This is one of those rare times when all of us, at the global level, are going through the same vibration, the same energy, facing the same situation. It is called an epidemic, a crisis. We are all concerned about our health, which is important, but we are focusing only on our physical health. We have to see another dimension of health — our emotional health.
Before this crisis occurred, most of us believed that situations have a direct effect on our minds. Whenever situations were not to our liking and we got irritated, disturbed, upset or angry, it was easy for us to say, “The situation is like this, so obviously I will get disturbed”. We would blame the situation for how we were feeling. This is the victim mode of living.
Whether it was the traffic on the road, a target at work, the behaviour of a colleague or a senior, or that of your spouse or child, or just the weather that day — we have seen a lot of situations and every time the situation was not the way we wanted it to be, people were not the way we wanted them to be, we created not very happy emotions, and thought it was normal.
We are a generation that says stress is normal, anger is normal, anxiety is normal, worry is normal. We take as normal a lot of unhealthy, unhappy emotions. The effect of that shows in our bodies and we label a lot of diseases as normal: High blood pressure? That’s normal. Diabetes? Everyone has it, and so on.
Then there was conflict in our relationships, and we said it was normal. We labelled as normal things we were not comfortable with. While we were living like this, blaming situations for how we were feeling, not taking responsibility for our thoughts, not taking charge to be calm and stable inside when there was a crisis outside, we thought it was okay. There was some stress, but life was going on. And then, suddenly, there was a bigger crisis. A crisis in which not just me, my family and my organisation, but the entire world started saying that fear was normal. We need to understand the impact of these words, because they create an energy that cannot be seen but that has a direct impact on our lives.
For the last year or two we have been talking frequently about air pollution. We created the pollution and we were living in that pollution and getting affected by it. Now let us look at the emotional pollution happening now. A world of more than seven billion people is saying that fear is normal, and we are experiencing a certain amount of fear and anxiety — the majority are experiencing these. We cannot see it but the air is vibrating at the frequency of fear and anxiety, not just about the virus but also about other things — when will we return to normal life, is my organisation safe, is my job safe, what will business be like in the next six months? Since we already believed that situations affected our state of mind, the current crisis will have a greater impact on our minds.
We are taking care to avoid being infected with the coronavirus by other people, but we also need to look at a few other things in order not to catch the fear and anxiety that are in the air. Social distancing does not help in this. You could be sitting alone in a room and yet catch those vibrations. Thoughts of fear and anxiety, created for a month or more, will start to affect our body. Don’t take it as normal, because every thought we create has an effect on each cell of the body. Such thoughts have an impact on our emotional health, which affects our mental health, which in turn has an effect on our physical health, on the energy level of the house we live in, and on the family members in the house.
The virus will be gone in a few months, but the effect it has on our minds may not go away easily. So, it is very important to take charge of our emotions. The people we live with and work with are also going through their emotional highs and lows and may not be in the best of their emotional health, and we have to take care of them too.
We have to be careful about every thought we create. It is time to reaffirm, more than ever before, that our mind is not dependent on situations, which means our thoughts and feelings are not dependent on situations. The situation is outside of me, it is a stimulus, but the response to it is created in my mind.
Faced with the same situation, someone becomes very anxious, someone else is just okay, and a third person is absolutely normal. This is proof that what goes on in the mind is not dependent on the situation, it is our choice. This is making a shift from the victim mode of living, in which we blame the world for what is happening, to living like a master who chooses each thought and feeling.
The situation could be a crisis, but we can be calm inside — that is the power we have. We need to use this power and become emotionally independent. We have been taught about physical independence and financial independence, but emotional independence is most important. My emotions must be independent of everything happening outside. Tell yourself repeatedly during the day that you are emotionally independent. Someone might not behave the right way and you might start getting affected, but just pause, see the situation as a detached observer and tell yourself, “I have a choice what to think. I am not a victim of their behaviour.”
Do not let your mind produce low-frequency vibrations. We need to vibrate at a frequency higher than that of everything in this world. This means no complaining, and no low-energy thoughts or talk. We have to keep our energy level high, our aura bright, and that will keep us healthy.
B.K. Shivani is a well-known motivational speaker and Rajyoga teacher who has been practising this ancient art of meditation for more than 20 years.