Worries are our comfort zone

IF WE really want to come out of our worries, we can come out right now, without trying to justify any of our worries. Our very worries become our comfort zone. We hide in them. Hiding and merely talking about them helps us to remain lazy. Someone asks Mahavira, the enlightened Jain master,

‘Who is the one who has worries?’ He replies, ‘The person who is worried.’

They ask him, ‘What is the cause of worry?’ He replies, ‘Laziness.’ Then they ask him, ‘Who ends worries?’ He replies, ‘Man himself.’ They ask him, ‘How can worry be ended?’ He replies, ‘By dropping laziness.’

If you drop laziness, you fall into right action. And when you fall into right action, you drop worry. Your comfort with worry can be understood even from the way you react to other people’s worries. If you observe yourself keenly, you will realise that whenever a person talks to you about his worries, you never give him a solution straightaway and by allowing him to indulge in his worries, you are not only encouraging him, but you are also encouraging yourself to remain comfortably in the worry zone.

Worry can never have an external cause. Externally, events happen. They continue to happen. But your response to these worries is decided by your inner space. If you choose to respond with worry, be very clear, somewhere within yourself, you are giving into the laziness of your comfort zone where you can simply sit and worry without moving into action.

A man and his wife were hurrying to their seats after a movie intermission. In a very concerned way, the man asked the lady at the end of a row, ‘Did I step on your toes on the way out?’

‘Yes you did,’ the lady answered back angrily. The man said, ‘All right then, this is our row.’

Worry literally becomes ‘our row’! We are very comfortable with our worries although we claim that we suffer because of them. If we really want to come out of it, we will come out immediately! The question is whether we want to come out of it or remain in it.

If we want a solution to a problem, we should never dwell upon the problem even for a second. We should simply switch to the solution. For every worry there is an instant solution. Most of the time, we prefer to stay in the comfort zone of our worry. It keeps us settled. We choose to have it as our comfort zone and we reinforce it again and again. Trying to change your impression to beat worry is like trying to change the projector screen to see a different slide.

Be Blissful!