So, the lockdown has got extended in India. For 3 more weeks. When I heard this, I was frustrated, annoyed. I thought I had reasons to.
You know such important work I do, that too from office.
You know such important places I need to go, the cinema halls and the pubs.
I had my reasons to get frustrated and annoyed. How I couldn’t do anything about it, irritated me all the more. I’m that important, you know! (Read: sarcasm)
Well, like I told you earlier when I’m in such a mood, I go back to finding a good book or some solitude. Thankfully I could find both. I picked a book called Meditations written by one the greatest emperors Marcus Aurelius. It was essentially his everyday journal which was written 2000 years ago.
He believed in Stoicism. Which I’m trying to embrace in some sense. He beautifully captures, “You have power over your mind, not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength.”
We all have heard and used such clichés about the power of mind and we are what our thoughts are etc. but I thought how easily I forgot about it when faced with a crisis. This was the time to believe in it, test it.
I have made peace with what is happening outside. I’m working on the stuff I wrote to my future self. It is a slow process. It is gradual. Self-improvement.
It is funny how we overestimate what we can achieve in 1 year but underestimate what we can in 10 years. The power of daily improvements.
This fundamentally starts with the quality of our thoughts and knowing that irrespective of what happens around us, we grow and evolve based on what happens within us.
And in times like these, our mind is the one thing we can have total control over. It’s not easy with the number of distractions, negative and sensational media stories we have to deal with today.
However, there is great power in the realization that in the end, we control what we think.
Not our parents, not our friends, not the media companies trying to get us to buy or believe in things that we don’t need….. No. Only us.
Remember:
Our life is a manifestation of our thoughts and imaginations. Yet, we use it so irresponsibly. Don’t.
If you think you can or you can’t. You are right.
You win or lose first in your mind, and then on the field.
Tell yourself the things you’d want to hear. Imagine only things you’d want in life.
Believe in the power of attracting what you think.
It works, and even if it doesn’t, at least you’d have thought good things.
