Thursday, October 11, 2012

Experience created from within

To become a calmer, gentler, and less reactive person…

In order to become a calmer, gentler, and less reactive person, it’s essential to understand that your experience of life is created from the inside out – not the other way around, as it so often seems.

Imagine many people stuck in a traffic jam. A vast majority of these people had just finished work. All of them were probably tired. They were in the same traffic jam, delayed for the same amount of time. So, if the traffic were actually responsible for our negative reactions, then it would logically follow that the traffic would affect everyone in the same way. It doesn’t.

This experiment shows us that our experience of life does, in fact, come from our own thinking and perception. If you carefully consider, you’ll see some powerful implications. It means that you really do have a choice in how you respond – not only in traffic, but also in all those other situations that are almost always associated with misery and stress.

If you’re in a traffic jam, for example, and can admit to yourself and recognize that your experience is being dictated by your thinking (not the traffic), it changes the entire nature of your experience. It reminds you that a shift in your thinking can result in a shift in your stress level. Rather than insisting that life accommodate you with fewer demands and hassles, you can learn to stay relatively unaffected and relaxed in spite of it all. 

Even when you’re really frustrated, this understanding reminds you that it’s possible to see the situation differently. 

Without a doubt, you’ll get through it easier than before

~ Sridham Krishna Das

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