शमथ। Samatha

As you wake up every morning, you wake up with a new thought. Observe that thought. It can tell you a lot about how your day is going to be. Most of the time they are scattered thoughts without any logical flow. But your mind idly plays with them unless somebody or something breaks the flow. These thoughts could be as silly as ‘let today be a holiday’. But you feel it quite normal to be idling away time with such thoughts despite having woken up from a long sleep.

Mobile phone messages, games, etc are present-day equivalents of idle thoughts taking up your space in the morning. People assume that these distractions magically make time come to a standstill while they can keep on playing games. Time moves irrespective of what you think. And suddenly you are in a rude shock. You find yourself short of time. What could have been done at a relaxed pace suddenly becomes causes of unnecessary stress. This could have easily been avoided if you did not let your mind wander aimlessly first thing in the morning. Nobody knows this today. Everyone thinks that stress comes from outside. But stress begins when you disregard your time. This leads to a chain of events throughout the day where you are always short of time. This means you are unable to make yourself available fully to what matters irrespective of being physically present somewhere. Distractions are space robbers. They carry you away without you noticing it. Others can see it, but you think it feels good to be carried away.

Distractions have become a sort of refuge for many people where they spend majority of their waking hours. They do not want to leave that place. They get irritated by the slightest reminders that something of value is waiting. They become master procrastinators. This is not done consciously. But this has to be stopped without any further delay, otherwise life will be slipping from below your feet.

Feel Blessed
Swastham Shantam Sampurnam