My mom and I talk about everything and anything under the Sun. I am grateful to be able to do that with her. Firstly because I don’t have to tell her what kind of a person I am or what my intentions are. She knows me through and through and this takes away that extra effort one subconsciously takes while having a conversation with a stranger or someone who is new in your life. I know I can have a completely unfiltered conversation with my Ma. Since I don’t need to spend any energy in projecting myself in front of her, I am totally and completely free to use all my energies in being completely there and in the moment with her. I can also be very mindful of our talks and topics. What this does is very beautiful – it reflects in the nature of our talks, it reflects in the depth in our talks and it reflects in how strong our bond is. 

During one such conversation, we were discussing things that Sadhguru and Louise Hay say. We were specifically talking about what these two say about we being the best version of ourselves in order to live a beautiful life, a life that we love. Sadhguru says that we must create ourselves in such a way that we should be completely happy and blissful about who and what we are. Louise Hay says that everything we feel inside our body, any symptom or illness stems from an emotion that we have stored inside of us, and in order to be in a state of wellbeing, we must tackle all these pent up or hidden emotions and release them. 

So after a point, we were talking about how to handle ourselves when we are constantly faced with a person who irritates us. How do we maintain our calm and bliss when the other person is always around and continues to be himself/herself. Usually, things that this person says or does would anger us, irritate us, cause us to lose our temper at times, basically cause us to deviate from our blissfulness. 

So what do we do? 

Consider this: when our inner peace is being jeopardized by the words or actions of another person, we instinctively rise up to ‘REACT’. Our options for our reaction can be – angry words, retaliate with strong words, let our ego take over and hence get into a possibility of the situation getting out of hand. In almost all options of available choices in our striving to react, we would be subjecting ourselves to hurt and disappointment and a lot more. 

Consider this other approach: when the person has said or done something that pokes at your inner peace, instead of reacting…you RESPOND. The way you respond is completely in your control and it is your consciously chosen way of responding in that moment. You take that PAUSE and decide in which way you are going to respond. We can respond by – leaving that room, by telling that person that what he/she has done is not right and that you would have a conversation or dialogue with him/her at a later time, you could explain to the person how they could have handled the situation better so that nobody’s peace would be affected. 

The way you chose to respond is your own, your personal choice. It is a choice you make to ensure your peace of mind, your inner bliss. 

In the moment that you pause, you actually attune yourself to being mindful. Mindful of the actual situation and mindful of the most important person in that situation – you.

So…take that moment to PAUSE. Stop reacting. Instead, choose to RESPOND.