...............................Chronological Planning vs Psychological Planning
There are two types of planning: chronological planning and psychological planning.
Chronological planning is planning on a timescale. You decide that you will get up at such and such a time, finish your morning routine by a particular time, reach the office at a particular time, and get certain tasks done that day at the office. This is alright. It is a practical way to organize your work in a way that can give the best results. This kind of planning with sincere action will take you from happiness to more happiness!
Psychological planning on the other hand, is planning in your head with no relevance to time or space. It is just constant serious planning going on in your head, over and above the chronological planning. It keeps you thinking that you are serious and dutiful. It is actually nothing but complex negativity being applied to the chronological planning that has already been done. You keep analyzing your plan, and getting into a dull state because all your energy is going into analyzing the plan again and again.
Psychological planning boosts your ego. It makes you feel great and worthy as you are handling things of a great magnitude. The resulting worry gives the ego a reason to survive. When you are free from worry, you are in bliss but you feel insecure as you are a 'nobody' with no identity.
Daily Awareness Practices
Y Just try this small exercise when you are by yourself: Just sit for a few minutes with your eyes closed. Keep a pen and paper with you. Don't focus your mind on anything. Just witness your mind. Just see what is going on in your mind. Almost as soon as you close your eyes, you will see that there is a continuous stream of thoughts flowing through your mind. There is continuous activity in your mind.
Write down, honestly, whatever thoughts come. Do this for five minutes. Now, sit down and read what you've written on the paper. You will be shocked! Whatever you have recorded on the paper is your inner chatter. If you read it, you will see how disconnected, how irrelevant your thoughts are! One moment you will be here, the next moment you will be in America, the next moment you will be in your office, the next moment you will be thinking of your children…! This is the state of your mind, this uncontrolled flow of thoughts. This is the mind you have entrusted your life to! This is the mind that generates all your worries. This is the mind that is living your life for you. If you simply understand this much, you have taken a quantum leap towards freedom from worry and inner chatter.
Y Just do this small test. Whenever you feel negative thoughts coming up, look into them and see where they are rising from. Watch. You will find that they always rise up from the navel to the mind. Continue to watch; go deeply into the source of your thoughts. You will merge with the source.
Y The way to worry is through the mind and the way out can also be only through the mind. But we keep searching for answers in all the wrong places; we search outside all the time without looking deeply into the root of worry. The solution cannot be found in outer world. It can be found only inside ourselves.
Just try telling yourself that you should not get worried. What will happen? You will create one more worry of not wanting to worry. Never say, 'Stop worrying'; it is utterly impossible. The only thing, stop worrying about your worries! What do I mean by not worrying about worry? Just see the worries and don't get perturbed by them. It is only when you get caught in repeating your worries to yourself in a worried fashion that the actual worry takes root. This is what I mean when I say, 'Stop worrying about your worries'. Just let them be. Don't start giving them life. Don't feed them with flesh and blood.
Y When you accept your worries, when you enter deeply into them, you will come to a tremendous understanding that all your worries are just your own creations. You will be able to see how your mind plays and causes tension in you. When you are worrying, allow yourself to enter deeply into it, with acceptance and clarity. Don't be afraid to enter into it. Remember that acceptance is not impotence. Acceptance is a great meditation technique. Acceptance releases a great energy and gives you clarity and liberation.
YJust decide not to feel miserable about anything. If any worry or guilt or sad incident comes to your mind, just observe it and smile and say, 'No, I am not going to be affected by you. What will you do?' Simply look at it and say this. Automatically the incident or guilt will not have any effect on you. By allowing it to attack you, are you going to gain anything? No! By looking at it and saying that you will not let it attack you, you are only avoiding misery. I am not asking you to run away from it. I am asking you to look at it and say this. Understand this point clearly. If you try to suppress these thoughts, they will keep lurking at the back of your mind and will threaten to come back at any time. Allow them to surface. Don't run away from your worries. Just don't magnify them by talking about them. Don't expend your energy on them. Just look at them and tell them that they are powerless; you will see that they automatically disappear.
Y Check yourself to find out if you are starting to feel comfortable with your worries. This is the scale to see if worries are controlling you or you are controlling your worries. If you are feeling comfortable talking about them repeatedly without taking any action, then worries are controlling you. If you don't linger on them and address them correctly, then you are controlling them!
Y If you are really interested in dropping your inner chatter and worries, you could try a small exercise: think of all the things that give you joy. Write them down and put your list where you will see it frequently. Make up your mind that you will allow your mind to linger on only these things and nothing else. For anything else, you will give it just enough energy to get it done and then forget about it. Try this exercise and you will see that you conserve a lot of energy. Remember, you are not pushing away anything that does not give you joy, you are simply not giving it any energy, that's all. Let your mind come back again and again to items on your list.
Y Again and again, scan your mind and see what is it that gives you joy. Then start following it. Once something inside you tells you that you are moving towards a sense of permanent joy, once you find conviction in yourself, re-position and adjust the matters concerning your life, orienting them towards this bliss. Every action or thought of yours should be towards feeling this bliss. Energy spent will then be energy gained. You will be always energetic.
Y All you need to do is try to live in the present, in the now and here. When you are in the present, you will feel and enjoy Existence. When you are in the present, you will move in tune with Existence. When you are in the present, Existence itself will teach you. When you have so many moments of the past weighing on you, you feel heavy. But when only the present moment is on you, you will feel light. Any worry is automatically about the future. Regret is about the past. When you notice yourself in the past or the future, bring your awareness gently to the present. Focus your energy on the person in front of you, the task at hand. Let your energy flow into what is around you in the present moment. You will automatically be in the flow of Existence. Your energy will automatically increase.
Y Every moment, Existence is changing. You are a part of Existence. So, you are getting updated every moment. It is a waste of time to dissect the past and feel guilty because you have changed. Guilt is looking at the past with updated intelligence.
Y Understand why you normally control your speaking out to others but do not bother about speaking inside - inner chatter. You don't respect yourself enough. So, you treat others like a plate of food but you treat yourself like a garbage can and dump in all kinds of negative thoughts. Just like poor eating habits cause cholesterol to accumulate in the arteries, constant worrying causes energy blockages in your being.
..........................................Meditation Exercises
Y People say, 'We have our work to do, bills to pay, deadlines to meet; how do we meditate then?' Here is a simple meditation technique: whether you have time to pay your bills or to meet your deadlines or not, you surely have time to breathe?
Otherwise, you would not be alive! Now, simply add awareness to your breathing, that's all. Just watch your breath. That is the simplest and most powerful meditation you can do. Every time you remember this technique, practice it. Soon, it will become a habit. When you infuse awareness into your breath, you will be in the present moment. Living in the present takes you to bliss. Simply add awareness to every inhalation and exhalation. To attain bliss, you don't need any separate time. You need not take time off and go to any retreat or meditation camp. You can continue with your daily activities. With the increased awareness that you will be creating, your deadlines and other targets will get done much more efficiently. You see, when you watch your breath, your awareness is intense and no thought can escape you unconsciously. When every thought starts passing through your awareness, you will automatically not create negative thoughts for yourself.
Y Become the watcher of your mind. If you bring your awareness acutely to this point and watch yourself for just a few hours, you will understand how your whole mind works. Just decide to be a watcher of your mind and the people around you. You will see how subtly your mind is continuously creating expectations in every small thing you see. When you look inwards with awareness you can observe how your mind works, how your worries take root. We all keep collecting words, creating opinions and going over them in a repeated fashion. This is how worry takes root and reinforces itself. The very watching will dissolve the mind and its worries.