Mind Your Thoughts

A story told by Sigmund Freud :

It happened once in a big hotel that a man came to stay. The manager was a little hesitant in giving him a room although there was an empty room. The man said, "Why are you hesitating so much?"

The man said, "The reason is, just below that room there is a politician staying, a very famous man and very powerful, a big gun. And he is annoyed by small things, so we have kept the room above him empty for three days since he has been here -- because if anybody walks some noise is created, if you move something some noise is created, and he becomes so irritated and so angry that he creates much fuss about it."

The stranger said, "Don't be worried! I will be very careful. Moreover, I am going to stay only overnight. I will be coming near about twelve in the night because I have much work to do in the town, and I will be leaving early in the morning, five o'clock. There is not much possibility that between twelve and five I will do anything which will irritate the great man. At the most I will be asleep and dreaming, and I don't think my dreams will disturb him."

The manager was convinced: "If he is going to stay just for five hours there is no problem." He was allowed.

At twelve the man reached his room exhausted: the whole day's work, a thousand and one things clamoring in his head. He had completely forgotten the politician. He entered his room. He was so tired. He sat on his bed, took off one of his shoes and threw it in the corner of the room. Then suddenly the noise of the shoe reminded him that maybe the politician, the great leader, would get disturbed, may be awakened. So the other shoe he put down very silently.

After one hour the politician knocked on his door. He came out of his sleep, opened the door and said, "Have I done anything? -- because for one hour I have been asleep."

The politician was red with anger. He said; "Yes! Where is the other shoe? I cannot manage to sleep. That other shoe goes on hanging, a continuous question in my mind -- where has the other shoe gone? Is this man sleeping with one shoe on? One I know you have thrown, but what happened to the other one? I have tried in every possible way to get rid of the idea -- that this is not my concern. How am I concerned with his shoe? But the more I have tried to get rid of the idea the more I have become possessed by it. Now there is only one possible way to go to sleep: to come and wake you and ask you what happened. Unless I know I cannot sleep."

It is very difficult even to get rid of an absurd thought, utterly meaningless to you, of no purpose, something which is just accidental, none of your business. But still it can pursue you, it can haunt you, it can torture you. It can become such a powerful thing that it can drive you mad. So mind your Thoughts.

Enjoy other interesting Stories HERE!

How to Control Anger?

Anger! An emotion everyone experiences very often and are afraid of. The fear is not about anger itself but what we do when it envelopes us. It's like a storm which consumes us and makes us do things which we would not have done under normal circumstances. It makes us loose control on ourselves, we loose the sense of discretion and logical thinking, and finally it leaves a lot of damage behind which makes us regret our actions and carry the regret for rest of our lives.

Now to tackle this beast we need to understand it better. I am jotting down my understanding of Anger, lets see if it makes things clear about Anger.

1. Anger is a form of energy which wants to come out of our system

Like Joy, Happiness, Sorrow and Fear, Anger is an emotional energy which wants to be released and expressed by our system. Some people express it by throwing things and some by withdrawing themselves from the situation. When we are not able to express our energies in a positive and constructive manner, it can result in anger. Which is basically a forceful expression of our energies.

2. Anger depends upon our Internal State of Being, than the external situations

The reasons for getting angry are many and it's simply useless to list them. We can get angry on or because of anything or anybody. For example while driving if some one overtakes us rashly we can get angry and go after him and if the same thing happens when you are in a happy mood, you may just ignore that person. So the happenings because of which we get angry are only triggers, what is more important is in what state we are in at the moment. We have to understand that Anger is dependent on the state in which our mind, body and emotions are and not on external situations. If we can maintain out internal situation in a state of balance and calm, no external situation can cause anger to be generated in us. (Internal situation can be maintained better by understanding the Characteristics of Mind.)

3. Physical effects of Anger

Anger is like a disease which can be monitored by watching out for the symptoms. There are many symptoms for Anger:
Change in breathing pattern, heavy breathing, increase in body temperature, increased thought flow, loss of logical thinking, loss of discretionary thinking, increased hormonal (adrenalin) flow in the stomach and other part of the body etc.,
If we can observe these symptoms we can maintain a distance from anger and control it better.

4. Anger happens when our desires are not fulfilled

The basic trigger of anger are when our desires are not met. All the triggers of anger are just that, our unfulfilled desires, whether it's a desire to cruse smoothly on road, or have a quite undisturbed dinner with a loved one. When someone or something causes these desires to be unfulfilled it triggers the already bubbling volcano of anger inside and it results in we exploding in anger. (you can check out my article on What is a Desire for more information on desire)

If we can understand these characteristics of anger we will be in a better situation to handle it when it comes out and we can also take steps to prevent it from building up to the breaking point in the first place.

