When the mind is being over-whelmed by the continuous hammering of repeating dissatisfaction, disappointment, frustration, irritation, anger, grief, sorrow, or hurt, it’s normal that the mind will be in a state of great disappointment and despair, where it is lost, doesn’t know what to do with itself and life existence anymore, where it doesn’t care about its own well-being, not to say, to care for the well-being of others, where life, or continuing living seems to be meaningless no matter what, where it is under going a state of exhaustion or burnout dealing with certain prolonged challenging, difficult, disappointing, disturbing, hurtful, sorrowful, unpleasant, undesirable, and disagreeable affairs in its personal life, and/or in the world.
When that is happening, the mind needs to have the initiation of wanting to be free from that state of the mind, and have the basic ability to help itself, which is by reminding itself, that all these are impermanent. It will pass away eventually, without judgment or expectation.
Then the mind can try to move the attention away from all that, to be focusing on something else. Such as taking a rather long ‘leave’ from certain worldly duty and responsibility, or from study, or from work, or from family, or from a relationship, or from friends circle, or from the community, or from the social medias, and go travelling somewhere, and learning new things, not for building more new friendships or relationships, or to achieve something and be successful, but merely to be focusing on oneself, alone, for a prolonged period, not just for a short few days or few weeks.
The mind can also try to restore or boost its energy level by engaging in a more ‘uplifting’ lifestyle, such as engaging in certain gentle form (non-violence/non-aggressive way) of physical and mental fitness training activities, that involve twisting, forward bending, backward bending, side bending, inversion, balancing, and chest opening physical movements, and engaging in critical thinking mental training that involve attention, focus, and reasoning, as well as consuming a diet that can help to uplift the energy level, even if all these physical and mental effects are also impermanent, that can help to energize and uplift the state of mind for some time, but it’s not the solution.
When the mind is able to divert its attention onto something else, and have a few moments of quietness and calmness, while regaining certain energy level through engaging in a more ‘uplifting’ lifestyle, then the mind can start to observe or look into all those challenging, difficult, disappointing, disturbing, hurtful, sorrowful, unpleasant, undesirable and disagreeable affairs/experiences/conditions/situations/events that the mind thinks and believes is the cause of its state of great disappointment and despair, to understand what is really happening in the mind, by standing as a ‘third party’ looking into its own modification or thought activities, and performs inquiry towards what is the real cause of the despair state of mind.
It requires certain degrees of independence, patience, forbearance, acceptance, determination, non-association, non-identification, non-craving, non-aversion, non-judgment, and non-expectation, for the mind to help itself to recover or come out from the prolonged energy exhaustion or burnout.
If the mind doesn’t know how, or reluctant to help itself, and would rather to be continuing drowning in such despair state of mind, where it can’t look after its own well-being, can’t perform daily tasks for everyday living, can’t think properly, can’t eat, can’t sleep, can’t work, or can’t enjoy anything, then that is its own freedom and desire.
That’s why it’s highly important for the minds to be developing certain degrees of independence, patience, forbearance, acceptance, determination, non-association, non-identification, non-craving, non-aversion, non-judgment, and non-expectation, before it comes to the point of ‘drowning in great despair’ upon dealing with too much over-whelming and hammering life experiences.
It’s not about trying to help the world to be a better place. It’s not about trying to be a good person. It’s not about trying to be perfect or exceptional. It’s not about running away from difficulties, duties and responsibilities. It’s merely about do one’s best to be looking after oneself.
When the mind is well or fit enough to be looking after its own well-being, then only it can look after its worldly duties and responsibilities, its family, its relationships, its friendships, its community, its study, its work, or the surrounding environment, properly.
Inquire the truth of everything.
My Daily Yoga Practice 