Be Present
Last few months, I was just restless. I was restless because
there was nothing significant to be restless about. Most of my life I had been
busy proving to the world; then I was busy proving to myself. Now, I hit a zone
where I felt I had no reason to keep trying to prove. Our mind is so attuned to
constant action or constant flow of agitation that it is not accustomed to
having less to worry over. When we are busy with some significant project we
feel useful and recognized. A new dilemma appeared for me having progressed to
making the mind less dependent from external stimuli. What next?
After many months of agitation, I accepted that I didn’t
know what was the cause for agitation and just parked the thought aside. The
fact that I stopped worrying and looking for an answer, was the best thing that
I did. Recently, the answer just showed up -- ‘Let Be’. I had to learn to live
life in the present, be in the present and enjoy the moment, learn to love life
holistically and just ‘be happy’.
We may know that happiness is a state of mind but to
discover the ability to shift the state of mind with speed and actually see it
become real is something else. Recently, I made a commitment to tell myself
every morning to be happy. Having simply enforced that thought into the mind
has been of amazing consequence. Interestingly, whenever I digress from this
feeling or thinking and fall into the trap of sympathy, anger, righteousness or
such, I am finding that the power of mind kicks in to remind me that I have
made a commitment to be happy.
To love and enjoy life, we have to be grateful for life
rather than take it for granted. The insatiable wanting for more and more
normally occupies the mind with complaints, fears, sense of struggle and
hardship that there is limited or no space for gratitude. Although we may have
abundance, the mind habitually keeps yearning to possess, to win, to succeed….
and fill gaps. We are conditioned with the anxiety to be relevant, to be
recognized and worry so that life feels useful. We worry because we feel comfortable
having something to worry about. Then, ironically, we complain that life is
full of worries.
I believe we fear that if we feel
grateful, we will stop working, stop being ambitious, stop elevating ourselves.
Laziness emanates from a sense of incompleteness and lack of gratitude. Loving
our life and seeing this life as a divine gift, would impose a responsibility
to value our life and thereby value every element of our life – our thoughts,
our body, our work and our relationships. Thoughts do creep in time and again that disrupt this
state of mind. It requires constant practice and reminder to keep recreating
the thought of happiness.
“When you are grateful, fear disappears and abundance
appears.” Anthony Robbins
