Remaining Calm Amid Storms

Indians usually are quite infamous across the globe due to them communicating in a high pitched voice, and with others having to constantly remind them to keep it low. Though, I’d have to admit that most of them aren’t really aware of their pitch. Neither did I, and when I heard my colleagues from Singapore speak, only then I realised that I speak quite loudly as compared to them. 

I’d also like to highlight that I’ve no intention to sound rude or arrogant, but am really unsure of the source of this immaculately higher pitch of mine. Now, in my previous blogs, I mentioned my increased interest in spirituality and religion these days, and I’ve noticed that every religion says that one has to speak low, speak less, and speak sweetly…

My colleagues describe me to be a sweet person, and this has come from more than one source, so I have valid reasons to believe so, and thus I’d conclude that I’d have to work diligently towards speaking less and low. Okay, that said, let me get straight to the topic of my blog that talks about remaining calm amid a storm. Now, should I say that it’s easier said than done? 

A lot of us would say yes, and rightly so. I’d say this specifically as these are testing times, and almost nobody is in the correct state of mind, with the pandemic literally turning our lives topsy turvy. But, when we do come to think of it, we realise that perhaps we could manage things better on a calmer mind. I heard somewhere that talking results in a lot of our energy being used up, and after talking for a long time, we hardly have the energy preserved for pursuing anything else. 

Also, this calmness that I am mentioning about, does not have to be a forced attempt, it must come naturally, and gradually to be able to reach such a state where anger and panic becomes an effort, and we can deal with all our problems at ease and not be deterred by it, even by a bit. 

How do we achieve such a state? Or is that even achievable? Well, in my experience I’d say it’s a yes. I’ll tell you why. Over the days, I’ve been reading about Lord Buddha’s concept of two arrows - one that the world throws at you, and the other one is where and how you react to those problems. It’s a fact that we can’t do much about the external arrow that the world throws at us, but how we react to it is entirely dependent on us. 

We can choose to be angry and preserve our resentments, or we can think about the entire matter in a calm mind, address our problems, take care of them and in fact reduce the sorrows of other people too, by lending our shoulders this time, instead of craving one!  

Image courtesy: Max van den Oetelaar on Unsplash