The various steps we can take to prevent anger building up and to control it when it comes out are:

1. Delay taking any action when we are angry. It's best sit through the storm of anger than do anything to express it.
2. Watch the show, Don't stop it. The trick is to just let things happen and watch the show. If your breathing is going up - Watch it, if you are getting hot - Watch it, If you are getting a strong urge to throw things around -  Watch it. Keep watching and slowly the anger will loose steam and come to a halt. If we try to stop it, the energy will go back inside the system and will wait for next opportunity to come out.
3.Yoga and Mediation will help in channeling the energy in the system in a proper and will help in preventing the energy build up which will lead to anger bursts. It will help in maintaining our internal situation in a balanced and peaceful state.
4.Physical exercise can help in dissipating the excess energy and can help in preventing anger.

Basically it's about understanding the functioning of anger by watching ourselves intensely in angry situations and keeping ourselves calm and peaceful.

Well my journey of self discovery continues and I will keep updating on other techniques to tackle the beast of anger, till then Stay Calm, Happy and Watch the Beast.

JKS

Experiment with Fasting

I had this desire to know what fasting does for a long time and always wanted to try it. Whenever I expressed my intention to fast, I always got warning and cautions like my body will become weak or I will have gastric problems  or I will not be able make it. This went on for a long time almost two years.

One fine day Sadhguru (also know as Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudhev, the founder of Isha Foundation, visit www.ishafoudation.org to know more) announced the Shivanga program (check this link for details http://blog.ishafoundation.org/inside-isha/announcements/shivanga-sadhana/). I being a follower and consistent practitioner of Isha Yoga was excited and wanted to know further details. There were a lot of processes which where supposed to be done by the Shivanga participants and one important part of it was fasting for the entire period of 42 days of the program. I didn't have the courage to go the full way and participate in the Shivanga program in it's entirety. But I got an excuse and reason to finally get my wish of fasting fulfilled.

My better half was convinced and the decision to fast for 42 days was taken.

The fasting was done in a particular way. The instructions to be followed were

1. Smoking, alcohol and non-vegetarian food was to be avoided during the period. (I being a non smoker and non alcoholic all I had to give up was spicy non veg delicacies )
2. Soak 8 to 12 peppercorns overnight with 2 tablespoons of honey, mix with lemon juice and water in the morning, and drink on an empty stomach.
3. Only two meals a day was to be had. No food was to be taken before noon. If hungry, the pepper-honey-lemon juice can be drunk once again.
4. Taking head bath daily.

Apart from the above instructions  I decided to have only fresh raw vegetables and fruits for my lunch and Rotis for dinner.

The initial couple of days were un-eventful. My body was getting used to the new routine and emptiness in my stomach. Hunger used to arrive right on time of my usual stomach filling periods of the day. But the hunger was not very intense, it was like a reminder to have my filling. After some days (around a week later) the hunger reminders were becoming weaker, as if it didn't had any purpose, it was just following it's old routine as it was doing for whole my life.

One thing that fasting did was to increase my my sniff dog abilities dramatically. I could smell food from a mile away :-). Where I was the smells of food was enveloping me. The places where I went through everyday without much of a thought were transformed. The scents made notice all the small food joints in those places which went unnoticed by me till now. I could just tell what was cooking just by passing by the homes and restaurants. Food was always on my mind.

It was difficult to curb the urges and move on, but luckily I did move on. After 3 weeks the obsession with food subsided and the routine fasting went smoothly. Not much restraint was required from this point on-wards. 

My body felt lighter day by day. It was easier to move it in, easier to put it in different postures, easier to stretch. It complained less while I was doing my Suryanamskaras and it really felt good. One side effect of this whole process which I am proud and delighted with was I lost 7 Kilos of my weight and my waist size reduced by an awesome 2 inches. My trouser which used to feel like Chinese torture on the waist, started to feel more like Goa beach holidays.

There was strange phenomenon which happened in the last week of my fasting period. When I thought the worst was over and it would be a breeze to go through the final week, things changed. The obsession with food came back, the heightened sense of smell returned and hunger remainders became more intense. What was supposed to be a walk in the park became a torturous crawl to the finish.

Now I realize that it was because of the expectations from me on all the things I would enjoy after I finish with my fasting. I started to fantasize about all the different delicacies which I would indulge in. I started to plan my completion party before the final bell rang. These expectations and desires started to wreck havoc and the final week miserable. My body and mind was craving only for one thing - FOOD.

But luckily I persevered and completed the journey successfully. It felt great to do it completely, sincerely and  intensely.

I learnt a lot on how fickle my mind is and how strongly it has become programmed. I realized that my mind either lives in the past or in the future, it never stays in the present. It either follows the things which it has been doing so far or it looks up and start working on the future expectations. It just cannot stay in the present moment and do what has to be done now at this moment.

I learnt how much my body gets effected by the food we eat. I always thought that fasting will reduce my energy levels but in reality the contrary happened. I was more lively and energetic throughout this period than most of my life. I learnt that more food doesn't always means more energy, if food is taken in moderation it produces more energy and drives away the lethargy in the system. Two meals a day is more than enough to sustain my day to day and activities and even more.

Overall these 42 days where a great learning experience and proud achievement with some awesome side effects.

So will I do it next year, ABSOLUTELY without a doubt.