Learn to relax!
When you live life in a rush, you are like a runaway train, which is moving heedlessly on its tracks. The difference between the runaway train of life and our passenger trains is that the latter knows its destinations and stops at scheduled stations, whereas most of us simply don’t know where we are headed!
Granted, we have to earn our livelihood; we have to work, in order to live. But we must also be aware that life is larger than livelihood!
Man’s way of life in the modern age is often compared to a race and a rat race, at that! We are not supposed to rush through life, wise men tell us; every moment of life must be LIVED savored to the fullest. Living life as a race only leads to stress and a constant feeling of low energy and exhaustion!
I am shocked and saddened to hear people in their thirties and forties exclaiming, “I am exhausted!” And these are not manual workers but sedentary administrators who work at their desks and on cell phones and laptops! This mental exhaustion is largely due to stress. Somehow modern life and stress seem to go together. The way we live, the way we work, the way we talk, the way we function every day, contribute to the constant building up of stress. People rush about all the time, as though they were carrying the entire burden of the world upon their shoulders. People rush about, accumulating what they think they need-only to realise that they don’t need it at all. They resemble squirrels in a cage-running, running all the time but getting nowhere.
We seem to be in a hurry all the time! It is not only when we are on our feet that we are hurrying; when we are seated, at rest, our minds are rushing somewhere or the other. We may be waiting in an outer office, waiting for an appointment with a doctor, waiting for an interview call but we are hurrying, rushing in our thoughts. This mental rush, this mental hurry is one of the main causes of tension. Day in and day out we work, we rush through life like automatic machines. In this process, we lose our energy-mental, physical, as well as spiritual. You may well ask me: work done well energizes us; how can we lose energy by doing work?
Today, even the simplest work has become a source of stress; even routine tasks like commuting to work, dropping children at school, paying bills and taxes, shopping for groceries, dealing with clients, entertaining unexpected visitors, all of these activities, once considered relaxing, have become stressful now! When you live life in a rush, you are like a runaway train, which is moving heedlessly on its tracks. The difference between the runaway train of life and our passenger trains is that the latter knows its destinations and stops at scheduled stations, whereas most of us simply don’t know where we are headed!
Granted, we have to earn our livelihood; we have to work, in order to live. But we must also be aware that life is larger than livelihood! We work to live; we earn money to live comfortably; we don’t live to earn money! Do only one thing at a time. Doing more than one thing at a time divides your attention, increases your stress. When you are talking to someone, give him your full attention. It may be just a little matter but it saves you from considerable stress. Give your best to what you are doing. Let all your energy and attention be focused on the task at hand. When the mind is one-pointed it is capable of concentration and is free from tension.
Our lives need to be renewed, if possible, daily through contact with God. The rain of God’s mercy pours every day and those of us who receive it are washed clean, renewed and re-energized to face the struggle of life, as servants of God. May I suggest you a simple exercise? Every morning, as you awaken, close your eyes and imagine the Life of God coursing through every part of your body filling it through and through. The Life of God is in us already: we have to be conscious of it. Say to yourself: Every moment, the Life of God-call him what Name you will, Krishna, Buddha, Christ, Guru Nanak: they are all so many names of Him who is Nameless-every moment, the Life of God is filling every nerve and cell and fiber of my being! Joy and peace and harmony are our natural states of being. God has blessed us with abundant spiritual energy to live our lives to the fullest! Let us continue to reflect on making the most of this precious creative energy!