I visited a restaurant yesterday. It is a lovely place to observe. Some people drink, some make a video of the place, some have a gup-shup with their friends, while some enjoy the food. Everybody is lost in one or the other pleasure. On top of it, there is loud music so that we are completely cut off from the outside world. It appears as if everybody wants to run away from the routine. The restaurant offers a space where we can forget what happened during the day and indulge in some pleasure.
The world is full of escapes. But why do we need escapes? Children study the subjects they are not interested in because their parents have chosen a career for them, which is "lucrative" in terms of money. The passion of children does not matter in the decision-making matrix of the parents. That's why children feel burnt out so early. Why would the children feel burnt out if they study the subjects they are interested in? Do we feel burnt out when we do what we love? Do we feel burnt out when we play the sport we like? Do we feel burnt out when we read a book we love? I have myself experienced this. When I started reading books on neurology and quantum physics, I could read for 8-10 hours in one go and would not feel burnt out because that "curiosity to know" would supply constant energy. Similarly, when I started Astrology and looking at the horoscopes, I never felt tired even after working on the horoscopes for 10-12 hours at a stretch. In fact, the brain will try to find answers even in a dream. Similarly, when I do sessions on mindfulness with the children, I never feel tired. Even when we have to sit for hours together to analyse the response sheets of the students, I never feel burnt out because the entire activity is full of joy. Similarly, I have taken up many projects in the office that were quite challenging and time-consuming, but I never felt tired because there was joy in creating something new.
We feel burnt out when we do something that is not connected to our soul. We may eat fast food day in and day out. No doubt, fast food is tasty, and we feel good with the spices and fat contained in the fast food. Yet, because the fast food does not have the essential nutrients, the body feels depleted in the course of time. That's why we fall ill. The same logic applies to the work we do. We go to movies, have fun, attend social functions, and spend time in mindless conversations. All these things are like fast food. Spicy and tasty, but they lack the essential nutrients. There are no traces of love, compassion, awareness, curiosity, and exploration. That's why we feel depleted and look for escapes. A short trip to some place that looks beautiful in pictures. We spend time, money, and energy just to return even more exhausted. We keep torturing our minds and bodies. We keep doing the work we do not like day in and day out just to get some money to eat fast food, or to go on vacation to a desired place, or wear branded clothes, or an expensive watch.
Love, compassion, awareness, curiosity, exploration, and creation are so fulfilling. Why? Because love is a feeling that helps us connect to others. We break free of the prison of "I" and connect to the "other". That expansion of "I" is very fulfilling. Unless we love, we do not realise the joy of that freedom. When we have compassion, we feel the pain of others. Our mind can break free of "I" to experience what the "other" person feels, and that experience motivates us to help others even if that's painful to "I". Awareness helps us get out of our beliefs and mental stories. Otherwise, the whole of our life is just a mental story. As if we are sitting in a movie hall all throughout our lives. Awareness is like an interval when we get out of the hall to again connect to reality. Curiosity makes us challenge the prison of our beliefs and knowledge. Curiosity takes us to the domain of the unknown and helps us explore. When we enter the domain of the unknown and explore, we expand. The more we explore, the more such explorations become a part of us, and the more we expand. Creation is always in the domain of the unknown. When we create a new possibility, we are fully attentive to listening, and the whole of our being expands in the process. Thus, all these attributes are very fulfilling, and when we keep taking fast food, ignoring these essential nutrients, our lives become hollow, and we do not live with joy. That's why next time we feel like having an escape, we just need to ask a fundamental question to ourselves. Am I lacking those essential nutrients? Am I lacking love, compassion, awareness, curiosity, exploration, and creation in my life?
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