Calmness or Activity ?

 

I had a soft banter at work a few weeks ago! Is calmness important or activity important ? 

My nature is to lean towards a more laidback approach when given a choice, but for the joy of wordplay, and the arguable habit of mildly annoying another (anyone with siblings will understand) with good intent though, I said activity.

On a more serious note, both are important. One complements the other. Being able to stay calm is a superpower. If you are spending energy on an activity, but restless in the mind, you will not be efficient. 

In fact most people do not even know how restless they actually are. One of my teachers told me, "you will know how restless you are when you start meditating." I did not believe at the time, but he was so right! I could not sit for more than 2 minutes! It took me almost a year to have some level of confidence to say I can sit in silence for 10 minutes. (And honestly, 10 minutes of deep silence has more benefits than what I expected)

You can see for yourself with a small exercise, find a silent spot (no music or TV in background), alone, if possible close your eyes, and take a snapshot of your thoughts, even just for one minute. I could not believe how many different things I was thinking about.   

On the contrary, a calm mind does not have too many other thoughts other than the current activity needs. That obviously increases the focus, improves attention and thereby makes the person efficient. 

On the other hand, a person with a calm mind that spends time on the countless distractions instead of relevant creativity and duty towards their job and responsibilities, will be materially poor and feel like a jaded diamond within! That is not desirable too!.  

So, calmness in necessary activity should be our aim! :) 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Week

Image
Mysterious forces have helped me in dealing with my journey over the last few months.  Each day of the week had something to offer. As soon as I came out of the airport, tempted by India's food, I went to get tea. The airport rate was Rs 200, I bought two of them (one for the driver). On my way to the pick-up point, an elderly person in the elevator observed my trolley and said in typical Bangalore uncle accent - " Oh!, you have coffee also aa!" - quite different from any US airport where it seems like people are trained to be in a hurry.  Day 1: After the usual bits of unpacking, my cousins came over to my place. It started raining, we were confined to my room. Imagine, what three minds without any immediate work can do!, we created artwork - scary doctor artwork :)  - the most unusual one yet. Day 2: I was at very serious risk of dozing off at 11:00 am, when suddenly, I got an invite to attend my school librarian's retirement function. Of-course, it was not arbitrar...
Read more

The Journey in an old city

  Some say its the journey that matters, some say that the only points of importance are the start and the end. Is one approach better than the other ? The easy answer is "it depends", and arguably one that is true. You cannot always apply absolute frameworks to a relative world.  Personally, I do like the results, but enjoy the journey more! Many times a literal journey teaches you a lot, allows for an impromptu experience that is fun and in a strange way, satisfies us. Our heart works so hard during normal living that even temporary satisfaction of a few moments is big!  One such experience was on a trip to Udaipur. My sister and my mother loved the folk related experiences the place had to offer. They had booked tickets to a 7 pm folk dance show, and I decided to tag along. The place was a couple km away from our airbnb and google maps showed about a 25-30 minute walk. With plenty of time to spare, we started out. One peculiarity about the old city parts of Udaipur is ...
Read more

Overcoming Negativity using the powers of the mind

To get to the symbol of positive, we must cross the negative. To concentrate on a thing, we must remove our attention from other things and place it on the point of interest. There are two steps to achieving something, removal of the unwanted and addition of the needed. Sometimes it is impossible to physically disassociate from a situation. What to do then ?  Using the powers of the mind is one solution. There are three positive attributes of the mind - will, thought and feeling. These when utilized according to our temperament can cauterize every negative vibe that comes towards us. Cause: The negative vibes can be caused by either our own thinking or a circumstance where we find ourselves being criticized by someone. If it is caused by our own thinking, and we are aware of it, we ought to take action to fix it. Every effort for the same is valuable. It can cast us down if it is due to someone else criticizing us unreasonably. In this case, it is useful to understand a psychologic...
Read more