Crises
are an integral part of human life.
Doubts, anxiety and even despair seize us mercilessly sometimes. They can be excellent opportunities for
personal growth, provided we deal with them effectively.
Personal
growth calls for some change. It may be
a change of attitudes, environment, job or something else.
Most
of us don’t like change. Change
frightens us with the uncertainty that inevitably accompanies it. Psychotherapist Sheldon B. Kopp wrote 4
decades ago (in his book, ‘If you meet
the Buddha on the road, kill him!’) that the neurotic who comes to a
therapist doesn’t want to change himself.
“His goal is to become a more effective neurotic.” He doesn’t want to give up his neurotic
feelings and attitudes because he is scared of the changes that would ensue. He would rather have his neuroticism and have
the therapist make him feel more comfortable with it.
Change
is challenge to face the unknown. The misery of the familiar is preferred to
the mystery of the unknown. Life is hard here, but at least I know the
terrain and its pitfalls – that’s the thinking.
Will I ever get to know the new terrain equally well?
I
was faced with that situation in 2001.
And I gathered enough courage to call it quits. It took me a while to get used to my new
environment which was almost entirely different from the previous one. Then I got used to it. “Man is a vile creature; he gets used to
anything,” says Dostoevsky’s protagonist in Crime
and Punishment.
But
we don’t have to get used to anything.
We are free to call it quits at any time, provided such an action is
necessary, and move to yet another unknown reality. It is not desirable to prefer the misery of
the familiar to the challenge of the unknown, if the familiar is bogging you
down.
Blind
alleys appear at certain phases of life’s journey. We should keep searching for the exit, for
the light that shimmers somewhere in the darkness. But if there’s no light in sight, if there’s
no reason to look for it any more, what shall we do? When everything seems lost, if we care to
listen, we can hear the gentle creak of the door of hope opening
somewhere. I do hear it.
It needs courage to find an exit. Gets difficult at times but nothing's impossible.
ReplyDeletePlease read and share your valuable opinion over: http://namratakumari.wordpress.com/2014/01/25/namo-bharat/
Happy Republic Day! :)
Republic Day greetings to you too, Namrata.
DeleteIts a coincidence that i am also planning to write my next post on Change My comp.was not working,now its fixed,will try to post by tomorrow.Happy Republic Day to you.And btw,good read
ReplyDeleteLooking forward to reading your view on change... I reciprocate your R Day greetings.
DeleteAh well.... I can tell u I simply detest changes. It is a psychological thing I know. But I even find it hard if my mom places my clothes or books at a different drawer or almirah dan wat I m accustomed to
ReplyDeleteNot just you, Ritesh, most people find change abhorrent. The fact, however, remains that change can sometimes work miracles.
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