Mindfulness

‘Thoughts control your world,be a firm guardian of your thought,make certain it is of the highest quality’-Robin Sharma

The little  boy  was engrossed in a sheer joy of his highhandedness over a bird on the tree. He was seated on his bicycle, with his neck craned upwards, his mouth opened and closed as a crow’s beak as he made  strange caw, cah sounds. It looked like a crow on the tree had  befriended the little boy as it cawed back.  The boy cawed again, the bird looked down and cawed at him, both were deeply involved in their chat, it was a breathtaking sight with the boy basking in the morning sun rays. None of the by passers watched him. A few morning walkers come for their walk, regularly, but many a times it looks as if the exercise is a troublesome task. Many use the opportunity to gossip destroying the serenity of  a walk with their anxious high-pitched talk. A few others have  earphones stuffed in their ears, leading them into  artificial environs where they are unable to  hear the chirping of the sparrows, squeaking of squirrels, twitter of the hummingbird  or the bees humming.   A few others concentrate on their physical disability rather than the splendour of nature, but this little boy was deriving immense pleasure while being emotionally attached to the bird, a sensitivity to nature.

In the evening  the hot winds had caused the cooler currents of air to blow vigorously,  it transformed the weather, the dark grey clouds  wafted in, and were about to precipitate  inspiring children  to trickle out of their flats to the garden area. It drizzled and still later rained moderately, children leapt in joy, savoured  rain and played in   totality of a mindfulness. In the neighbouring balcony I saw a mother seething with  worry and  anger as her kids capered and soared in the downpour, and plunged in the puddles. Far off they heard the shrill sounds of their anxious mothers, but ignored it, for the joy of  rain in the hot weather is something beyond heavens. The young girls ran hither thither, while junior boys walked gradually getting drenched discussing  the  outer space and Universe, the adolescents played cricket while the girls looked on, but my ardour and feelings were with the very little kids who went crazy waddling in the water, thumping their feet, raising their skirts and jumping and vaulting in the small pools of water.They knew only the sheer bliss of rain. I  felt sorry for my neighbour who had  relinquished the magnificence of nature through her apprehensiveness for her kids.

I remembered the Kuchipudi Dance classes run by Ms Swapna Chilla for the young and the old.  While learning this classical style I understood that whenever our mind goes astray, we miss a hold on the dance step. When our teacher performs these dance steps, we ape at her in admiration. She told us that the mind, thoughts and actions are linked and that Dance movements or the ‘rasa’ are best portrayed  as a reflection of our thoughts  and actions and our presence, all  synchronous.

Many a times careers are chosen without a curiosity, this leads to a feeling of annoyance, often this exasperation is meted out as anger.  There are cases when a doctor creates an impact among his patients right in the beginning of his career. I still remember Dr. Yadav who ran helter-skelter to find what my ailment was and did not rest till the reports confirmed what I had. She turned into our family doctor from that instant, never to be forgotten to this day.

Once while walking on the treadmill, my mind wandered,  I slipped, it was lucky that I could hold onto one of the bars, to escape the calamity.

A few years back, While returning home from my work  I saw a display of artefacts, they were made of teak wood arranged on a clearing along the Mumbai Pune highway, I was eyeing it for a long time as I was driving. I never knew when I slipped off the main road, and fell down in the hedges on the road side. The passers by lifted me and I slowly drove back home wiser.

Many a times a job, a deed even a charitable act rebounds because of the lack of  mindfulness.   Mindfulness is  a state when we are energetic and are aware of the present, rather than the past or future. This mindfulness helps  remarkably in  lowering the stress caused due to  worry and creates an overall wellness because it can be used anytime and can quickly bring lasting results as one is aware of his or her thoughts and feelings.

‘As the physically weak man can make himself strong by careful patient training, so the weak man of weak thoughts can make them strong by exercising himself in right thinking’