The Theatre of the Mind

Today is my day to recharge myself. It has been a very tiring week, juggling various tasks, personal and professional. But I'm grateful for the opportunity to be able to do so. 

I know it is difficult to make yourself feel 'grateful' when you are hit with very stressful situations that challenge you mentally and physically. Over the years, I've learned the art of defusing stress by looking at the larger picture: no situation is as acute as it feels to be. In the larger scheme of things they are likely to be insignificant and even petty.

People who are perfectionists are naturally more susceptible to stress because they see flaws in every tiny detail; they always see potential difficulties and attempt to prevent them now.  They are seen as good workers because of that but they often end up being assigned with too much work, because the boss thinks they are reliable.

I always feel that meditation is a good therapy for people who are stressed. When one meditates, one introspects one's own thoughts. You see thoughts as arising in the space of the mind and not as how you are feeling now. If you observe carefully, a feeling is nothing but a certain on-rush of chemicals in the body which induce changes to blood pressure and heart rate. That's all you are experiencing. The rest is just drama.

Firstly, every drama in your head consists of atomic thoughts. Every thought has a beginning, middle and end. More often than not you only become aware of a thought when it is already in its middle peak state. And then you dwell upon it, fuelling it further, causing it to spawn even more thoughts and emotions (which are bodily reactions to thoughts).  A stressed mind is one where there's such a cascade of thoughts, overwhelming the body and mind.

When you learn to meditate, you see these stages of a thought more clearly and are able to detect the arising of one. And when one does arise, you do not suppress it, you simply allow it fade away naturally. 

You see, thoughts only grow to fruition when you cling to them. If you simply notice a thought and treat it as not having any further importance, it fades away quickly. Thoughts are full of themselves; they think they are important. Ignore them and they'll leave the stage, as if embarrassed. After a while, every thought will only take a small peek into your mind and leave as if they know that they are not getting any attention. That's how you empty your minds of unnecessary thoughts.

You often can't control which thoughts show up in your mind. They enter the stage, craving for attention. But you are the manager of this theatre of the mind. You determine where to shine the spotlight. There's always an object of meditation--the breath, bodily sensations, an image of a deity or a mantra. Just shine it there and the rest will take care of itself.