Dealing With Anxiety

Anxiety and worrying is caused by one simple, solvable mental state. It is caused by the desire to avoid a particular situation, whether inevitable or otherwise.

The solution is pretty simple: whether or not what you worry about is likely to happen, one simply HAS to totally accept the possibility of that particular situation occurring. Once you totally accept that what you are worried about might happen, it won't trouble you anymore and you can go on with the rest of your life peacefully.

Our problem is that we keep trying to somehow avoid the mess by doing a number of things that wouldn't change the probability in either case. Worrying is one of these things. If you accept the likelihood, you will end up freeing your mind to realistically evaluate and tackle the situation.
Trust me.

For a good starter on the concept of acceptance, see the relevant portions of Ekhart Tolle's "The Power of Now".

The Minds of "Great Men"

Some personalities, such as politicians, statesmen, certain intellectuals, bureaucrats, diplomats and perhaps businessmen must possess the following mental abilities to function well.

They should have two distinct modes: on and off. When they are on, their mind is working superbly, taking in a lot of data, making sense of it consciously and sub-consciously and generating good output according to the requirements of the situation. In some cases, this means that they are making good split second decisions, whereas in some cases (such as intellectuals) it means that they are just processing a lot of data really fast, making sense of it and re-presenting it or synthesising it. This basically means that their mind works, to use an analogy i would not prefer but would give a good idea of what i mean, like a brilliant supercomputer.

Obviously, experience helps this computer. With time, several ideas and concepts will have firmly settled in their mind so that they can be taken as given without having to delve deeply into them. This further speedens up the process. It must be noted, however, that even these ideas must be re-evaluated from time to time, a topic which we will not deal with now.

The off mode is a mode in which they totally detach themselves from their job at hand and allow their mind to totally relax. This mode is as important as the on mode, as this is literally the only time when the mind gets to relax. This mode includes periods of sleep and other times of relaxation such as some time taken for a jog, etc.

This mode is very important! It is very often at this time, when the mind is not actively working on an issue, that all that info is sent for detailed archiving and reprocessing to the subconscious sectors of the mind. This process, by making the data and ideas more consistent, increases the clarity, clears the proverbial fog and thus facilitates better, clearer and original thinking based on the material already evaluated. Further, doing other activities stimulates different areas of the nervous system, which can influence the original ideas by rubbing off a different angle onto them. This means that it increases creativity. It is no wonder that, true or untrue, Aristotle got a great idea while having a bath while Newton got some idea while sulking near an apple tree. Similarly, another great scientist got some amazing ideas on chemical bonds while dreaming of snakes..

In the off mode, one must totally dedicate one's attention to staying off and doing whatever else one is doing... it must be strictly off!

Why I highlighted certain personalities at the start is that I think that these people spend extraordinarily large amounts of time in the "on" mode. This is a testament to their energy, stamina and mental fitness. One has to admit that our politicians, however crooked, are extremely fit mentally and very hard working. Some of them, especially people such as the PM, the President, etc, are "always on".

Believe me, you won't get anywhere without this!

True Friendship Quote (Original)

A very good test of friendship is how easily a friend can say no to another without any one feeling uncomfortable.

About: Anger

Anger is always a sign of frustration or desperation. Once you realise this, it could be easier for you to control yourself when you're angry. It (anger) can rarely achieve anything useful.

Also keep this in mind when dealing with an angry person.

Further, anger arises very easily in a person who is hungry or tired.

More Good Quotes

This one's from Marcel Proust, sometimes referred to as the greatest novelist of the 20th century:

Let us leave pretty women to men devoid of imagination.

And this one is straight from a Bombay based jeweler, who was talking about real diamonds:

Only a diamond can polish another diamond.

A Curious Experiment With Robert Frost

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I--
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

- Robert Frost

Let's try this on the internet ! Let's take the obscure links and see where we reach! Less Google, less Digg and less StumbleUpon.

As for the complete poem, you can find it here.

The Mark of an Experienced Man

An experienced man (or woman) is a person who can predict the behaviour of a system which is otherwise unpredictable, simply because of the amount of experience that he has with the system.

The person might not actually make predictions (as these can themselves alter behaviour), but will act upon certain internal assumptions that he makes about how the system will behave in the future.

I do not mean to say, however, that this enables the man to make better decisions. He is just better informed. Decision making is a different ball game...

Nature Does Not Count ; Numbers Don't Matter

I feel quite convinced that some of the biggest problems of the human race have their root in our ability to count.

Nature does not count in precise numbers. It only understands relative terms.

Some have suggested that the ability to count in humans has been misused, but I would just conclude by telling everyone to be less obsessed about numbers. It's one of the easiest ways to feel better connected with the wild.

The Way of the Samurai

I sincerely recommend this book to all of you. I think that most of its observations are still perfectly valid and make a lot of sense. The book might seem a bit radical, but it is nonetheless correct. Many great ideas are radical anyway.

The Way of the Samurai - Hagakure (download pdf)

Don't Work Alone!

I have discovered that even in some sports and other professions where work has to be mostly done alone, it is better to work side by side with somebody.

The problem is one of motivation. I've realised that you are most motivated when your energy levels are high and least motivated when your energy levels are low. So really motivation rarely helps when you need it the most :) It is only the most highly motivated can actually work consistently, even when they're low.

As for us mortals, it's better to work with someone. When your motivation is low, the other person can prod you into working even when you don't want to. And you can prod him or her into working when he's down. It sort of balances the spirit....