Phase-Life Graph

The Phase-Life graph is a constantly moving line from birth to death. The moving tip is your current situation and as it moves it charts a graph called the Phase-Life Graph. The centre line, the X axis, is the neutral line. Routine life moves on this line. As you have happy experiences the point moves up, on the Y axis and as you experience unhappy times it moved down below the neutral line on the Y axis. It keeps moving up and down to different levels depending on the intensity of each experience.

There are a few things to understand here. Firstly this graph will be personal to each and every individual. No two people will have the same graph because no two people will feel the same way about the same experiences. Going for a movie may be an experience on the neutral line for me but would be on the happy side, that is above the neutral line, for others. So this graph has to be personal.

In our modern urban life, it's witnessed that most people live below or on the neutral line. The stress of modern life is so high that a large amount of time is spent below the neutral line. Work stress, personal problems, commuting woes, government policies, insufficient sleep, lack of exercise, lifestyle related illness etc, the list is endless. Spending a lot of time below/negative side of the neutral line means when we look up, we see the neutral line and mistake that for the happiness line/phase. There's so much stress that absence of stress, which should ideally be a neutral phase, has become a happy phase for most of us. When life is going in its routine, we say life is good. It is good, but identify the fact that it can be better. Do not settle for this neutral line, aim higher.

This graph can also be useful for an individual to identify what exact experiences take him/her on the upper/positive side of the neutral line. It will be different for different people but everyone has that something, that makes them really happy, something that gives them true happiness and not just pleasure. It may be going for a trek, traveling the world, taking up a hobby, helping people, doing social work, being with friends, a quiet dinner with loved ones etc. Once you  have identified your positive experiences, you can do what is necessary to achieve more high points. Similarly identify what takes you down/negative side of the neutral line and eliminate those from life.

Chart you own Phase-Life graph, ensure you are above the neutral line most of the times, do not mistake the neutral phase for the happy phase and try to minimize the number of times the graph dips below the neutral line.

Hope everyone reading finds it useful and is able to maintain their life graph on the positive side, if already there or are able to turn it around and take it to the positive side if currently negative. All the best.