Don’t sweat the small stuff is a common adage. Well, the fact is — small, or little, things upset us greatly. They also disturb our life’s tempo. This is, indeed, the cause of stress.
Studies show that your heart reacts strongly to small, unexpected trifles of daily life. When you don’t listen to your heart, or not pay attention to it, or not teach it to slow down, unsavoury events are bound to happen — things that may disrupt your life. In other words, you may pay a big price for being unmindful — frenzied heart beats, or dangerous rhythm disturbances. It’s believed that sudden cardiac deaths are most often caused by small hassles — not major stresses of life.
All of us go through 30-35 little heart ‘hassles’ each day — psychologists call them “annoying, irksome, stressful” — a ‘mini-chaos’ of our existence. If you don’t attend to such ‘alarm’ signals of your heart, as it were, you’ve asked for trouble.
Warning Beats
It’s best to sit down, relax, meditate, and listen to the ‘warning’ beats of your heart, as our philosophers suggest. When you unwind, and let go, at regular intervals, you’ll avoid a latent cyclone waiting to blow your heart and your life away.
It isn’t, of course, as easy as it sounds. Because, the nature of our emotions is sometimes warped — thanks to sudden emotional upsurges that surprise our brain’s best prepared plans. Remember, such prompts could quietly reside in your shirt pocket, provoking your heart to jump-start with a fit of heightened, frenzied vigour.
You cannot outsmart the trigger-switch by using your judicious brain, or mind, without ado. If you plan your move, the slippery customer gets more adept and speedy than your intent. In other words, the more adroit, or smarter you get, the ‘pretender’ is equal to the task. It pulls the wool over your eyes — you are now hapless and helpless at your own ingenuity.
It’s here that some of nature’s most basic tools work best. They tell you to go along with the prankster — although you may have no clue as to what it is — by sharing a joke, or hearty laugh, even at your own expense. This will help you to slow down, or cop out of a situation — and, say no. Remember, when you pause and ease your pace, you also become more alert — this is called ‘life’s uplifts.’ It could emerge in the form of life’s simplest pleasures — a smiling kid, an exquisite flower, or water wending its way through rocky crags, a lovely sunset, or soft, enchanting melodies of soulful music.
Wait & Act
You’d do well to keep cool, too — not attempt to be over-smart. Remember, it’s always good to play the waiting game — because, the trickster has a liking to ‘settle scores.’ It’s appropriate to get the better of its wily aims by being friendly to its memorandum — “Okay, I accept that the truth in us isn’t always beautiful, or alluring.”
Don’t you misjudge the ‘con artist’ — because it’s often one better than the ragged philosopher. It’d, therefore, be partially stupid, partially logical, partly human and partly divine too. It’d visit you impromptu — during an important meeting too — when you spill sauce on your boss’s suit. Likewise, it may remind you that life is not a feast — it’s something that needs to be fully experienced rather than being just led by situations, or circumstances. Put simply, the prankster is like a street car named desire — it’s meant to beep, or honk, for your attention, and help you slow down when you’re going crazy.
We all need these tricky messengers — and, their upsetting pranks — to survive and smile. They are life’s small, big reminders — they tell us to pay more attention to the gift of being alive.
