This is one post I had written on Aug 5, 2008.. but never published it....I just came across this and am publishing it almost after a year!!!
The title was one of the forwarded sms's that I keep receiving all the time... If I am not mistaken, I had got this message in the wee hours of the morning, thanks to an early bird friend of mine (unlike me!!)..When I looked bleary eyed at the message it struck me how true it was...
The title was one of the forwarded sms's that I keep receiving all the time... If I am not mistaken, I had got this message in the wee hours of the morning, thanks to an early bird friend of mine (unlike me!!)..When I looked bleary eyed at the message it struck me how true it was...
Few days back one person had come to office for a brief session about "Art of living".... she said how stressed out we were...We lack concentration, interest in everything..the negative attitude we have etc etc.....To know about what this art of living is all about there's a workshop next month for a lesser fee than they usually charge... so anybody interested could enroll...
What set me thinking was is 4 days adequate enough to change the way I think... can it make a pessimist an optimist???... I doubt... Never know if I had joined the session "I doubt" might have changed to "I believe"... Never know!!! I never took that opportunity... my loss maybe... maybe its not right for me to comment without going through the course...
I admit nowadays we are truly stressed out... first of all with work.. maybe even after work we are wondering what work is to be done tomorrow...Out of work there are so many things to be done in our personal lives as well.. achieve all the material targets -have to buy a flat, car etc .. maintain a certain standard of living... and our demands go higher and higher...and for that we have to make ourselves work.... so its like a vicious cycle... amidst all this, its nice to take out some time for ourselves and just meditate.... to set our minds at rest.. but I am sure that's quite difficult for me.. coz our mind is supposedly the fastest.. during that time I am sure I will be overworked... with nothing to think about I will think of a thousand things!!!
The girl that day told us to close our eyes and think about anything... we did... then she said "Are you thinking of a monkey on a branch of a tree.. jumping up and down?" Wen we opened our eyes she said "See.. You thought of a monkey coz i told u so".. how silly!! I didn't!!! Truly....Why will I think of a monkey just because she mentioned it?? I was thinking of some happy moments in my life.. how does a monkey come into that?? Just because she mentioned it?? Naaaah!!!
Then she went on saying that say if you are in quite a good mood...a friend of yours is down...you both discuss and at the end of it what happens ? You are both down isn't it?? This is just idea to sell the whole concept maybe...but its lost on me.....Hello.. I will try to make the other person cheerful and ensure at the end of the day we both are happy...
So what I think is "Art of living" is within ourselves...Hurdles, tension, challenges are an integral part of life... Maybe without these life w0uld have been boring...We should not let that bog us down.....we only have to face them with a smiling face...As they say "every cloud has a silver lining" trust me.. it does.... As Charlie Chaplin said-
"Nothing is permanent in this wicked world - not even our troubles."
and
"A day without laughter is a day wasted. Laughter is the tonic, the relief, the surcease for pain".
So what I think is "Art of living" is within ourselves...Hurdles, tension, challenges are an integral part of life... Maybe without these life w0uld have been boring...We should not let that bog us down.....we only have to face them with a smiling face...As they say "every cloud has a silver lining" trust me.. it does.... As Charlie Chaplin said-
"Nothing is permanent in this wicked world - not even our troubles."
and
"A day without laughter is a day wasted. Laughter is the tonic, the relief, the surcease for pain".
