There is a motto that we learnt in school as part of the Scouts and Guides training — be prepared. They are just two small and simple words, but have the capability of making us achieve anything we want in life provided we adhere to it. What is the preparation that is needed? We need to prepare ourselves for what we need to do. We need to prepare ourselves for what is imposed on us and we can’t avoid. We need to prepare ourselves for those times when we may have nothing to do, nowhere to go and none to talk to. Yes, life is full of such possibilities and there is no choice left but to be prepared.
What do we prepare ourselves with? Stocking up our store with food supplies? Stocking up our bank account with more and more currency?
Buying gold or land? Well, that preparedness is all fine, but nothing of all this will mean anything when scarcity strikes.
The real preparedness is of the body, breath, mind and intellect.
Nothing needs to be done but to focus on these four daily. Keeping the body healthy needs certain preparedness. Be prepared to keep it fit and healthy and doing all that it takes everyday — exercise, sleep and the right food. We do not buy an expensive car and fill it up with low quality fuel, do we? Same is with the body. We have the most expensive car ever to go by. But we over-run the car at night sometimes, tanking up on junk fuel, not giving it the rest it deserves and sometimes not working it enough to keep the joints and hinges lubricated and the fat trimmed.
The breath needs preparation too. We are never taught the importance of proper breathing at home or in school. We simply breathe, because that is the first thing we began with and surely the last activity we finish off with. There are many courses on disaster management and crisis management going around now. Not many know that the first step to any management is aligning the breath. Right breathing leads to right thinking. Right thinking leads to right decisions. Right decisions lead to right actions. Right actions automatically yield the right results. Right breathing also has another dimension — feeling good. Both the emotion and the breath are inextricably united with each other.
The mind is constantly jumping in two directions, not even as systematically as the swing of the clock’s pendulum, but erratically. I like this. I don’t like this. This pendulum is constantly on the go. Going in the direction of what it likes, it takes the body, breath and intellect along — and always the choice may not be right. Sometimes it is ok, but that’s just by chance. Discipline of the mind is just this — I do what I have to do, whether I like it or not. I think what I ought to think, whether I like it or not. I speak what I got to speak whether I love or hate it.
When these three are prepared in this manner, the intellect is just a super-highway to the path of successes, where all the rules are laid, everything is fine. Be prepared is two words.It can be shortened to one big word. Discipline. Yes, nothing else works.
—Swahilya Shambhavi (www.swahilya.blogspot.com)