Stop! Right Now!

kode (42)in #life • 6 years ago

"Trust the wait. Embrace the uncertainty. Enjoy the beauty of becoming. When nothing is certain, anything is possible" - Mandy Hale

We are growing individually everyday! So is our human race and the entire humanity, there is a 'competition' to outgrow each other, that's a beautiful thing in fact but cynicism to all this takes a toll on us most often than not. We are passing through a time which is a fast paced, achievement oriented. When a busy day ends, if any of the ticks are not ticked on the to do list apps, we often fall in that well of mental & physical exhaustion. This fall takes us to weird parts of our mind and makes us think whether we are really moving in the right direction or not? When one goal is met, BAM!! We have another one, and the journey continues till the time we choose to retire.

Zen way of living and it's popularity can be credited to the above scenario that's quite common across all the age groups now a days. The bad part (read commercialization to an extent of distortion of core beliefs) attached to the practice of Zen, people are often misled to things that are not at all related to gaining mental peace and in some extreme cases are totally opposite to what Zen philosophy is. I shall elaborate with an example. One fine day you decide to go Zen and minimalist, you then decided to pay visit to the nearest store to procure the tools such as tea, fans, stones, candles, books, pillows, fountains, chimes, incense sticks, aroma oils, etc. In the first place itself these things are branded to soothe us, but if you look closely you will find that the procurement process take a lot of money and then to earn that money puts the load back on the individual and thus the Zen life goes for a toss.

You can't BUY Zen

In the materialistic world of today we often do the wrong of buying mental peace with a piece of paper. The support of wallet should only be till the extent of providing a secure life and serve the basic needs. There is no upper limit of achievement and buying things, so stretch out till the point you are comfortable. Beyond that it doesn't make any sense. We all are in a rat race trying to reach some point on the road where and when things get easy and make sense, but in reality that's just a mirage, far fetched dream, there is no such place and we never get there. The only place and time is now and here and we must make a good use of it Everything beyond this point is useless fascination. You will never meet a moment in life when everything is sorted out and done, when everything is certain and there is no pain and discomfort. Life is always about improvisation during the journey, there is no certainty. Believe me there is no pattern, everything is just as random as it can be. It's us who make patterns and try to predict things based on our assumption. Lose the fear of uncertainty and you will certainly know peace :) The uncertainty is the best part about our existence, in fact the most beautiful one. Since nothing is certain, at any given day you have all the opportunities to grow, learn, change, experience life, do the things that we always wanted to. There is no dearth of experiences in this world and when nothing is certain you have a buffet in front of you, savor it as much as you can my friend!

Sit back and do nothing for a while

Let go of the competition mindset, you are only competing with yourself, no one else. You have given your best to everything, could have been better but yet again you could have been the president of USA as well if you started early or did all the things right, but that's not how things work. You can plan ahead while enjoying the things that you have done. Don't ever go into that what if zone. It's all available to you at any time. The key to enjoying these things is to learning to stop completely in between. Don't think, don't analyse, don't worry, don't plan, simply don't do a thing for some time. It's easier said than done, that's the reason people spend on buying tools to go Zen rather than sit down and do nothing (meditate). When you achieve this feat of doing nothing, you'll know the gratification and rewards are far far enriching experience than buying that new fancy aroma oil to soothe the senses. You don't need a blueprint or overly complex plan to sit back and relax, all it takes is doing nothing and being no one :)

Pen & Paper is your best friend

Not a requirement but if you may want, put some soothing music. It shall calm down your randomly firing neurons. Try to do this when you haven't eaten or drank anything recently so that body is right frame of requirement rather than make you go sleepy after a wholesome meal ;) Find an uncluttered place with no distraction. Try to have little to no use of technology to help you in not getting distracted. Write down everything on a piece of paper, may it be your current state of mind, plans, things & thoughts that are haunting you, that constant mental chatter, everything that's insider your brain, put it all down on the paper. Let it all come out and become a reality in front of you. Now observe the things you have written. You may want to partition the points you have written in two parts. The things you have control over and things you don't. Completely strike off the things you don't have control over from the paper and just imagine them being burnt off to ashes. Now come to the things that are in your control. Sort them on basis of priority and then plan the execution part of it. Once you are done, with each point on the paper, you shall observe a different kind of euphoria that's far more satisfying than anything else you might have experienced in life.

Always remember the below paragraph!