I bet there is no mortal on the
face of this earth who wouldn’t have felt let down by circumstances at least
once in their life. To the contrary, there must have been instances where they
have felt extremely elated and content. It is in these circumstances that the
majority of us tend to roil in the emotions that flow there from and refuse to
accept the old adage “Well, that is part of life!” Instead, we either get
bogged down by the negativity or revel in the positivity of the moment and let
it consume us. Either way, we become the circumstance or even worse, the
circumstance becomes us. Peek into our past and we will find umpteen number of
those instances.
Look back at the time we failed
to pass an academic test that we prepared for like no other, the time we broke
up with somebody who we thought was the love of our life, our worst day at
office in our career, the time somebody let us down so bad that we stopped
trusting people in general. I bet we can
all share that sentiment wherein we feel so dejected with others, with
ourselves and everything around. We fail to think straight and get consumed
with sorrow or desperation, which only worsens the situation. Well, the
stronger ones get right back up and move on. Do you wonder how the stronger
ones do that? I will come right back to it a little later.
Now let us consider the
situations wherein we felt extremely elated and on top of the world, like for
example we get an unexpected break in our business, we get a salary hike far
higher than expected, we inherit an estate from a dead aunt, we develop a
winning streak in a sport. We feel so happy that we develop a new vigour and
confidence in life which many a time surpasses all the negatives and even
throws caution to the wind. We go on a roll and many a times become complacent
which will at some point hence, prove to be our downfall. Well, the stronger
ones accept the success but don’t get consumed by it. Do you wonder how the
stronger ones do that? This is how:
They understand that they are the
screen and not the movie! You may ask me what gobble-de-gook that is. Let me
explain. When a movie is projected onto a big screen, does the movie screen
change shape and size according to what happens in the movie? No. A bomb may
explode in the movie, but the screen does not explode. Two lovers may be
romancing in the movie, but the screen does not blush. A building maybe on fire
in the movie, but the screen does not catch fire. Similarly, our body, our job,
our relations, our successes, our failures are all part of the film called
life. There is a deeper us within this body. The true us - our soul - the screen!
Whatever happens in life, we feel the impact of the events. We feel the changes
but ‘the true us’ does not change. The stronger ones understand this and hence
assimilate success and failure in equal measure and move ahead in life and are
content and peaceful.
So I conclude by leaving you to
decide whether you want to continue to accept that you are the movie or to
understand that you are the screen, resilient and strong, irrespective of what
is screened on it!
