How to manage your emotions and reduce anxiety
Emotions are neither to be suppressed nor glorified. In fact, emotions are not at all the matter. The matter is the heart from where the emotions are coming from.
Don't you see people crying in front of their lovers? They think that emotion can give them love.
Don't you see people trying to check emotions? They think checking emotions can give them stability or stillness.
Emotions are on one plane. Love and stillness are on another plane. And these two planes are not connected through self-control.
When laughter comes, laugh fully. Laugh freely. If you must smile, let the smile be like a blossoming flower. And there are times when you weep like heavy clouds too.
To be anxious, you need to be blessed with a lot of spare time.
How do you manage the time to indulge in anxiety?
It's an "indulgence" to be anxious, to be worried. There is a subtle enjoyment in all this.
"I'm worried! Something great is about to happen!"
Anxiety, worry! May I say, it's related to narcissism?
When you say, "Something bad can happen to me either right now or in the future," aren't you saying, "You are very important!" At least to yourself? "Some really big misfortune is going to fall on me!"
Indirectly you are asserting that you are so big that you can attract a big misfortune!
Are you that big? Has anything really big ever happened to you? Then how can even a big boulder fall on your head? But there is pleasure in worry! This will sound strange to many but stay with it.
There is a subtle pleasure in worrying.
The opposite of this self-centered worry is an immersion in the action.
Immerse yourself in the right action and then where is the space and time to worry?
Surely you are stealing time away from work so that you can indulge in worries and anxieties and fancies of all kinds.
When you are saying, "Oh my God, what if tomorrow such a bad thing happens?" aren't you claiming that right now things are almost okay for you?
That's what you want to convince yourself of, that you are almost all right!
You are not!
What demon can hold you by the neck in the future? The demon is already here, right now! And he doesn't need to hold your neck. He is within you and he has gripped your heart from within. But you don't want to look at that. You want to avoid that. That's why you manufacture fancies.
Action and work is what we need.
Don't you know what you need to do right now?
Let's assume for a while that your worries about the future are founded in facts.
Let's say, "Some grand and evil army is invading your little fortress, and you can see them all coming with your binoculars. And you are estimating that they will reach you in another four hours. Those wild hoards and they are all bloodthirsty savages. They will ravage your fortress, they will put everything to fire, they will slaughter, they will loot.
And you are seeing that they are about to reach you in another four hours."
Now, what do you do?
You work!