In some situations in Life you may just not know what to do.
Anxiety may then feed on your helplessness. You know that feeling anxious is
not a solution __ but you go on fretting, fuming, worrying, fearing, because
you don’t have a concrete action plan, a set of certified things you can and
must do. This can be both habit-forming and will cripple you. You are robbed of
your inner peace and, over time, you become a complete wreck.
Several of us have ended up living Life like zombies – just going
about things, wearily, while being held hostage by your own anxieties. It all
began at some time with not knowing what to do. And it continues to be so, not
knowing how to live and what to do about getting rid of our own anxieties!
There’s a way out. That way has always been there for you,
in front of you, but you have not seen it because you have been preoccupied.
Finding that way and getting on that path requires a simple appreciation and
understanding of how Life operates. And how our human mind works.
First, know that there is no guarantee or requirement that
every Life problem must be solved by you. So, accept that it is just perfectly
fine, ever so very often, to not know what to do. Second, understand that your anxiety
is always about non-existent stuff. You may be anxious about the past – having done
something that you regret. But the past is over. It is done and dead. So what’s
so intelligent about grieving the past and being anxious about it? Or you may
be anxious about the future – which has not happened, so, in effect, it too is
non-existent! What’s so intelligent again about worrying of a future that is
unborn. But the human mind thrives on anxiety. It loves the past. It adores the
future. And so it’s simply ecstatic to stay anxious. And you if you want to get
over your anxieties, you need to break that mind pattern of yours. You need to
bring your mind to focus on the present. It is only in the present that the
mind becomes powerless. It is only when you are living in the present moment that
you will be free of all anxiety and you will find inner peace.
Bringing your mind to focus on the present and for you to
gain mastery over your mind requires no rocket science. Osho, the Master, often
told a Zen story to teach how ingenious some solutions to this universal problem
can be:
Bokuju, a Zen Master lived alone in a cave. He would
sometimes say loudly, “Bokuju” — his own name, and then he would answer, “Yes,
I am here.” His disciples used to ask him, “Why are you calling ‘Bokuju’, your
own name, and then saying, ‘Yes sir, I am here’?” Bokuju said, “Whenever I get
into anxious thinking, I have to remember to be alert, and so I call my own
name, ‘Bokuju.’ The moment I call ‘Bokuju’ and I say, ‘Yes sir, I am here,’ the
anxious thinking disappears.”
Asking this question to yourself, calling out your own name,
works. Because it breaks the circuit, it interrupts the anxious train of
thoughts that are speeding through your mind’s highway. I have devised a simple
variation of the same concept. I often say, “AVIS, Steady! Steady!” Or I repeat a simple mantram (this is what I learned from my guru Eknath Easwaran) or an
easy-to-recall inspirational quote. Those approaches too work. As will yours.
So, use whatever helps you as a circuit breaker. Once the
debilitating chain of thoughts is broken, your mind momentarily, arrives in the
moment. Just hold it there and you will be free of all anxiety. To stay free
forever, all you need to do is to practice to keep your mind focused
perpetually on the present! Try this. And feel the difference!
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