bhaskar saikia

We are all creatures of habit. Our daily routines shape our lives, even if we don’t realize it.

And what shapes our habits? Our thoughts.

If our thoughts create our habits, does that mean our minds decide how our lives turn out?

Take money as an example. A person who becomes rich through honest work stays honest, while a thief who becomes rich still thinks like a thief. A stingy person remains stingy, no matter how much money they have. And some beggars, even after becoming millionaires, continue to beg. That’s how strong habits can be. This is why we sometimes hear surprising stories of wealthy beggars.

But is it really a bad thing to be controlled by our habits?

Not necessarily—if those habits bring us happiness. But if they make us unhappy, then we need to change them. And what is happiness? According to ancient Indian texts, the Upanishads, happiness is nothing more than a temporary cessation of pain.

For people who want to improve their lives, the key is to change their thinking. Robin Sharma, in The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari, says the mind can be either a bad master or a great servant. If we don’t take care of it, negative thoughts take over—like weeds in a garden. But if we fill our minds with good thoughts and clear purpose, we create a better life. A healthy mind leads to good habits and our habits shape our reality.

This is where perception comes in. Our minds can be tricked, and that means our habits—and our reality—can change too.

Take time travel, for example. In countries like Russia and the USA, which have multiple time zones, moving from one zone to another means changing the time on your watch—adding or subtracting an hour. Imagine it’s 7 AM where you are, but as soon as you enter the next time zone, it’s suddenly 8 AM. One moment, you’re in the present; the next, you’re in what appears to be the future. Travel back across the time zone, and it’s 7 AM again.

Have you just traveled through time? In a way, yes. What changed? Not time itself, but your perception of it.

If perception drives reality, then what is truth? Perhaps the real question is: Whose truth are we talking about?