Architecture seems to be the only form of art you cannot avoid—unless you’re deep in a forest or on a remote island with no people. But even then, chances are you would build some kind of shelter for yourself, which, if you stretch the thought a bit, is still a form of architecture. In a sense, we cannot escape it, even on a deserted island, because the idea of building—or, more accurately, creating—is something we carry within us.
However, architecture is not what I want to talk about today. Instead, it got me thinking—how the hell did all these buildings we see around us, the ones we live and work in, come into existence? That’s when I realized that, at some point, each of them was just an idea, a single thought in someone’s head. An idea that materialized into a building, a bridge, a street, a chair, a table—anything material you see around you.
Just pause for a second and think about that—how a mere thought became a pyramid, the Eiffel Tower, Angkor Wat, or even just the building you live in. Pretty awesome, if you ask me.
Now, if we look at all the man-made objects around us, the same principle applies. Everything—a toy, a table, a ball—was once just a thought in someone’s mind before eventually becoming reality.
In my previous (and first-ever) blog post, I mentioned how and why I created this blog. I can tell you that it all started as images in my head—I could see myself having my own website and posting articles every now and then. And here we are, finally. My thoughts became reality, which is why I believe that almost anything we think of is possible. Of course, simply thinking about something won’t make it happen, but a thought is undeniably the first and necessary step.
This raises an interesting question: What are our thoughts truly capable of when they can bring structures to life that are a hundred times bigger than us? At the very least, I believe they can do a lot—far more than we tend to realize. Scientific studies have even shown that thoughts can be so powerful they can heal our bodies or even impact someone else’s health. Conversely, they can also make us sick if we don’t “use” them properly. (Here’s an article about how human minds shape reality.)
So far, I’ve mainly focused on how our thoughts manifest as material objects. But what about the invisible structures that shape our lives—politics, society, religion, capitalism, materialism, consumerism, the 9-to-5 work culture, school curriculums, and more? These are, in essence, thoughts that have been imposed on us—whether deliberately or as a consequence of certain ideas evolving over time.
Take politics, for example. It’s hard to imagine a country in today’s world without some form of government. A small group of people—called the government—imposes their ideas about how a nation should function. But even they were chosen as a result of the ideas they advocated for, ideas that resonated with the public. As you can see, everything revolves around thoughts and ideas.
Are we truly aware of the thoughts we entertain daily and how they affect us? I don’t think we are, at least not entirely. We are constantly bombarded with information from all directions, leaving our minds cluttered and unable to think clearly. I believe this is one of the reasons we’re seeing a dramatic rise in mental health disorders. With so many artificial thoughts being inserted into our minds through media and the internet, we often mistake them for our own. They don’t necessarily resonate with us, yet we are so overwhelmed by them that we unconsciously adopt them as our own desires. In a sense, we are engaged in a constant mental battle without even realizing it. No wonder stress and anxiety disorders are so prevalent.
One of the reasons I started writing was to clear my mind. I felt like I couldn’t focus on the things I deeply cared about, and I thought that seeing my thoughts written down—on paper or a screen—might help. And I must say, it did. There’s something therapeutic about observing your own thoughts from the outside. You can’t do that when your ideas remain trapped in your head—they have to be expressed to take on meaning.
No matter the form—painting, music, writing—I believe there’s a deep human desire to create and express our thoughts. That’s how art was born. But I wouldn’t limit it to art alone—unless we consider raising great human beings an art form, or building a house, inventing a car, or discovering medicine. All of these are materialized thoughts, and that’s what makes us humans extraordinary. We just need to realize it more and not be afraid to express ourselves creatively, because that’s what makes both us and the world around us beautiful.
At the end of the day, the way we think shapes our reality, whether we like it or not. The only thing we can do is pay attention to what we think about—how we perceive our lives and everything around us. Even when we don’t feel like we have control, I firmly believe that most of it is in our hands—or better yet, in our heads!