#60. Atharv’s Chronicle : 31-10-2026 A Pair of Flip-Flops and Self-Awareness

Welcome back to another edition of Atharv’s Chronicle! 

As promised in the last edition, I am sharing this edition on the 5th. I drafted it a few days back, and it is live now.

Since we are talking about training our subconscious from the last few editions, I will continue with a related topic. Let me start with my own example.

The Flip-Flop Deal

I have multiple pairs of slippers, and my wife and I stay on the second floor of the house. My wife doesn’t like it when I keep 2-3 pairs on the second floor, as it is difficult for her while cleaning and mopping the floor.

So she suggested:

• One pair of flip-flops in the ground floor parking – for daily use
• One pair on the second floor – for office use
• The remaining in the cupboard – for occasions

And that was the deal.

Before this, I never had the habit of leaving my footwear on the ground floor. So I had to train my mind to do this. Yes, it sounds simple, but listen to the full story.

How Miserably I Failed

I started picking up the flip-flops from the ground floor for daily use. I step out, finish the work, come back and go straight to the second floor as usual. Because my mind is just wired to that. It is just working as per the set patterns.

Every time, like every time, I reached the second floor without a miss. Then I got that death stare from my wife and went all the way to the ground floor just to take off those flip-flops.

It continued for many days. Every time I came to the second floor wearing those flip-flops, it hit my medulla oblongata, and I walked all the way down again.

Sounds silly, right? But it is actually not.

Every time I went down to take off those flip-flops, I was telling my brain to learn a new pattern by getting rid of the old one. It is not easy to change how the brain works. We need to train it.

The Gap Keeps Shrinking

I still haven’t reached 100%. But look at this:

• First, I realised it at the middle of the second floor. I corrected.
• Then, I realised it on the first floor. I corrected.
• Then, at the middle of the first floor. I corrected.
• Now, I realise it at the 5th or 6th step from the ground floor.

I am not there yet. But every time I correct, I realise it a little earlier.

Where This Idea Comes From – Mahatria

This whole idea comes from a talk by Mahatria on self-awareness. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x1uQEmK32Fo&t=1s

He explains that between something happening and us becoming aware of it, there is a gap. Some people never realise their mistakes in a whole lifetime. Some realise after years, some after months, some after days, some after a few hours. And growth is nothing but this gap coming down, again and again:

1. You realise immediately after the incident
2. Then you realise during the action itself
3. Then you catch it at the level of the thought, before it even becomes an action

When I read my flip-flop story against this, I smiled. Second floor, first floor, middle of the first floor, 5th step – that is exactly the gap coming down. The next stage for me is to catch the thought at the parking itself, before I even touch the first step.

Mahatria also says something that hit me hard: most of us live on two parallel tracks. Our learning is on one track, our living is on another. We keep realising after the incident – I need not have been angry, I need not have snoozed. The learning is there, but it never meets the living.

The Simple Habit He Suggests

So how do we shrink this gap? Mahatria gives one simple habit.

Every night, just before you sleep, recall your entire day. That’s it. You woke up or you snoozed. You had a great coffee but didn’t tell your mother it was great. You shouted at someone on the road. Just go through it, whatever you can recall. No punishing yourself, no judging.

What happens after that is the beautiful part. The correction starts coming from inside you, not from outside. The next morning when the alarm rings, you remember yesterday’s snooze, and you get up. And slowly, you don’t just catch your mistakes – you start smiling at the things you did right too. That is self-appreciation. And the more you appreciate yourself, the less you crave appreciation from outside.

Conclusion

I think this is one of the greatest things I have learnt: self-awareness is the starting point of any change. You cannot change a pattern you don’t see. And self-awareness is like a muscle – just like we exercise our body, our breath and our skills, we need to exercise our awareness too.

It can be applied to anything – the phone we pick up without thinking, the snooze button, the snack after dinner, the reply we give in anger. My flip-flops are just the proof that it works, even if it is slow.

and we shouldn’t be harsh on ourself when we fail. Every time I walk back down those stairs, I’m training my brain. And every night when I recall my day, the gap gets a little smaller.

So here is my ask for you from this edition: starting tonight, before you sleep, spend 5 minutes recalling your day. Do it for 21 days. Pick one pattern you want to change, and just notice when you catch it – after, during, or before.

Hope you could relate to it!

See you in the next one.

Atharv Prasanna