Sometimes, we face such huge distress that everything seems dark. How can we deal with such times?

By reducing our working frame. 

If we start thinking about what will happen to us after one year, we will become overwhelmed, paralyzed, paranoid, for the variables and unknowns are too many. 

To work constructively, we need to reduce our working frame to manageable units of time such as just one day. We can challenge ourselves, “Yes, this time is tough. But for this one day, can I not freak out, not hyperventilate, not collapse under pressure?” If one day seems too long, we can reduce our working frame to just one hour. 

If we try, we can surely keep ourselves together for one hour. And when we do so, we can pause, take a few deep breaths, thank God for keeping us together. When things around us are discouraging, we need to encourage ourselves; we can appreciate ourselves for that hour’s efforts and prepare ourselves for the next hour’s battle. 

Gita wisdom can help us reduce our working frame. It reminds us first that everything in the world is temporary, meaning that even the darkest of times are temporary. Second, that we are indestructible souls; we have weathered many storms in the past and we will weather this storm too if we just tolerate (02.14). And helping us weather such storms is the Supreme Being, who stands by us during our travels and shelters us in our travails. Guided by him, we can become spiritually conscious and materially resourceful. 

When we thus reduce our working frame, we will navigate through dark times and emerge stronger. 

 

Think it over:

  • What does it mean to reduce our working frame amidst distressing times?
  • How does spiritual knowledge help us reduce our working frame?
  • Consider one challenge facing you now. To deal with it better, how can you reduce your working frame?

 

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02.14 O son of Kunti, the nonpermanent appearance of happiness and distress, and their disappearance in due course, are like the appearance and disappearance of winter and summer seasons. They arise from sense perception, O scion of Bharata, and one must learn to tolerate them without being disturbed.

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