Calm
I think we all seek calm in our lives. Even if we sometimes seek excitement, we look for a time and place of calm, of peace. We look to eliminate stress. I think we need calm, at least periodically, to rest, to think, to ready ourselves for the next challenge. I believe that the people who never find a time and place of calm are the people I worry about on the streets, in business and every-day pursuits. I believe they are the angry ones, the ones who are always in a hurry, the ones who hurt themselves, and sometimes others, in their frantic rush somewhere. Recent newspaper articles point out that even vacations can add to stress, partly because they have tended to be more extravagant.
How do we find calm? How do we achieve the peace we seek? It's not through giving up. We don't need to drop out to find calm. If we drop out, then we no longer need calm because we've achieved torpor, we've found lethargy. It's not through abandoning contact with others. We can be calm in crowds, and sometimes calm the crowd. And it's not through excessive physical activity, although exercise can help achieve better rest. Calm is a state of mind and we can only achieve it by better ways of thinking.
To think calmly is to be calm. To avoid negativity, to focus on the positive, to think about the good things in our lives will lead to calm. To be optimistic, to avoid dwelling in the past, to plan for the future in a hopeful spirit will lead to calm.
The great film director Alfred Hitchcock was asked how he maintained such serenity, why he never seemed perturbed. He replied that he always tried to look at things as though he was remembering them three years later. There's a profound lesson to be learned from Hitchcock. One, everything looks better when time has passed. The human mind seems to filter out the bad in experiences and to remember only the good. But, more importantly, Hitchcock implicitly recognized that there is something good in every experience. Thinking about the good enabled him to be calm.
Let's all try to be calm as much as we can. In times of stress, think calmly. No matter how hard we push, let's set aside some time for peaceful thought and reflection for the elimination of stress. Even if only for a short time, it will help us be better at what we're doing and it will set a good example for others around us who may be caught up in so much stress that they can't function well or at all.
4-18-05
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