Life Lessons Linda Hutchinson-Jafar
O
ne of the things I have been doing recently to maintain control of situations around me is dropping baggage that has been weighing down on me, both mentally and psychologically. Recently, I had to make two major decisions that have been churning around my mind, occupying my thoughts much more than I would like and in the process, becoming a serious mental burden. Firstly, I examined the pros and cons of the issues that were weighing heavy on me. Do I feel the decisions I’m about to take would be the right ones and would I look back and have regrets? In the end, I confidently felt I was taking the correct course of action. After taking action, the second thing I did was remove them from occupying my thoughts. It was no longer important, I told myself. The deed has been done. Immediately, I felt as though a physical heaviness was lifted off me and I became free. Just as we de-clutter our homes, getting rid of things that are no longer needed or in a state of decay and taking up valuable space, once in a while we also need to examine the state of our minds and get rid of the clutter and junk that continue to pile in that virtual space. You know the feeling when you have decluttered your living room or your closet and it feels light and airy, it’s the same when you get rid of the junk that you have been storing in your mind as an illegal and unwanted occupant. It could be that bit of animosity towards someone in your workplace or the feelings that you are being misunderstood and you want others to see you differently or that people around you haven’t really appreciated your work. It could also be, like in my case, freelance writing jobs for two Caribbean newspapers which after examining, I concluded that value was not being
gained at either end. Before arriving at this point, the issue occupied my thoughts in a nagging sort of way and became mentally burdensome. To bring an end to it, I wrote polite emails, thanking editors for considering me but also pointing out that the relationship was not beneficial for either one of us. For me, it was more than time to move on to other ventures that brought mutual satisfaction and more importantly, exorcising the baggage that I was lugging around. I’m also ‘training’ my mind to remove what I call ‘dead’ thoughts, ideas, fears, and other emotions that can be quite overwhelming at times. Instead, I’ve found having an ‘open’ mind without prejudicial thoughts and feelings, the outcome of a situation can be pleasantly surprising. Even though the mind does not take on a physical shape or is something that one cannot touch and hold, the memories, thoughts, ideas, worries, fears, hate, jealousy and obsessions swirl through endlessly, repeating over and again, churning away until sheer exhaustion takes place. Mind is defined in Buddhism as a nonphysical phenomenon which perceives, thinks, recognises, experiences and reacts to the environment. It is described as having two main aspects: clarity and knowing; meaning that the mind is clear, formless and allows for objects to arise in it, and that the mind is knowing, an awareness, a consciousness which can engage with objects. My own experience, difficult as it may be sometimes, is that you can control what enters and what stays in your mind. You can cleanse it and you can set yourself free. Linda Hutchinson-Jafar is a Trinidad and Tobagobased Caribbean news agency Journalist and is the Editor of the digital quarterly publications Earth Conscious magazine and Business Journal. January 2011
evolution track
23