Focus
not on letting go of things – focus on taking hold of your thoughts
- The Bhagavad Gita
“Some
of us think holding on makes us strong, but sometimes it is letting go.”
– Hermann Hesse
“When
one door closes, another opens; but we often look so long and so regretfully
upon the closed door that we do not see the one which has opened for us.”
– Alexander Graham Bell
“Your
past does not equal your future.”
– Anthony Robbins
“We
must be willing to let go of the life we’ve planned, so as to have the life
that is waiting for us.”
– Joseph Campbell
There is an analogy in Test cricket
– on a seaming wicket with overcast conditions and a new ball to boot, for the
opening batsmen to lay a stron foundation for the team’s score, they have to
primarily do one thing – stay there. Leave as many balls as possible, defend or
whatever, but not try anything foolhardy as the new ball, the seaming wicket
and the weather conditions make it difficult for strokeplay. But if you show
some patience, you will be able to learn how the wicket behaves, see the shine
of the new ball and then play your shots.
Which is why Test cricket is a
test of character and patience is one of those that you have to exhibit. So,
you let go of many balls as possible as they may contain a potential landmine.
Life’s like that. At times, when
you are stuck with things, the only answer to them seems to be time. There is a
colleague of mine, who, when confronted with situations, keeps telling me, “just
leave it; time will take care of it.” This is an approach that he has been
following for many of life’s challenges – personal or professional. He tells me
that the best answers to the problems or situations, to mildly put them, lies in
being able to just stay there and weather the storm.
But is it so easy? Or is it
difficult? Yes, a mixture of both. The key in letting things go is that they
help in presenting different phases of life to you. Many a time, these worries are
things that you can never do much about. They only end up spoiling your current
phase of life, which can never be regained. I, like everyone else, wish I had
answers to a lot of situations that life throws at me, but I don’t. None of us
has. The worries are the negative things that end up one overthinking and
leading oneself to depression. I am not saying one should be impervious to
situations and thought – I wish it was so easy – but one needs to force oneself
to tide it over and not focus. It is not easy, particularly if you are alone,
but it certainly not impossible. And there is no other way to come out of this.
Emotional reactions to situations
you cannot do anything about result in an impact on physical health. You never
know - some time from now, the thing that you were giving so much importance
to, may not be even relevant at all then! A favourite quote of mine – Life is
what happens when you are busy planning things.
People, things, situations come
and go in our life. People, are like chapters in a book called life – there is
always another chapter waiting to be read. So once you end one, there is
another waiting. So are situations. So the key to seemingly unsolvable situations
is try to ignore them – they end by themselves. I have seen in life that
situations which seemed so giant and unsolvable have gone past that I may don’t
even remember some of them.
Let of the ‘why me?’
thought process. On a plane, you are always better than most people in this
world – on many counts. No one has a bed of roses in life, they make it seem
so. Which means they have mastered the art of letting it go. Yes they have. It’s
time we all learnt that.
Once you learn to appreciate what
you have and concentrate on things that make you happy, you will learn the art
of letting these seemingly painful situations go; you can actually see them
dissipate that at one point of time you will start ignoring them.
There is one thing I keep telling
myself – bad things happen so that great things result. If the bad things did
not happen, then I may not be able to appreciate the great things in my life.
Everything happens for a reason. I just love this oft used line – ‘Life is
all about timing’. Count your blessings. If something in your life is going
to change, it will happen when you don’t expect it; maybe even so naturally
that you don’t realize it happening - when the timing is just right. You need
to be ready for it. And things will happen at that time. It is just that you
have to tide the ‘bad’ days like the opening Test batsmen tide those bad overs.
