Today I saw a beautiful cartoon. It shows Garfield, the fat orange cat lying on his back saying that he had given stress a day of rest. It made me laugh and appreciate the truth. We all are continuously entangled with anxiety and stress. It is unceasing.

It starts with any number of issues, like does one have food in the fridge, bread and jam? Are my clothes ready for work and what about the kids’ stuff? Have I let the cat out and taken the dog for a walk? There are too many questions, all causing a frown on our foreheads and giving us early wrinkles.

What is the solution? Be like Garfield and give stress time off? Or should we give it a permanent vacation. This is a tough one as we have to work on it and the work is not like telling oneself that I will not be anxious. It does not happen. We have to become aware of our breath.

Do this during the day

As soon as we wake up, we close our eyes. Mentally chant AUM, eleven times. Then visualize our breath going in and out of our nostrils. Count backwards from 54 and make no errors. Repeat AUM eleven times. Open your eyes and you are ready to face the day. Do this several times during the day and last thing before going to sleep.

What will happen is that you will be shedding your anxiety issues gradually, without any imposition on yourself. You will be surprised how much time you have to perform and perfect this sadhana during the day. Instead of wasting your time on thinking of multitasking, do this and become energised to face the task. Thinking about the complexities, only makes it more energy absorbing.

You will soon be casting away the annoying thoughts and they will cease to pester you.

Aim Hrim Klim

Photo by Karin Hiselius on Unsplash