Need for getting rid of anxiety and having patience
January 07, 2012 00:00:00
Mohammed Sohel Hara
Anxiety is part and parcel of modern life. In our day-to-day life, everyone of us feels and deals with anxiety more or less but when it becomes chronic, it is a real health hazard. This invites heart palpitation, muscle weakness, shortness of breath, headache etc.
We are living a fast paced life. Many things are at our hand which we could not dream of even a decade ago but still we are longing for grabbing more. We are always running after to fulfil one materialistic desire after another. We are too busy to spend a moment at rest.
Few days ago when during morning hours I was rushing to get ready for my office, my six-year old son, Fardin, came to me and told me he had a "good news" for me and I asked curiously what that was. He handed over a small, old toy car to me as a "gift"! I said thanks to him and thought I would put the toy somewhere before leaving home when he would not be noticing it but he was too careful not to let me go out of home without his gift. So when I failed to dodge his attentive eyes, I took that toy car in my pocket and went to my office. Later when I put that toy car on my desk, my colleagues gave me a curious and asking look.
I spent a less tense day because of that wonderful gift of my son which reminded me that life is also for play and be a child sometime. It is not all about cut-throat competition and worrying about deadlines. On my office desk, I have kept that gift as a souvenir of playfulness and being thankful for whatever I already have!
In Chinese, there is a worthy saying; "Tension is who you think you should be, relaxation is who you are."
Meanwhile, I ask myself at times whether we are becoming a nation of impatient citizens? Wherever we see, we can notice that no one wants to wait in a queue patiently. I do not feel myself anyway proud of saying that I am no exception to it.
When sometimes I pause, I think I realise that I am always hurrying without any reason.
If we see our traffic system, it will be clear that every vehicle is trying to overtake another one. No vehicle wants to stop patiently at traffic light. Vehicles rush even before red light becomes yellow.
We can see edgy people queuing up in super market line or train ticket counter. Scuffle breaks out at times at such places only due to people trying to get their job done by breaking the rule - going by a serial order.
By being edgy we are only losing our peace of mind and, thus, creating disturbance in ours as well as other’s life. In real life if we become patient and remain calm enough, many of our problems will disappear. By being impatient we are teaching our children the same. I don't need to say the patient needs to be instilled in our national cricketers who want to play test cricket like twenty- twenty ones!
After assuming the state power, the government becomes impatient to make sure that they remain in power forever by hook or crook. The opposition party is also not ready to wait for five years and ready to allow the government party govern the country peacefully for five years for which the people of the country gave them mandate.
We should remember the quote, "You get the chicken by hatching the egg, not by smashing it!" Are we ready to hatch our egg?
(The writer can be reached at e-mail : sohelhara@hotmail.com)