NO WORRIES, NO TROUBLE

“All of humanity’s problems stem from man’s inability to sit quietly in a room alone.” Blaise Pascal

“If you have a solution to a problem, then why worry; If you don’t have a solution to a problem then why worry.”

It seems difficult to find a person who is happy and content with life most of the times, though leading a normal life like all of us, going to office, taking care of loved ones, hanging out with friends etc. What if I say, it is not that difficult to find such individual because staying happy is just a habit, and you are content with life, sooner you develop this habit. However no person is happy all the time, but you can get back on track faster with small adjustments to your thinking and attitude, with practice. But this is also true that it’s easy to say but seems difficult to practice.

However, most people end up making worry daily routine, because we become what we think or practice all the time. Life is like that, we often worry about those things that are either out of our control or that are just in our imagination, means it won’t do us any bad if we stop thinking about them. What has to happen will happen anyway. Nevertheless we do it repeatedly. And more you think about it the more you worry, most people do that. Which further leads to stress, headache, migraine, depression; and on a higher end some people even try to commit suicide when they are unable to tackle the recurring worrisome thoughts coming their way.

According to World Health Organisation (WHO) in the year 2015, 5.66 lakh people were under depression. In India youngsters in the age group of 15-24 years are considered among the most vulnerable when it comes to depression and mental health issues. It is estimated that around half the suicides in the world are due to depression. As scary as that a statistic sounds, it is far more alarming to learn that depression has biological as well as sociological and psychological aspects and affects over 300 million people around the world, according to WHO reports.

There are four kinds of pain in our lives –

a) Painful thoughts,
b) Painful emotions
c) Painful actions
d) And painful words.

Either our treacherous negative thoughts are hurting us, painful emotions like somebody’s indifference, disliking or bad behaviour is hurting us. Or may be their bitter words or rude actions are causing us grief.

Usually we don’t laugh on a same joke again but we cry and mull over a same problem again & again, and think about it until it becomes habitually painful. To this I have a simple formula:

DO YOU HAVE A PROBLEM IN LIFE? > YES > CAN YOU DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT > YES > THEN WHY WORRY

DO YOU HAVE A PROBLEM IN LIFE? > YES > CAN YOU DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT > NO > THEN WHY WORRY

DO YOU HAVE A PROBLEM IN LIFE? > NO > THEN WHY WORRY

It’s quite simple, stop making worry your life partner, I think that people spend more time worrying about irrelevant issues than they spend with their loved ones. And the results are making headlines in the WHO reports. The solution of this problem lies in the image above, we all can have a worry free life if we apply this sincerely in our lives. As we all know worry in Hindi is called चिंता and it is far dangerous term than चिता (dead body).  The difference in them is only that चिंता kills a person every moment but चिता kills a person once. (चिंता को चिता के समान बताया गया है, अंतर केवल इतना है चिंता आदमी को बार-बार जलाती है और चिता आदमी को एक बार।)

Let me share with you a beautiful short story from Buddha’s life:

A man once said to Buddha, ‘I don’t know how to handle pain. I don’t want to be angry, but I end up getting very angry. Little things bother me and I can handle the big stuff, but little things set me off.’ Buddha said, ‘Take a up of water, put a spoon of salt in it, sip it and tell me how it tastes.’ The man took a sip and contorted his face immediately. ‘it’s repulsive! I feel like throwing up.’ Buddha took him to a lake nearby, asked him to put spoon of salt in the lake and then taste the lake water. ‘How do you feel now?’ Buddha asked him after he drank from the lake. ‘The water is sweet.’ It’s the same amount of salt,’ Buddha replied, ‘but it’s now gone into a bigger vessel. Become big.’ Pain in our lives, like a spoon of salt, is more or less constant. Are you going to become a bigger vessel so you are able to contain more or are you going to shrink to a degree where everything seems repulsive and obnoxious? It’s in your hands.

Piling up of negative emotions may turn into stress, which can have negative implications in our life. So the first thing we can do to cure is to not think about it at all. But this monkey mind can’t sit idle; so better think about something good. Instant replacement of thoughts is the magical formula. And the easiest and the most beautiful way of doing is by being present in the present moment.

“We are shaped by our thoughts; we become what we think.
When the mind is pure, joy follows like a shadow that never leaves.” – BUDDHA

And to alleviate our unwanted emotions different people try different methods. Some people practice meditation, some practice breathing techniques, some practice focusing on an image, some prefer exercising etc.

On the other hand, it is very important to sleep well, and sufficiently. In today’s fast pace world we are spending so much of our time online and with social media nowadays. Rather than sleeping and enjoying living our lives, we recklessly browse through other people’s facebook pages or read articles about things that don’t matter, and which we won’t even recall later or which won’t benefit us, in fact it will give us more anxiety. It is improbable they can bring any positive change in our life. For now even doctors say that multimedia mobile phone, because of their excessive use, have become health hazard. In fact it will only goad us to debilitate our health and thereafter spoil our life.

All I want to say that all our problems are self created, we can make our life beautiful the moment we are able to control our monkey mind from wandering and bring it in the present moment.

This reminds me of a Zen Tea ritual: CHADO.

Many people drink tea like you and me. Some also drink coffee, or may be alcohol. When we eat of drink, though, we usually just gulp the food or drink down. When we drink our tea, we may start responding to a message, speaking over the phone or watching TV – or may be even reading a book, which is a far lesser crime against mindfulness than others. The Zen tea ritual is practiced in almost all the Zen monasteries all across the world. The idea is that you drink your tea mindfully, preparing it with hoy and serenity, taking in the aroma, the taste and then savouring it, sip by sip. You drink so deliberately and so naturally that you experience the tea touching your tongue and then your palate, then going down your esophagus and into your belly. I believe all of us might have felt such sensation at some point. Basically the Zen tea ritual begins with gratitude, to express how deeply thankful I am, that I have the opportunity to sit in a peaceful place and have a cup of tea. The more you drink it mindfully, the more you can be in the present moment. Take your time When you enjoy the each passing moment, you enjoy life more, and you are infused with it.

If you have taken out time to read this blog then I urge you to also take out time to drink a cup of tea or a coffee whatever you like in the same manner. And gradually spend good time in the awareness of the present moment with every meal you have. This will bring a drastic change in your life. Just try doing this for few days or may be a week, there is no harm, no side effect doing this. If you don’t enjoy doing it, you can quit any time but start from somewhere at least before its too late.

Hope you like reading the blog “No Worries, No trouble”, if yes, then please share it with someone who needs it the most, may be it can make a difference in someone’s life.

Be Happy ☺