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Observe your mind. It is constantly whispering so many things to you.
Suppose you are going for an interview. Take a few moments to observe your mind. Will I reach on time? What if I forget everything? What if I sound dumb to the interviewer? Or maybe, the complete opposite. I will ace my interview. I should do this. I should not do that.
and so on ad infinitum.
If you take a pause and just observe what the mind wants to convey it might look like a blizzard. A mass flurry of randomness that seems incomprehensible and meaningless. Yet somewhere, trapped in this randomness there is useful, purposeful, valuable insight. Insight that can make the difference between success and failure. Insight unfortunately lost to us because we cannot harness this flux of thoughts, we cannot channel this mental energy towards the purpose we have chosen.
This is bizarre. Its our mind! We are born with a powerful and unique instrument, and yet we are restless, not in control. Why does this happen, and is there a better way to be?
Again, observe.
One thing stands clear that our mind is never in the present moment. It is always simulating doubts, fantasies, plans, future events, past regrets. Playing, replaying, recalculating loops of events that happened in the past or could happen in the future.
Ah, the loops.
These loops are the favourite toys of this child. No sense just a loop game. No rest always energetic. It draws on your physical, emotional energy and wants to play more and more of its loop game.
What is happening to “you” meanwhile, the parent of this genius, hyper child? You enjoy with it for a while, you marvel at its prowess, you are surprised by its ingenuity, your are even proud as parent should be…..and then after a while you are exhausted and want to rest!
But there is no escape. The mind-child has its own zones. Now it is sad, now it is excited, now it wants pleasure, now it wants fun, there is happiness. It carries all flavours with it. You are always attracted to it and why not when it has so much to offer. It is like a constant live stream on WhatsApp or Instagram. Pictures, flavors, colors, emotions. You start listening to it, pampering it, cuddling it, enjoying its company. You are getting everything here!
Everything, except your peace of mind.
One day you realise that you have given too much to it. You have enjoyed enough, had enough of pleasure, listened to it a lot. But, It won’t listen to you anymore. When you ask it to be prepared for the interview, to focus, it responds with even more craziness. more tantrums. When you ask it to consider a relationship, it drains your energy instead of energising you. You have lost control!
So, now what?
Would you always want to be a victim? Or you want to take control of your life. It is a beautiful feeling when the car steering is in your hand and you know how to drive the car. You want to take the steering from your child's hand and want to follow your own route. The child will be reluctant. For so many years you have given it the liberty to drive although you met with so many accidents. Now this child is not easy to be tamed. You make effort. You start observing your child. The child is throwing tantrums. You are not reacting just observing it. You ignore most of its tantrums. Every parent knows this is the only way out.
Then it happens, slowly but magically. You can feel it.
The child starts becoming quiet. Its not getting any attention from you. You are not reacting to it. You have stopped fulfilling every demand. The child is silent now, realising you make decisions. He is sitting in the seat next to you with seat belt properly fastened. Now he is calm and you are peaceful too. There is a feeling of accomplishment in you. You are the master and now you know where to go. Your child is enjoying his journey with you, and enriching it with its creative genius. You are unstoppable.
Yoga chitta vritti nirodha…..patanjali yoga sutra
Yes yoga helps in settling the modulations of the mind