Cultivating the Third Eye

A sense of panic invariably grips the heart, when deluged with a sudden turn of events that defies predictability. When you find yourself being caught up in a whirlpool of unanticipated, unimagined and unpredictable circumstances, you invariably find yourself being locked in the moment, as if in a state of animated suspension.?Your thinking and sense of decision making is frozen and you suffer from inexplicable inertia.?

The most prominent example of this was the sudden advent of COVID-19 pandemic and its disastrous aftermath. How unprepared were we, emotionally, financially as well socially. It was akin to a Tsunami that caught those who were chilling on the beach unawares. In one clean sweep, it deluged the mainland and washed away the many hopes, aspirations and a sense of certainty.?Another less dramatic example is the inbuilt uncertainty of the corporate world. Just when you think you have settled into your routine and are on your journey towards climbing the corporate ladder, you are woken up from your day dream with a news of a hostile takeover making your position redundant overnight.?The list of instances that catches you off guard can go on and on! A sudden unanticipated life threatening illness, relationship going down south, job loss, a natural calamity, and what not!?How do you cope with such uncertainties? How do you prevent yourself from being frozen and locked up in the moment??How do you visualize yourself coming out unscathed from a life altering event??

To survive uncertainty, you invariably need to cultivate a third eye that helps you visualize a way out without getting locked in the situation.?By observing those who have survived the many uncertainties and emerged stronger, I believe the following 5 parameters will help you cultivate a third eye that will invariably act as your saviour:

(a)???Detachment and Objectivity:?The degree of rationality is inversely proportional to the degree of attachment.?Attachment clouds your thought process, blurs your vision, and inundates your heart with fear at the prospect of losing the person, position, job or anything that is the object of attachment. On the contrary, detachment forms the bedrock of objectivity and gives you a bird’s eye view of the circumstances you find yourself in.?It helps you avoid tunnel vision and certainly helps you do a 360 degree analysis of your situation.?Needless to state, detachment and objectivity forms the bedrock of an effective third eye that helps you see things that you would otherwise miss in a blink of an eye!

(b)??Above and beyond the moment:?When you find yourself being bogged down, suffocated, inundated with unbearable circumstances, it is imperative to take a deep breath and??remember that a sense of permanence is a facade, an illusion, a fog that will invariably get lifted. Why allow your current circumstances to chain and shackle you when it is nothing but a passing cloud? ?When you find yourself surrendering to the demons of your current situation, you need to remind yourself that those demons are illusory characters of your dream that shall soon disappear the moment you wake up to the reality of change being the only constant. This will certainly help you look above and beyond the current moment.?

(c)???Multi dimensional reality:?Reality, by its very nature, cannot be one-dimensional. There certainly is more to the reality than meets the eye. To imagine your problems to be all consuming is failing to appreciate the multi dimensional nature of the situation you find yourself in.?You simply cannot allow your circumstances to limit and imprison you if you learn to appreciate the multi dimensional nature of your circumstances and the many solutions it entails.

(d)???Visionary approach:??The tendency to gauge trends, decode patterns, see a clear future based on objective analysis of the current situation is the hallmark of leadership. The ability to piece together the unsolvable puzzle, to connect the dots, to make sense of the many inexplicable circumstances, to tighten the loose ends and paint a clear picture is the key to avoiding yourself from getting locked in the current circumstances.

(e)??Calmness and Peace:?Uncertainty abounds. Chaos confuses. Panic prevails. Restlessness resides. What indeed is the antidote to uncertainty, chaos, confusion, panic and restlessness? Peace and calm! When you will yourself to be peaceful and clam amidst the storm of unsettling circumstances, invariably the fog of confusion and chaos gets lifted enabling you to see the horizon of future with immense clarity.?

If you do succeed in developing a third eye by following the above hacks, I am certain you will invariably survive the storm of unpredictability?