The Beauty of Surviving

Human born to survive. Surviving is a natural behavior (instinct) of a creature when they are in danger.

Merriam Webster define Instinct as a largely inheritable and unalterable tendency of an organism to make a complex and specific response to environmental stimuli without involving reason. In the other words, instinct cause reaction in human below the conscious level.

Why people are most likely to survive?

When you look at this question, I would like to ask you to start wondering why you are alive. Between two choices of living a life and die, why are you choose to continue to live despite all the uncertainty and restlessness you experienced this whole life.

You, currently choose to live.

Now let’s move to another big question.

If people were gifted by an instinct to survive, why suicide exist?

In this case, we should look back to the meaning of instinct itself. Instinct basically is a sudden response from yourself, in a form of feeling, action or thought when facing a particular situation.

Instinct in human, can be objectified with a lot of forms: denial, face expression, voice, etc. When you feel betrayed, you will try to survive yourself with a revenge (e.g. sadistic way with physic action or damaging the mental by simply doing a silent treatment). This is a way of surviving. When people are stuck in a cognitive constriction, they will try to survive themselves from the endless pain.

Cognitive constriction shortly is a state of pain. You can imagine yourself in a room without a door or window, of color you don’t like, with voices that hurt your ears, getting forced to eat something that is not eatable. In this circumstance, you will be dragged into a black hole where you can see nothing but the misery.

In the moment of this life stage, people will lose hope, in themselves, and other people. Hence, they will try to deprive the soul of theirs in order to survive.

Is killing yourself is an embodiment of surviving?

We will try to save ourselves from a misery. However, no matter what is the room we are in, there is always a door. Being in a cognitive constriction state, is like being in a room without a door. Yet no one tells there is no door. When we are in despair, we will impel ourselves to create a door to get out from an over fullness.

The illustration will be like this.

Again, being in a cognitive constriction state, is like being in a room without a door. Means that a person will not see it with their eyes, the door will not be tangible. When you can’t see with your eyes what will you do? You seal. Not only being in a room without a door, you will also hear voices that hurt your ears. In this moment, your instinct will lead you to close your ears. At it’s peak, you will deafen yourself.

Along the time, you will feel nothing as you are dead.

So, can we say that suicide is a form of surviving? The answer is. no.

Surviving is a living thing matter. However, notably, suicide might release the pain, it is not giving any improvement to a life.

This is the moment where we found the beauty of surviving.

Surviving is the moment when you can free yourself from a position that can endanger your life (in various form). There are many factors that make people survive. The state that we know as cognitive constriction is not something that impossible to escape from. Regardless, where you are not able to see it from the inside, try to look at it from the outside.

How beautiful it is, to have someone/something open the door for you and free yourself from a corking torment, into the starry night view.

The Starry Night a painting by Van Gogh

Surviving is like a relationship. There is other variable beside your soul. An external factor that keep you alive. Something, someone.

It’s a simple thing. You don’t have to think hard about it. Try to look in the mirror and ask yourself, why am I alive?

A humble reason, modest delight. It’s beautiful of how simple it is for you to stay alive. To have another toast in the morning, to wait for another episode of your favorite serial, to meet another Friday, and to talk to your favorite person once again. You simply wondering, if I go who will give the cats lunch, or who will greet the old man you meet every morning before work.

You are live for yourself, and the amiability of yours that give blanket to the winter, and lemonade to summer.

Thanks for choosing to have another day today, and thanks to God you have another day for me to hear your unfunny jokes once again.

Reference

Pianka, Eric R. (2012, September 19) .Can Human Instincts Be Controlled? Retrived July 15, 2020, from http://www.zo.utexas.edu/courses/Thoc/HumanInstincts.html