You get used to the current life quickly. You are attached to the current level of comfort. This attachment to your current life & lifestyle makes you less resilient and less adaptable, both mentally & physically.
To become mentally resilient, adaptable & strong, you need to work on primarily at four levels - EMOTIONAL, MENTAL, PHYSICAL & SPIRITUAL
A. Emotional Level -
This section covers attitude & belief level, both are interconnected. Your beliefs play a pivotal role in shaping your personality and have an effect on your attitude.
1. Become more objective; reduce subjectivity:
The universe basically, is objective; you are subjective. You don't perceive the things as they are, you perceive the things as you are or as per your beliefs, experiences, personality, hunches, bias, prejudices & so on.It's important to realize that the majority of the world may not be concerned with your well-being. While there are exceptions, many people are indifferent to what happens to you or the world; even if they take notice, they often quickly forget and continue with their lives. People have a very short memory! People often have a great many things to take care of. The only thing people care about is their needs. It can be emotional, financial and so on.
There's a difference between the actual event & your perceptions, judgments about the event.
As the universe is objective, there's no object good or bad here. Good or bad is all in your perceptions & intentions. These are subjective to each person; these form the subjective reality. In our daily lives, we often use subjective terms as if they were objective or definitive, such as 'justice' or 'bad events.' Justice is a vague concept, what's considered to be just to you, is not just to the others. Considering this obscurity, leaders decided to set 'the court of law' not 'the court of justice'. Law is objective, everyone needs to follow.
Subjectivity or the subjective human nature makes you more rigid, in turn affects adaptability. Being less adaptable means less resilience & agility.
2. Be mindfully detached & non-judgmental towards everything & everyone:
Building emotional resilience can be achieved by developing critical thinking skills and cultivating an objective outlook on life.
As per The University of Louisville -
"Critical thinking is the intellectually disciplined process of actively and skillfully conceptualizing, applying, analyzing, synthesizing, and/or evaluating information gathered from, or generated by, observation, experience, reflection, reasoning, or communication, as a guide to belief and action."
Again, the pre-requisite for critical thinking ability is an objective outlook towards everything. This can be developed by learning to ignore unwanted irrelevant data & information. One can filter off the unwanted irrelevant data & information by being mindfully detached from them.
You need to be mindfully detached from the things that are out of control, you need focus only on what's controllable & what's relevant to you. You need to develop non - judgmental attitude and be mindfully detached from everything & everyone.
Attachments are a form of ego! The more attached you are more rigid you become! Rigidity is death! Adaptability is life!!
Charles Darwin's theory of evolution correctly emphasizes the survival of the fittest. Fitness results from adaptability and agility. While not everything Darwin proposed may be accurate, most of his ideas are relevant and true.
To be frank, most of your sufferings or disappointments are due to your judgements, attachments & distorted perceptions. These three elements are closely interconnected. Falling into one of these traps often leads to the others, and starting with one typically compels the initiation of the others as well.
"If you are distressed by anything external, the pain is not due to the thing itself but to your own estimate of it; and this you have the power to revoke at any moment." -MARCUS AURELIUS
The person who is more attached has more emotions, higher the emotions, lesser will be the agility & adaptability.
3. Counter Ruminocity (reactivity) by becoming immune to emotions & avoiding drama:
In Ninjutsu, as well as other martial arts styles, practitioners are trained to remain detached and non-judgmental towards both their own emotions and those of their opponent. The focus is placed entirely on observing the opponent's body cues, which indicate the forthcoming attack. Developing a high level of focus is essential in life. During a duel, you learn to become mindfully detached from all internal disturbances, such as emotions of fear and anxiety. You are also trained to conceal these emotions to prevent your opponent from discerning them and gaining an upper hand.
Life is bound to present challenges at some point. If you haven't faced them yet, it's wise to be prepared. This doesn't mean dwelling on potential problems, but rather having a plan of action ready. Instead of fixating on the issue, concentrate on your response strategy. It's akin to investing in an insurance policy!
If you are already hit, never be emotional or sad for too long. It's a waste of time. Whenever you find yourself brought to your knees, it's not the situation or problems that cause the most damage, but rather the reactions driven by your emotions.
"Over-reactivity is a curse to humanity!!"
The more emotional you are, the more chances of you getting manipulated by the people. Samurais were trained to master their emotions, avoid drama, and eschew romantic entanglements to maintain focus and discipline. Some may argue that this does not make one feel alive, that it is not truly living, and so forth. One should understand that the universe is objective, and it doesn't care about your emotions or feelings. It's operating in its own way. Despite getting trained to be anti-emotional, anti-romantic and anti-drama, young trainees find it difficult to adapt.
The root of over-reactivity is emotion! Humans are emotional because of subjectivity & ego!
For warriors, becoming anti emotional is a necessity, why? Imagine, you are about to start a duel, suddenly you are afraid of the foe, or you start to feel love about your wife or daughter. The foe will finish you within seconds. Emotions make you lost, while focusing or waging a battle!
How can you become anti-emotional?
Note that Zen philosophy doesn't advocate emotional repression but emotional regulation. There's a difference between the two! Repression affects mental health, if not in some way emotions find an outlet, sometimes in hostile circumstances, which may cause huge damage to you & the relationship. Emotional regulation is about regulating the emotions in any hostile situations, reducing their intensity & letting them out in favorable, less hostile situations. Note that anti-emotional or calmness is nothing but the product of an objective outlook towards everything.
Life is not just about experiences or experiencing emotions; it is about finding the purpose, living for the purpose & achieving the purpose without fail.
It's attachment or ego creates the drive for emotions to get something or experience something. I never ever had understood why Buddhism doesn't advocate arts, music or anything creative. A Buddhist monk isn't allowed to enjoy these stuffs for this reason - he gets attached to the music or art, in turn fuel desires, desires frustrations!
Become immune to certain emotions, if you can't be anti-emotional. Let's be very frank! Becoming anti-emotional is advisable for samurai monks. It's not for everyone! Achievement comes through the persistent practice of meditation, which is founded on the principles of mindful detachment and non-judgmentalism, disciplines that are not easily mastered. It demands decades of consistent practice, but the results are remarkable. Upon mastery, one is said to experience spiritual bliss, devoid of any worldly emotions, thus becoming anti-emotional. Your mind will be like clear water, devoid of any impurities, that is, free from emotions.
Achieving a state free from emotions may not be practical for everyone, especially in a world where businesses capitalize on emotions. However, it is possible to attain such a state by regularly engaging in mindfulness meditation, and by practicing mindful detachment and non-judgmentalism. It's important to prepare your mind to remain detached from all things and people. Whenever you notice, yourself becoming attached to something or someone, recall the principles of mindful detachment and non-judgmentalism and take a step back. Strive to live a life that is self-sufficient and fulfilling.
In the upcoming part, we'll be learning about 'breaking fears' & other techniques to enhance mental resilience, adaptability & agility, also about how to be resilient & adaptable spiritually as well as physically.
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Thank you so much for reading!
YaDu,
On behalf of Get Inspired Spiritually.
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