Reali-tea
​
Reality or just simple tea is what you make of it. Tea leaves are carefully picked and then packaged in different forms for different customers around the world. In Asian households, tea time promises quality family time and a sense of tranquility. In western culture, tea has various purposes such as alleviating stress and a reason to wake up to be productive. Some people use tea to transcend to a different realm of reality that is not entirely illegal. Tea simply provides you a perception of life. Adding tea to the foundation and sugar, and spice completes the recipe...almost.
​
Stress Test:
Our perception of life often gets clouded by negative thoughts and stress. The lens of reality becomes hazy. We lose touch with the depth of a good life. The Stress Test helped me put a number to my stress level. The moderate amount of stress I experience impacts my life negatively. It throws me farther away from the path of happiness. When any wrong type of tea ground is added to the chai, it has the potential to mess up the denaturation process of the milk. It might not even complete the process of experiencing a good cup of chai.
​
Change your mind, and then you can change your perception towards a positive direction of reality. In this course, the discussion based on the Happiness Hypothesis emphasized the need for mindfulness mediation to get in touch with reality and actively pushing positive thoughts to remain positive. A good life requires an active effort to not let negative biases take over. In order to fulfill the process of a good life, we need to be grounded in reality in a positive way, and that is perhaps a key ingredient. I learned that although there are Prozac to fight depression, therapy to detangle thoughts, and meditation to calm our souls, making chai is equally therapeutic.
No Reality, Only Perception:
The duality of Poisonous Consciousness:
The drawing depicts a form of non-dual thinking. Non-dual thinking is the mentality of "us vs them." That sort of mentality stems from negative bias. I learned that by practicing mindfulness, we can alter this perception of ours and allow ourselves to enter a different perspective. Our reality is perhaps the product of our perception, however, a good life is made of a perception where we are pushing towards the positive light. This drawing represents how our heart (worries) can poison our thoughts, and in life, we need to disconnect ourselves from it to pursue happiness.
