Being intelligently deaf

I’m sure you have heard of the motivational frog race story. Well, if you haven’t, here is a gist. A group of frogs once organized a race. But it was not an ordinary frog hopping race; the participants had to climb a tall light pole. This was certainly a challenge for the four legged creatures. 

The event started with lot of gusto however as time passed, one by one, frogs started falling down. Well, almost every frog had given up but there was one champion who never lost the focus and eventually reached the top. 

Other frogs were happy that there was a winner and wanted to know the secret of this hero. They were in for a surprise. Everyone was dumbfounded when they realized that the winner frog was entirely deaf.

The story goes on to explain that as the frog was deaf, he didn’t hear the statements made by other frogs. And what were the fellow frogs saying? “Ah, He will not make it to the top…” “Everyone has lost the race…he too would fail” “Look, he’s slipping…” They were making all sorts of negative comments. No wonder, the frog won the race because he didn’t hear any of these words. The story ends there. 

Taking a cue from here, we have to acknowledge that these “other frogs” exist in our life too. We often meet people who are having a negative mindset towards what “others” do. To be the champion frog, we cannot afford to listen to them. 

We face even a bigger challenge when our minds subconsciously accept negative thoughts sown by devils. But how do we figure out if a person is commenting genuinely or is there a hidden vested interest? Below tips could be helpful.

1.    Apply your own reasoning: Don’t ever allow your subconscious mind to accept any comment blindly. If you are upset by any comment or advice, write that down on a piece of paper and think over it from the other person’s perspective. If, in any angle, you find it useful consider it or else ignore it.

2.   Validate: Check the person’s consistency in terms of words and actions. If the person “preaches” someone to do something and not doing it himself/herself, most probably you should not pay heed to the person.

With our mental health at stake, we should consciously ignore the other frogs who are only indulged in pulling us down. Are there any other tips that you would like to add? 

  

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Elephantine Deception

When the elephant is still a calf, it is bound to a mast just by a rope. The baby elephant struggles to escape from confinement but as the rope is thick enough to match its strength, it can’t. Noticing that its efforts are in vain, gradually this calf registers in its mind that it cannot tear away the rope and eventually stops trying to escape. 

Years pass and when the calf grows to become a massive elephant, it is still bound by the same rope – however the rope itself is now “tiny” when compared to the “huge” animal. The rope is no match for the animal’s immense strength. 

Alas! But the elephant does not try to escape. Why? Because the elephant’s mind has been tuned to make it think & believe that it cannot tear the rope into pieces. Its mind has been deceived.

The same goes with us humans too. During various stages of growth, we become exposed to lot of hindrances, difficulties. Based on the environment, we make a conscious effort to arrive at a just judgment. 

Most of these situations etch seemingly indelible marks in our mind. Unfortunately there is no straightforward way to selectively erase these blots. At later stages, we get entrapped into these historical conditions and lose clarity in current happenings. 

We lose our freedom of thoughts; we end up believing that there is no other way out. Exactly like the baby elephant we accept that the bond cannot be broken.  

It is important for us to be always conscious and take action accordingly. Each of the marks in our mind may have their own story to tell. But instead of blindly going with history, we should at least make an attempt to challenge ourselves considering the current circumstances. Keep in mind the 3 tips below to avoid mind’s beguiling. 

1. Write down the problem on a piece of paper and list various possibilities to address it
2. Evaluate each of the possibilities with an unbiased mind. Discuss with a friend or a counselor, if you consider it helpful
3. If a historical scenario pitches in, identify the differences in environment between the previous and present situation

I believe that a little conscious attempt is sufficient to unveil the paths to tackle our problem.

Anything interesting that you adopt in your life?

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