Do you ever find yourself intensely frustrated in a crowd full of people? Are you agitated as you encounter others walking too slow as they’re a huge obstacle blocking your path? Or how do you feel when another driver has cut you off in traffic or your appointment is delayed and now it’s not what it should have been?
In all these situations, our yogic rhetoric may blame others for how their unconsciousness has had a domino effect on us. It’s so selfish for them to be unaware!
I especially have found myself with city-fever this summer, barely able to make it anywhere without noticing every nuisance along the way. Is it just me? Has it been these record breaking temperatures that have accelerated this fire (pitta) in all of us?
Yet if we step back and examine our stream of thoughts and reactions, we’re actually responsible for this boiled state of anger and irritation, not them. Because the underlying debate we’re really having with ourselves is, Why can’t this current scenario be different than what it is?
The problem with inner life is that we’re the only ones in it. We are the energy we keep.
We have to choose to accept the responsibility to relax our judgmental, critical mind and believe that for whatever reason, by someone else’s design, things can’t be different than they are in the present moment. In doing so, it allows us to relax and free up some space to carry a more refined and gratified energy.
From the inside out we radiate our thinking which energizes the environments we inhabit. By noticing these subtle adjustments that can be made we can keep our contentment in tow and even improve our surroundings.