Unlearn the Habit

In India, visitors are served a cup of tea without asking them whether they want it. But I did not mind it as I loved tea. In fact, it was a habit picked up as a child whilst going with my father for radio recordings. We would be served tea at regular intervals. By the time I was in college, I would drink at least a dozen large cups of tea, every day.

But, habits do hurt! A splitting headache would seize me if I missed my regular dose of tea. My predicament was worst while on a trek. I would start off cheerfully but by afternoon the ache in my head would get so bad that I would be in a bad mood. There were two options before me: quit trekking or break the tea habit. I chose the latter.

It was traumatic: my nerves were on tenterhooks, my mood was edgy all day long and withdrawal symptoms would turn me into a jittery mess! However, I held my resolve to unlearn the habit, first in the mind and later in a committed set of actions to reclaim control on my body.

It is pertinent to note that habit has to be divorced first in the mind, before the body can be freed. Now years later, I enjoy tea with or without sugar, with or without milk, or coffee in all its variants or juices of all types or plain water, too. We must try out choices. If we embrace the wide spectrum of plurality, habits have no space to form.

So whether it is food, drink, music or technology or anything, choose not to be a victim of habit by keeping an open attitude toward every new thing that comes before you. We need to be better at unlearning the habit and reclaim control on our own lives. We will develop a fuller personality that can adapt to every emerging change and challenge… because we will be habit free!

No habit can control us without our permission…

Let’s BE BETTER at unlearning dire habituation!

- Pravin K. Sabnis

Wait!

A young man came to a Zen master to learn about meditation.

The Zen master asked, ‘Are you capable of waiting?’
The young man asked, ‘Of course, how long?’
The master said, ‘That is enough for me to reject you!’

So often, we claim we are ready to wait to acquire a life skill, yet we are impatient about actually doing so. So often, when we want something, we also want it quick. We swear that we are committed to the distant destination, but we crave for shortcuts to reach there. We want results, but we are not ready to wait.

In fact, the inability to wait, oft results in giving up of the pursuit. Surely, it can be foolish to be seized with impatience and hence be disconnected from the real experience of the journey. It is said so well that ‘time flies slowly to the one whose occupation is to watch its flight’. Waiting turns more tedious for those who are not ready to wait.

For instance, to learn to play music one needs to be willing to wait, for it is never about being good; it is always about being better! The same applies for most worthy pursuits. Commitment (to claim them) cannot be a time-defined contract. If we are sincere in our outlook, it must be reflected in our readiness to focus on the quality of the journey rather than the quantum of time.

Persons, who focus on the journey, enjoy the real transformational experience. Those, who are over conscious of the passing time and date, neither savour the experience nor do they get closer to their desired destination. The restlessness results in losing focus of the vision and mission they set out to pursue. Hence it is best to acquire the willingness to wait!

Focus on the path, not on the passing date

Let’s BE BETTER at the attitude to wait...

- Pravin K. Sabnis

Clean Up

A few years ago, the Tibetean community in Goa organised a day long workshop meeting to deliberate on their predicament of being denied their rights and dignity in Tibet. No sooner the event ended, the volunteers began to stack up the chairs and clean up the hall. When somebody said that they need not do so as they had paid the rent of the hall, one young girl calmly insisted, ‘we paid for the use of the hall, not to abuse it!’

The statement reverberated in the mind while moving across Panaji’s Azad Maidan. It was littered with empty juice containers, used paper plates and leftovers of discarded food. The trash was the residue of the previous day’s gathering to celebrate the 150^th anniversary of Swami Vivekanand. The organisers as well as the audience had desecrated the very place that was used to consecrate lofty words.

Such scenes are seen at most public spaces in India. But it isn’t as if all are at fault. Trekkers, astronomers, nature lovers and others do display their sense of responsibility. They not only refrain from dirtying the place, they pick up the litter and ensure appropriate disposal of the trash. In fact, they take pride in ‘cleaning up’!

Lofty words at community gatherings mean nothing if we do not walk the talk. Our worthiness is defined by a responsive sense of responsibility. It is not enough to tread the trail, we must be better at leaving our path in a better way than we found it to be. Like that young Tibetean girl we must ensure that we do not abuse our environment, our community space and our common world. We must move beyond self-centred attitudes to a responsible behaviour.

Do not abuse the public space, take care...

Let’s BE BETTER at the clean-up out there...

- Pravin K. Sabnis

Know to Grow

The little girl wanted to catch the sky. She kept on leaping and trying to grab as much sky as she could in her outstretched palm. However, neither did she get the sky in her grasp, nor did she stay close to it for long… however, when she fell down and the dust cleared, she noticed majestic trees that got closer and closer to the sky by taking their roots deeper and deeper into the earth.

The lesson was obvious. The deeper the roots, the taller one can be. It is said so well that the one who ‘knows’ is the one who ‘grows’! However, our ability, nay, our attitude, to learn reduces as we grow. Many of us do not bother about even ‘looking at’ information about our own careers leave alone other concerns. General knowledge is fast becoming a superfluous term. Education stops for many with the completion of their academic pursuits.

The roots of a tree are of two types: those that go deep in search of nutrition and those that spread across the breadth to hold the soil better. Both are necessary. We need depth of knowledge in our core interests and breadth of knowledge in everything else. Interestingly, as we grow taller and get closer to the sky, we stumble on that ultimate truth… that there is no sky! There is no limit to how tall we can grow; there is no limit for how deep our roots can go!

Let us be better at developing roots that dive deep and help transform a tiny seed into a tall tree. Our roots are in our environment, in our culture, in our people, in our world… in everything that concerns us. Our roots represent the multiple dimensions that create our personality. We must step outside our comfort zones and discover the real world and unearth our true potential by knowing our roots…

To BE BETTER at the way we grow...

Let’s empower our attitude to know!

- Pravin K. Sabnis