Remain still... amidst storm

It is not essential to react at every given situation, sometimes one needs to remain calm

As

an avid reader, you may find that you are able to connect your thoughts with the books that you read. Some of these thoughts constantly remain at the back of your mind. Once Oprah Winfrey, an American media proprietor, talk show host, actress, producer and philanthropist once said, quote: “When you don’t know what to do. Do nothing. Be still.” When we face a situation in our lives when we are lost and we don’t know what to do, many of us do nothing about it. But by doing nothing how many of us remain still? It is indeed very difficult to remain still or calm, when there is turmoil in our mind about not being able to do anything in the current situation. Our mind constantly seeks answers to several issues and problems pertaining to life. In such a scenario how can one remain still? There is bound to be constant upheavals within and outside our mind. But it is not impossible either.

I would like to narrate an incident that happened before and will support my thought on remaining still. In the year 2013-2014, the state of Andhra Pradesh was hit by torrential rains resulting into massive floods. Media houses all over the country covered the disaster by publishing human interest stories and doing photo features. Amidst this reportage, one of the national daily carried a combo picture of a man sitting on a rooftop while his entire house was seen submerged under water. If the water had to rise a few meters above even the roof where the man perched himself would have submerged.

In the second picture, the same man was shown searching his belongings, taking stock of what has been left or washed away. He was surrounded by several things that seemed to have flushed out in the nature’s fury.

In the first picture, the man sitting on top of the roof doing nothing, but just observing the nature’s wrath displayed the highest level of calmness or stillness. He knew the gravity of the situation yet he waited for the storm to subside. He did nothing, but he did not give up either. In that stillness he seemed to display not just his control over mind, but also his adaptability to any eventuality in life.

Once the situation returned to normalcy he got back to setting his house in order. He knew things would not be the same again. But he also knew that the situation he is currently in is not as bad as it was a couple of hours before.

When Oprah made that statement on being still, I believe she was hinting at this level of stillness. Even today for the tiniest problem we get baffled, we overreact. It makes the life even more tough and complicated. This man whose everything including his life was at stake did nothing, but remained still. In our problems, how many of us can actually display this kind of calmness? Maybe a very few.