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I would love to tell you all about it…next time. However, at the moment your brain is ready to offer you the answers. Just ask!

LIFE OF AN ICEBERG

This is not a scientific treatise about the features and movements of icebergs at poles of on our planet. Rather, I intent to trace is an analogy with our lives in order to simplify communication with my readers.

So, an iceberg … is an icy lump that moves along with the World ocean currents and winds; it juts out above the water surface by 10-15 per cent, at the same time hiding its remaining 85-90 percent below the surface.

This very description of the notion of an “iceberg” motivated me to draw an analogy between it and a human life.

Although humans possess immense energy potential, they follow their destiny under the influence of stars, planets, natural phenomena, and cosmic and social changes.

Human life, just like an iceberg, is naturally divided into two unequal parts:

visible (life in the society, among others) and

invisible (life within oneself, always on one’s own)

How often do we ask ourselves what part of our lives is bigger? How does one part affect the other? How do we divide the concept of “happiness in life” to parts?.. Let’s start off from here…

The notion of “happiness in life” is universal and quite often hackneyed. Nonetheless, during every Birthday celebration friends, relatives and acquaintances wish you health, good luck, material amenities and… happiness. What do you think they mean? When a person has health, luck and material well-being… What constitutes happiness on top of all those wishes? In fact, it involves the wishes concerning the “hidden part of the iceberg”, whereas money, for instance, relates to the “above-water”, exposed part of our lives.

Such a simple concept is really worth considering, because it brings us to the realization that apparently an 85-90-percent share of our lives constitutes our spiritual, inner life, which every one of us spends on his/her own. Within it, there are no friends (since they have been left above the water surface), no governmental limitations, no real estate land registers and no hierarchal division according to moral values. Neither does our spiritual, “hidden below the surface” life include group forms of organization or elements of a mass character. Everyone is always within oneself.

 

I will give you a few examples in support of the fore-mentioned idea:

 

Event 1. Meeting an attractive man (woman)

Reflection in the upper part of the iceberg

Phrase pronounced: “Hi! How are you?”

Reflection in the lower part of the iceberg

Emotional splash, start of a global analytical process, beginning of an intrapersonal dialogue…

Commentary

Internal process exponentially exceeds the external-greeting process.

 

Event 2. You have been unfairly blamed for an error of your colleague at the workplace

Reflection in the upper part of the iceberg

Phrase pronounced:

“I understand, it will never happen again”

Reflection in the lower part of the iceberg

Splash of negative emotions towards the colleague; emotional resentment towards management, intrapersonal dialogue…

Commentary

Internal thought process differs significantly from the external one in duration and intensity… and as a result initiates external displays (e.g. conversation with the colleague, discussion of the issue during the family dinner)

 

Event 3. Watching the sunset at the tropical islands

Reflection in the upper part of the iceberg

Phrase pronounced: “What a beautiful view!”

Reflection in the lower part of the iceberg

Splash of positive emotions and lively fantasies (with images), intrapersonal dialogue…

Commentary

Internal thought process becomes fully saturated with emotional experiences, which exceed external displays by many times.

 

These examples should be sufficient to encourage your brain to find many others.

What is the brain in this aspect? What role does it play here? As a matter of fact, the brain plays the central role in management of the fore-mentioned events; it is the principal computer, which processes the information coming from the “upper part of the iceberg”. It skillfully transforms the entire gamut of inner experiences and overwhelming emotions into the language of human communication.

We can find a simple and easy-to-grasp example in the phrase “I love you”. When pronounced out loud, it is usually connected with a long interior human life; let alone the phrase “Would you marry me?”… and the years are gone!

So, doesn’t our life remind us of an iceberg that goes with a stream? But how can another iceberg, coming from the opposite direction, determine how big is the hidden part only by looking at the tip? Only after floating around for a while, it is possible to distinguish the bottom part, yet not completely!

Having been so neatly divided into two unequal parts, our lives pass in a constant and invariable communication with ourselves within our inner worlds.

So what is happiness in the end? It is a universal delicate state of balance between an external event and an internal reaction to it. Happiness is a precise indicator of our INWARD comfort, the importance of which no HOMO SAPIENS is likely to deny.

And that’s how we live… just like icebergs in the open ocean of opportunities: exposing only 10-15 per cent in the visible, physical world and hiding 85-90 per cent in the invisible inner world. You may find yourself wondering: How do these two worlds interact and ultimately blend magnificently into a beautiful notion of life? How do they influence each other? What rules are they guided by?

I would love to tell you all about it…next time. However, at the moment your brain is ready to offer you the answers. Just ask!

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