BLESSINGS OF GOD
Taken for Granted
Sunday Times of India, February 16, 2020 carries the following article under the heading ‘To breathe is a luxury’.
FROM struggling in the past few years, Maneesha Ramakrishnan (50) has progressed to liking her feeble, hoarse voice. Her presence at home is marked by her breathing through a tracheostomy tube (for oxygen) on her neck. “To breathe is a luxury. Now, children laugh as they hear me breathe. My voice sounds funny to them and that’s joy for me”, she says.
She is one of the survivors of the Carlton tragedy that shook Bengaluru ten years ago, on the 23rd February afternoon. She was working in a private company on the seventh floor of the building. The toxic fumes she inhaled changed the course of her life. “My vocal folds and windpipe got stuck to each other. The larynx was affected equally. I lost my voice. That’s why I struggle to speak,” says Maneesha, whose smile is still infectious. Her courage can be felt from the following words, she says “I don’t call myself a victim. I have braved it all through. I was never depressed”.
When you suffer some kind of damage, either internally or externally, keep your patience. Be emptyminded for a while. If you give this chance to your mind, it will soon release a strong energy and this energy will provide you the help required in any untoward situation.
The story of this braveheart teaches us some great lessons. Human beings possess the ability to bounce back from seemingly gloomy predicaments. This ability is known as resilience. Resilience is a law of nature. It means the ability to recover quickly from illness, change, or misfortune. It is found everywhere—in the plant world, the animal world and the human world.
Resilience in physics refers to the ability to return to the original form after being bent, compressed or stretched. Dr. Bruce McEwen, Head of Laboratory of Neuroendocrinology at the Rockefeller University has researched this subject and has concluded: “The human brain is very resilient. Give it a chance and it will make every effort to repair itself.”
To realize this potential, one must demonstrate the quality of ‘patience’. When you suffer some kind of damage either internally or externally, keep your patience. Be empty-minded for a while. This is what Dr. McEwen has called giving the mind a chance. If you give this chance to your mind, it will soon release a strong energy and this energy will provide you the help required in any untoward situation.
Studies show that the mind has enormous potential. And that potential can be tapped by the power of resilience. In a normal situation, this potential remains dormant. When one has any kind of unusual experience, the brain becomes active and starts unfolding its hidden energy. And if it is given a chance, it will certainly recover all the losses. The only condition is that you should not disturb or hinder its natural process by some unnatural activity.
Another lesson from this is to remind ourselves of the untold blessings that we enjoy. If this fact were not so often lost sight of, people would never become victims of negative thinking or take to constantly complaining. In their thinking, they would always be positive, and positive thinking is undoubtedly the source of all kinds of good things.
There are no less than seventy-eight organs in every human body. All these organs work in perfect coordination. This is why a person is able to perform his innumerable activities so smoothly. If one or more organs were to fail, normal life for human beings would become almost impossible. Moreover, these organs of the human body function involuntarily and unflaggingly. If these organs had to be operated in the way that a machine has to be, man would never be able to do any other work. He would be too busy making all these organs function.
Resilience is a law of nature. It means the ability to recover quickly from illness, change, or misfortune.
This realization makes us conscious of great blessings of the Creator. We realize that our Creator has bestowed us with the capacity to overcome the challenges that are thrown our way. The Creator has equipped us with the necessary means to address our problems. Hence, we should cultivate a feeling of gratitude for the Creator. The realization of being endowed with such great blessings makes a person a positive thinker in the complete sense of the term. In this way he will become a healthy member of society.