I love my country India for one simple reason. So while there may be frequent chaos visible around, yet the in the very land have existed the deep ancient sciences of Yoga and Meditation which allow you to stay free of all anxiety, depression and stress despite bottlenecks, misfortunes and unimagined obstacles.
My original plan was to publish a write-up on insomnia. That piece is ready though locked in my laptop, while there has been this infrastructural constrain in the eco-system.
The picture above is of the road widening work happening in our area. The trees have been chopped and the telecom cables snapped. No one seems to know when things shall be back to as they have been intended.
Interestingly, this won’t be an exclusive instance. Such things keep happening from time to time.
Previously they would anger me a lot. This callus attitude of others would drive me nuts. And the would then become the reason of my stress.
In a way actually, it was these kind of unimaginable obstructions that brought me much deeper into yoga and meditation.
Now ofcourse it has been 25 years. Now I also teach others. And now I see that these occassions become an opportunity to smile at my own fortune.
Besides when I do that, I find new paths opening up as well.
For example, I had quit using data on mobile over 7 years ago when hyper use of this gadget for my job brought me cholesterol threat.
However today I realised that possibly I can still post my weekly story from this gadget so the continuity isn’t disturbed. This is how, here for you all, this story of being calm in chaos.
The question is – Can this capability of being calm in chaos be learned? Or can it be cultured?
If you go by my experience then the answer certainly would be yes.
Otherwise biologically, I was an extremely nervous natured person right from the childhood itself. Even until the time I took to Yoga and meditation truly seriously, I faced several mental stress problems.
So what did regalur practice of meditation do to me? Why I don’t feel that kind of anger anymore? Why I don’t get frustrated by situations around?
The reason is simple.
Previously, my mind was weak. Hence it would delve mostly in the lower order thoughts which only brought more confusion.
Now with regular practice of meditation, the mind has become strong. Thus it is easily able to stay in the higher thoughts. The result, I am able to stay calm.
Retaining your calmness is the most important skill to be learned for freedom from mental health ailments like stress, anxiety and depression
Incidentally, this doesn’t happen by itself. Plus it doesn’t happen in a day either. Yet if you keep practicing some discipline of mind control like meditation, then this capability is gained gradually over a period.
People often think, meditation is complex, difficult, impractical, etc. These perceptions are not correct.
Meditation means gradual strengthening of mind. This work can be done using several methods. Thus actually you have a big choice of procedures in the matter. Among those procedures some may be more mystical while others much simpler or even deeply practical.
From my experience, I have come to the conclusion that people like us, meaning the regular householders, we must follow methods which help us find our natural peacefulness.
Yes, there is a repository of natural peacefulness in each one of us. If you can tap into that pool of yours them you will see an immediate drop in the level of your mental anxieties, feelings of distress, depressive tendencies and mood swings etc.
So the question comes, how to tap into that pool of your own natural peacefulness? Where to find the access? How to open the lock?
This is where I suggest the path of connecting yourself back to the Mother Nature.
In my recent write-ups I have been speaking about a simple method of listening to the chirping of the birds; such easy solutions actually can easily do this work.
The reason being that over the last few decades, human life has traveled too fast and has come too far in a very different direction.
Thus while we can have all our magnificent gadgets, can log into high speed internet, can handle complex surgeries in our hospitals, can send spacecrafts to Jupiter or further, yet in process somewhere we have lost our connection with our own natural peacefulness.
This is the only reason why the world is seeing so many cases of mental health ailments like stress, anxiety and depression.
My solution thus for preventive care in these matters is simple. Connect back to the Mother Nature in any way possible and then learn purposefully to sit in silence for sometime to help your mind find its way back to its natural calmness.
The mind otherwise is always busy running here and there causing you all kind of distasteful situations.
This will be all for this week. Please do think about what I have said. The capability to be calm in chaos can be earned with a little effort. If anyone wishes to learn, you are most welcome to connect.
Next week possibly I will share some of my experiences of listening to the chirping of the birds for my meditative experience and for being calm in the chaos.
Till then, best wishes to everyone. Thanks for reading.
Insomnia and Habits write-ups to feature thereafter.