Dated: 18 Jun 2022

Here’s is a simple idea I’ve learnt to calm down anytime and be at our optimal best.

Imagine a pendulum which goes from left to right. Left being past and right being future (west ↔  east motion).

So, if the pendulum is in the center, then we are in the present. If it is towards left, then we are in the past. And if it’s in the right - we are thinking about the future.

Now, imagine another pendulum, this one goes perpendicular to the previous pendulum. Meaning, it goes back and forth (north ↔  south motion).

For the second pendulum, if it’s in the forward direction, then we are thinking something positive. If it’s in the center, we are neutral. And if it’s backward, then we are thinking something negative.

Now, imagine both these pendulums merged in the center, like a cross.

dual-pendulum (1).png

(couldn’t find a better image, but I hope you get the idea)

So, if we are thinking about a past event, which is positive in nature, then this dual pendulum is somewhere in south-west. Likewise, if we are thinking about some future positive event (say some reward you are going to get), then this dual pendulum in somewhere in the north-east.

The idea is to be use this dual pendulum as guide to understand where our thought are slowly bring it to the neutral-present position.

This is position, i.e, when we are completely calm, is when we can do our best. Our complete focus is on the current moment, and naturally we will the do our current activity with better concentration.