people around you, especially ones you can’t just drop like you can with bad friends. A solution would be to move out. Another solution would be to deal with it or change yourself for them. And you decide your best option is to move out. Then you put that in your head and the baby steps begin trickling in like: 1. You need to get a job or a better paying one in order to afford a place. So you start looking and trust me, if you REALLY want a good paying job, you WILL find one because you’ll do what it takes, even if it’s applying to jobs 20 times a day because that can be what it takes. And you go from there and eventually find yourself moved out and moving on. Continue to keep your desires in the tip of your mind and you’ll continue to achieve in the same way.”

He never responded.

So, basically, I just wanted to put this here in hopes of it helping more people, if possible.

What’s funny about all of this is that I struggle the same way everyone else does and I don’t mean to seem any different, because that’s not the case at all. I overthink. I’m just aware of strategies, I practice them, and I have a passion for assisting people in whatever way made possible for me and I enjoy sharing things with people in which they could potentially benefit from.

Thank you for reading! Stay clear-minded and in the moment, perceivers.