Right thinking

RAJAN RAJ ACHARYA

When calamity strikes, we react emotionally and give way to self-pity. This then brings haunting fears, which pervade thought and action. It poisons the wellsprings of present joy and future happiness as our outlook paralyses our capabilities, and it also puts off our accomplishments and prohibits excellence and prevents growth.

Change your thinking. T.A Williams says, “To rectify the distortion which fear creates, introspection is absolutely essential.” By thinking right we will find a way out. It is not what befalls that matter, but how we react to it. There are millions of people who have gone under a steamroller of fate. But there are others who, despite repeated blows, have stuck to their guns. They have also mastered the art of rolling with the blows. They stagger, but they do get up and thereby learn from the adversities. They never give up.

Meanwhile, healthy thinking does not kill anyone. It is anxiety, which does and that is all the more reason why healthy thinking is necessary. It is not the movement that destroys the machine, it is the friction, as we know. Why do depressing and anxious thoughts come back again and again?

This is something we should brood over. The reason is that we have locked them into our minds. In the meantime, we also do not purge our memory of the unsavory experiences of the past. The burden of anxiety is,

in fact, skeletons, which tumble out of the memory cupboard at the press of an invisible magic button. If we suffer from the

syndrome, then we should shed the notions that we are the

victims of circumstances. We are the center of our own equilibrium.

Failure to realize it makes us as ineffective and without will as the weathervane, which is swayed by the slightest wind. Tell yourself, “I am not the flotsam and jetsam of ideas. I am the product of my own sculpting.” Look at the lives of those who, despite the heaviest odds and physical handicaps, have achieved success. They have converted regrets into reward. Those who successfully surmount handicaps seize them by the throat. So can we. Moreover, traumatic experiences, failure at work, unsuccessful relationships, insecurities, inferiority complexes, tend to haunt one throughout life, sometimes assuming proportions of a devastating nature. This is indeed very tragic. We find our fingers pulling at our hair. We find ourselves pacing up and down

our room like a caged animal. We are in a foul mood. We are haunted by a vague feeling of impending doom. Such things happen to all of us. Only situations

differ and so does the intensity of the reaction.