Preeta Chag

Peace of mind. Meditation. Finding yourself. Sheer calm.

In today’s scenario, social media is inundated with tips on self-awareness and meditation. There are umpteen daily posts on life’s mantras, philosophy, going slow, finding calm and so on. The pointers are endless.

So many of us go through them daily, discuss amongst friends, families, cousins and so on. All of us nod our heads in agreement and emphatically agree on how true it is and how on that is the way it should be.

But if all of us know, and believe that  following these mind-changing and life-peace tips are the way on, then yet why are we yet always looking for more? What is wrong? Why is there no end to the search? The hunt is continuous, like a winding road up and down the hills, peeping into the valley for the soul’s comfort.

We agree and mourn the loss of a slow and simple life. Glimpses of it were caught back in the COVID era….but the COVID era is now a dim memory—completely erased and done away with. Do we even remember the fear of stepping out? Do we remember the laid-back times we had at home? No…. we are once again on the super go, wanting to achieve and experience everything… on a race track, speeding like never before.

We know that simple is ‘peace’. Slow is ‘mind-changer’. Being harnessed to the roots is the real calm and grandmom’s tips were the great thesis of wisdom.

But yet we are looking around. Searching. Exploring. Trying to quell the restlessness within. Frantically seeking the calm….. a desire to bask in each moment, savour each instant.

We know what is right… we know the way to do it. We know the phone is our biggest creative and peace roadblock. And yet, we are searching for songs, quotes, conversations, and pearls of wisdom on that very phone. 

So what is going wrong? I believe the culprit is not just the phone. It is us. Me. Myself. Unable to balance between technology’s finer points vs being completely overwhelmed by it.

This is what we need to work on—finding a balance between using the newer technology to enhance and enrich ourselves vs letting it become the mind-numbing scrolling tool and whiling away hours, later being plagued with guilt for spending so many hours wastefully. 

The balance should be us. Rather than always blaming new technology (which I am even guilty of), we need to understand how to be empowered with it to take creative steps further. Because we need to understand, there is no way we will ever be able to stop our life become engulfed with new tech. AI might be just the beginning. The world is going to be more complex, more fast-moving. There is no ‘slow’ here…. We are already on the high tech roller coaster with many swirls and twirls.

It is ‘I’, ‘me’ who has to adapt and balance. To make the fullest efforts to embrace the new age, the new beginnings, and smartly convert it into our tools of advancement rather than becoming a slave to its endless, time-consuming vice.

Balance. That is the only way forward.

Balance. That is the difficult, but only way out.

Balance. The mantra which will actually change your life.