The Greatest Teacher – Your Left Little Finger!
Its Silence is Your Lesson!
We are sick!
I mean really, really sick!!
We get all agitated about airline crashes even though the probability that we will perish in one is vanishingly small.
But we ignore the real sickness that is already upon us, that saps our energy every day, that debilitates us and keeps us functioning at a level far below our best and makes us miserable. It drives us to drink and drugs and wild pursuits. It even tips many of us off the ledge to suicide.
So bad is this sickness that we have a unique way of coping with it.
We simply label it normal!
I am being deadly serious. To help you understand what I mean I will ask you a question. Think about it sincerely.
“In the past 24 hours, how much time have you spent thinking about your left little finger?”
Got the answer? Good. In the past 24 hours you have not thought about your left little finger at all. Perhaps you polished the nail or clipped it. If so, your attention was on it for a few seconds and then you moved on.
Your left little finger was doing what left little fingers do and you paid it no heed.
And that is as it should be. If any part of your body is functioning normally it does its thing quietly and does not draw attention to itself.
Now suppose somebody accidentally slammed the car-door on your left little finger. You will spend a great deal of time on it in the next 24 hours. In fact, it may dominate your thoughts. It will reach out and demand your attention because it is unwell.
Deeply unwell.
Now think of your mind. If it was well, it would function silently in the background and do what you set it to do.
But look at how it ceaselessly bothers you and draws attention to itself.
Am I too fat? Why do I find it so difficult to wake up and work out every morning?
What does she really think of me?
Don’t want to go to work today – wish I could just lay in bed.
Why doesn’t he call me? I thought we had a great date but its already been a week and no phone call or email. I guess I’m not that attractive anymore.
Lisa got promoted? She is so dumb. How the hell did that happen? I bet she slept her way to it. That’s just the kind of person she is. Nothing I can do about that.
Get the picture? That cacophony in your head is your mind drawing attention to itself with its wild imaginings and off-the-wall conjectures. It will not let you be. It forces you to pay heed and you are so fatigued by it that, in despair, you do anything you can to quiet it.
You turn on the TV. Not because there is something you want to watch but because you want to distract that horribly sick mind. It cannot rest quietly by itself.
You drink. You do controlled substances. You work ungodly hours. You flit from relationship to relationship to find that ‘perfect’ one. You check your email every few minutes.
You have developed many strategies to cope and none of them are satisfactory or work consistently.
That is because the sickness is deep.
Do you recognize how troubled you are? Be grateful to your left little finger. It has just taught you a powerful lesson.
The biggest consolation you have is that everybody is equally sick and some even more so.
You label it ‘normal’.
But it is NOT so. And you can get rid of this sickness. It will not be easy. It will not be fast. And it will indeed take the rest of your life.
But if you begin this journey, it will give you immense benefits starting immediately.
Stay tuned for more information on how to start combating this malady.
Peace!
Srikumar Rao
