Entangled

One day I was getting ready for a training workshop. I opened my jewellery pouch to pull out my earrings and necklace, which is a thin delicate chain. On pulling them out I found another necklace entangled with the one I wanted to wear. You also must have also experienced something similar with jewellery or gadget wires. Fortunately, I had some time in hand. I took a deep breath and started to untangle them. I first pulled out my earrings one by one as it was easy to do. Becoming aware that I might get overwhelmed and irritated, I drew in a few deep breaths and studied the entangled chains. After a few exploratory tugs I was able to undo the entangled chains without getting upset. I made it well in time for my workshop.

While travelling to the venue of the workshop I caught myself thinking about the entangled chains. It is similar to many conflicting situations we face in life. In such situations we feel entrapped and overwhelmed and experience negative feelings while dealing with the situation. We want to get over with it as quickly as possible and want things our own way. Instead, we can use our discernment and take stock of the challenge. We can tackle the easiest pieces to reduce the level of difficulty like I could, by removing the earrings as it was the easiest one to tackle. Then we can take our attention to the what twists and turns are left to be tackled in the situation. Feeling overwhelmed is a response that lot of us experience in similar situations. It does not help. Taking a few deep breaths and bringing our focus to exploring ways of getting unstuck, is what works. Investigating a few approaches, we can be on our way to a solution.

Another important lesson to be learnt here is that there are causes and conditions leading any challenge or conflict. In the case of my jewellery, I realized that had I kept both the chains and the earrings in separate pockets of the pouch, none would have got entangled. Similarly, we can be mindful of our actions and their consequences and pave a path for ourselves to live with more ease in our daily lives.

#mindfulness #awareness