In
our life, we take many things for granted. We assume that those things will
continue in future and we do not need to make efforts to retain those. Taking
some things for granted allows us to focus on fewer things, which improves our
performance and leads to success. Think how difficult our life would be if we
were to focus on everything or think, plan and work on 20 things at the same
time, every day! So, while this habit allows us to succeed in our areas of
interest, with time we forget that even though we do not need to actively work
on some things, we should not take those for granted either!
A
serious illness can act as a “wakeup call” for most of us. We realize that when
we can’t even take our health “for granted”, what more certainties do we have
in life?
“Loss of health can
lead us to serious insecurities”
Every
human mind is “wired” in a way where it will try to survive. And events of
serious illness are the moments of “truth” where the conscious as well as
subconscious minds must be on their best to fight the external ailment. But,
especially if illness can prolong, one can be left wondering about one’s own
safety and this can lead to feelings of insecurities in life. While some of
this is natural and expected, too much of anything is not good. Therefore, we
should try to avoid doing too much of worrying.
Most
of us do not realize that good health is an outcome of our activities and ways
of life. If we play by the rules, most of the time we are safe. If we violate
the rules of nature, we are at risk. We may be saved by virtue of our good
luck, but luck does not help same person all the time. If we realize that we
are responsible for our health and we need to actively protect it, the battle
is won.
Incidents
of serious illness should lead us to “prioritize” things in our life. For
example, if we were prioritizing our career over our family and an illness scar
makes us realize that we were going to lose both career and family and “in the
end”, our career and degrees won’t count, we shall be in for a shock. Times of
illness are where we play by the “basic rules”. No amount of money can secure
us proper health care, as we have seen time and again where celebrities and
very rich people have also suffered because the healthcare professionals
assigned to them did not do their duties right. A “family” can really make
difference in such cases.
The
other day I was watching a movie named “Rules Don’t Apply”. A big businessman
avoided marrying late into his life and depended on hired employees for most of
his work. But those employees could just “resign” and go away. Could he find
trusted person every time? It is more difficult to find an honest person in
this world, than discovering a goldmine.
We
hope that the current situation of pandemic and bad news from all around also
forces our society to think about its priorities as a whole. Were we valuing
the right things? Should we have taken things for granted as we did and should
we have prioritized material successes over human values? The answers are
simple, but the trick is to sink those deep into our minds so that we never
forget those.
Hope
this crisis brings out something better in all of us and as a society, we
become a better one with time.
सर्वे भवन्तु सुखिनः सर्वे सन्तु निरामयाः।
सर्वे भद्राणि पश्यन्तु मा कश्चिद्दुःखभाग् भवेत्।।
sarve bhavantu sukhinaḥ sarve santu nirāmayāḥ|
sarve bhadrāṇi paśyantu mā kaścidduḥkhabhāg bhavet||
“May all be happy; May
all be free from infirmities; May all see good; May none partake suffering.”
-
Rahul Tiwary
