I, Me, Myself

I, Me and myself
What do you think about or who do you think about all day. If you are young, you are likely to think about your school, your grades, how good or bad are your teachers, friends or parents. If you are older and working, you may think about your boss, your job, your promotion, pay package and maybe your marriage.

How often do you think about anything other than yourself or the inner circle that is impacting you? How often do you think about the poor beggar on the street who may not have got his next meal or that orphan child who didn’t get a hug?

Did you know that your survival is practically guaranteed because you are that one in a million sperm that is living? Is there really need to worry about surviving? No, yet we live our life worrying will I survive the next circumstance. Did you pause and ask yourself, when did I live my life and actually cherish every moment and enjoy little aspects of life?

As a student, I can’t recall a day when my prayers were not directed towards my school grades or that I wish my parents listened to me or that I could have more fun. Rarely, did I issue a prayer in service of anyone else. As I grew up the prayers changed from school to university and then work life, but they were mostly directed towards my success. Moving on, the prayers changed to finding a good life partner and then having healthy children. How selfish and limited was my thinking! No wonder there was limited contentment in my life.

Even though I grew up in India, a land of paradox and a society that offers the opportunity to actually look at every duality of life – wealth-poverty, villas-homeless, loved-orphaned, physically able-handicapped etc. Life’s realities stare into your face at every junction of life, yet you ignorantly move on in a bubble world of your own. Your mind obsessively revolves around thoughts such as your need for love, your need for freedom, your need for success, your need for money, your need for power. All thoughts surround around I, Me and Myself. How can you be happy when all you are thinking about is you? You are actually drowning in your self created sea of emotions.

If I allow my mind to indulge in thoughts about my own emotions, I will fall into a crevasse. I will go deeper and deeper into feeling bad, sad and mad. Only if I am able to discipline my mind into thinking something other than my fears, my ego or my needs, chances are I may be able to listen to what’s going on outside of me and which is more relevant because ultimately it’s the outside world that is going to impact my life.

Oscar Wilde said, “A man who is the master of himself can end a sorrow as easily as he can invent a pleasure. I don’t want to be at the mercy of my emotions. I want to use them, to enjoy them and to dominate them.”