There is something about a Monday morning that not only gives you the blues, but God help if your the beneficiary of a stream of general irritants and delays that would seem a lot more benevolent on normal days - they get amplified and the angst gets glorified. I'm a very irritable person, with a short temper (which is now changing!), especially when there are so many factors, people, and situations, that I have absolutely no control over, but continue to somehow affect most of my waking moments.
First there's traffic. The bane of the commute. Waiting endlessly at stop lights, incessant honking that quickly drives away all the peace collected over the weekend and then the added joy of missing a turn while you were on your mobile phone reading emails to catch up on time before you get to work. Hold that thought.
Then there's time. You do everything possible to get to bed early on Sunday so that you have time to plan and start your Monday a little bit early. But life so does not go as per plan! You sleep in, you cant wake up, you skip breakfast, your burn your shirt, you miss your bus or train, you skip breakfast - all in the frenzy to get to work on time, to start your day and week on time, so that the delays dont flow into your life right at the start and stay there the entire week. Then you miss your turn cause you were busy checking email to optimize your traffic time.
Then there's people. You've spent the entire weekend with family and friends (hope fully those that you do like and enjoy spending happy times with.) Come Monday morning there is the people on the train and bus whose aggressive demeanor shakes you out of of your peace zone; there is so much traffic and so many people lined and moving at snails pace along never ending highways; there are bosses and colleagues and teams all waiting for your time and attention over a day of endless meetings. The day never ends and it's barely the start of the week.
I took some time today - while I was at work after missing a turn cause I was busy on my phone, and while I was at my desk waiting for my laptop which had to be delivered to me at 10 am sharp but hadn't shown up till almost noon - to just sit and stare at the people around me. All of them in a frenzy, and all of them needing to get their important tasks done. I chose not to react - with either anger or annoyance at the delay en route, the people causing the delay at the point where I needed to get going at work... It was almost as if I was watching the world go by. I just sat, worked with a pen and paper, and stared.
Then came the miracle. The sanctum of peace developed over the weekend that was destroyed by the traffic, beggars, missed turns and every other possible annoyance, quietly creeped back up and stayed with me for a bit. And as time went by, and the longer I sat and watched, and I sat and waited, and tried not to get annoyed and upset, the closer it snuggled up to me. At 5:30 pm, while the day should be ending but is no where close to that in reality, i'm still surprisingly calm. And i'm taking my break by writing this post.
Annoyance and irritability are companions you choose. The moment you decide not to react but to sit and stare and wait, they go away to find new friends. Peace functions exactly the same way. If you choose to hang onto it, it stays with you.
You don't control what happens to you, but you do control how you react to it. You don't control what people say to you and you have to hear, but you do control what you listen to and what you say. You control completely whether you snap in irritation or whether you choose to laugh at a situation or person.
That's the beauty of it all. It's actually completely in your control no matter how much you think you cant control anything!
First there's traffic. The bane of the commute. Waiting endlessly at stop lights, incessant honking that quickly drives away all the peace collected over the weekend and then the added joy of missing a turn while you were on your mobile phone reading emails to catch up on time before you get to work. Hold that thought.
Then there's time. You do everything possible to get to bed early on Sunday so that you have time to plan and start your Monday a little bit early. But life so does not go as per plan! You sleep in, you cant wake up, you skip breakfast, your burn your shirt, you miss your bus or train, you skip breakfast - all in the frenzy to get to work on time, to start your day and week on time, so that the delays dont flow into your life right at the start and stay there the entire week. Then you miss your turn cause you were busy checking email to optimize your traffic time.
Then there's people. You've spent the entire weekend with family and friends (hope fully those that you do like and enjoy spending happy times with.) Come Monday morning there is the people on the train and bus whose aggressive demeanor shakes you out of of your peace zone; there is so much traffic and so many people lined and moving at snails pace along never ending highways; there are bosses and colleagues and teams all waiting for your time and attention over a day of endless meetings. The day never ends and it's barely the start of the week.
I took some time today - while I was at work after missing a turn cause I was busy on my phone, and while I was at my desk waiting for my laptop which had to be delivered to me at 10 am sharp but hadn't shown up till almost noon - to just sit and stare at the people around me. All of them in a frenzy, and all of them needing to get their important tasks done. I chose not to react - with either anger or annoyance at the delay en route, the people causing the delay at the point where I needed to get going at work... It was almost as if I was watching the world go by. I just sat, worked with a pen and paper, and stared.
Then came the miracle. The sanctum of peace developed over the weekend that was destroyed by the traffic, beggars, missed turns and every other possible annoyance, quietly creeped back up and stayed with me for a bit. And as time went by, and the longer I sat and watched, and I sat and waited, and tried not to get annoyed and upset, the closer it snuggled up to me. At 5:30 pm, while the day should be ending but is no where close to that in reality, i'm still surprisingly calm. And i'm taking my break by writing this post.
Annoyance and irritability are companions you choose. The moment you decide not to react but to sit and stare and wait, they go away to find new friends. Peace functions exactly the same way. If you choose to hang onto it, it stays with you.
You don't control what happens to you, but you do control how you react to it. You don't control what people say to you and you have to hear, but you do control what you listen to and what you say. You control completely whether you snap in irritation or whether you choose to laugh at a situation or person.
That's the beauty of it all. It's actually completely in your control no matter how much you think you cant control anything!
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