​Is becoming worried or not becoming worried a learnable habit?

Answer Podcast

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
So, is anxiety like a learned behavior? Yeah, continuing, continuing the software example. You know, there are certain softwares, if I use them again and again, they become like a default program.
So, then the default program can be changed. But, by default, if I am going to click a link and I have a particular browser as my default browser, by default that is going to open. If I don’t want to open that because it consumes too much power or whatever, then I have to go in, find out the settings and change those settings.
By default, that has become the browser for me. Similarly, for us, certain thought patterns have become default. So, as soon as I face a particular problem, then I start worrying.
I start worrying. And, fortunately, it is that the mental, the mental landscape or the mental layout, you could say, mental structure is changeable. Nothing is permanent.
So, one way is we change it. I could talk about three broad ways we can change it. One is just by training our thoughts.
Okay, I am going in this direction. I will not go in this direction. Let me get it back.
Let me not think about it. Let me think about this. Redirecting our thoughts.
Second is associating with people who are not so, who don’t give themselves up to anxiety so much. Because if we associate with people who are worried, quite often, some person may just be living peacefully, sitting peacefully, and somebody comes along and tells them, no, actually, you know, terrorists may attack us. And they know, terrorists may attack us.
Terrorists may attack us. Yes, terrorists can attack anyone that way. But, you know, I don’t have to be worried about that.
But you can guess, if somebody is just too worried about some things, they make misery loves company. So, people who are worried, they can’t tolerate. How can you be so peaceful? They make others also worried.
So, if people are habitually pessimistic or habitually stressed, habitually worried, we may have to keep a safe distance from them. And if we associate with spiritual people, then we see that they stay peaceful amidst situations. And we can also learn to be peaceful by their association.
And third is actually by experiencing, by connecting with spiritual reality. That is, we are Atma, that is consciousness, and that is Supreme Consciousness. Supreme Consciousness is also known as, in different traditions, God, Brahman, Absolute Truth.
Now, we, when we are in the material mode of functioning, we think of situation only in two possibilities. Things are in control or things are out of control. If things are in control, I feel confident, I feel powerful.
If things are out of control, I feel powerless, I feel fearful. But, if spiritual wisdom or spiritual realization, more precisely, it actually gives us an understanding that the reality is not just these two. Things may not be in my control, but still they are not out of control.
You know, they are still in God’s control. So, if we understand that God is always in control, then, okay, this situation, this is what I can do about it, let me do it, let me leave these two other things to God. And this is not just a matter of subjective feeling.
Actually, when we chant mantras, when we pray to God, at that time, we experience peace within. And then, that entrusting to God that which is not in our control, that becomes easier. So, when we do that, we can actually be much more peaceful.
So, that’s why, at one level, you know, chanting and praying, we may wonder, how does it help me deal with my practical problems? They are still there. But, when we chant, when we pray, when we study spiritual literature, that helps us understand that there is a higher reality that is in control. So, it says that don’t tell God how big your problems are.
Tell your problems how big God is. So, if we, when we are facing the problems, even when we turn towards God, please help me deal with this problem, please help me deal with this problem. It’s good to pray to God.
But, at that time, if we are going in front of God and we are problem conscious, then we don’t experience the security, the serenity that comes by connection with God. When we just focus on connecting with God at that time, we experience the security, that serenity and then we can see the problem for what it really is. The problem is there, but the mind imagines the problem to be much bigger.
So, tell the problems how big God is. That means experience God through meditation, experience God through prayer, experience God through spiritual study and then when we look at the problem, we will see, this problem is so big, but God is much bigger. And then we can deal with the problem.
So, by exercising our own thoughts, by redirecting our thoughts towards that which is in our control, by associating with people who don’t give into too much anxiety and by gaining realization through spiritual practice that that which is not in my control is not out of control. That is in God’s control. By that we can actually unlearn the habit of worrying and unlearn the habit of focusing.
Thank you.