I am the way I am

When Albert Einstein was making the rounds of the speaker's circuit, he usually found himself eagerly longing to get back to his laboratory work. One night as they were driving to yet another rubber-chicken dinner, Einstein mentioned to his chauffeur (a man who somewhat resembled Einstein in looks & manner) that he was tired of speechmaking.

"I have an idea, boss," his chauffeur said. "I've heard you give this speech so many times. I'll bet I could give it for you." Einstein laughed loudly and said, "Why not? Let's do it!" When they arrive at the dinner, Einstein donned the chauffeur's cap and jacket and sat in the back of the room. The chauffeur gave a beautiful rendition of Einstein's speech and even answered a few questions expertly.

Then a supremely pompous professor asked an extremely esoteric question about anti-matter formation, digressing here and there to let everyone in the audience know that he was nobody's fool. Without missing a beat, the chauffeur fixed the professor with a steely stare and said, "Sir, the answer to that question is so simple that I will let my chauffeur, who is sitting in the back, answer it for me."

This is what I call “presence of Mind”. The ability to think and act calmly and efficiently, especially in an emergency. This happens when the mind is under our full control. It’s a natural gift. Its instinctive. It’s the ability to think out of the box. So, do I mean to say that those who do not have this gift are at a loss? No, certainly not. It can undeniably be developed. Because the mind is affectionately called ‘monkey mind’. And because the monkeys can be trained to do what you want.

Blessed are those who are gifted with this ability. But for those who are not, here’s some tips. The brain needs some exercise to be alert and fragile to execute presence of mind. Practicing brain stimulating vocabulary activities like solving crosswords & jumbles, numerical activities like Sudoku & Kakuro, solving brain teasers, riddles, puzzles……….. anything that stretches the mind a little more. Watching good, clean standup comedies helps a lot. These comedians have a great presence of mind. But the key word here is GOOD and CLEAN! One more good news is that some of the video games that our kids play help them to think faster and respond quickly. So try playing these games with the kids. Double gain here. We can have a control on what kids play in the computer.

If you are game for more deeper mind and soul exercises--yogasanas and breathing exercises which teach our mind to concentrate more and be alert are for you. The pinnacle of all these is meditation. The best way to train the mind to be calm.

But the question here is consistency. Remember it takes time to develop a sharp mind. Giving up half way does not help. We have already learnt that patience and hard work always pays.

All said and done there is one key factor in which the mind has to be trained........
To remind us TO BE OURSELVES. Tall or short, fat or thin, sharp wit or dumb, WE ARE WHAT WE ARE and we have to be proud of our own selves. If we do not have presence of mind, so what? Shrug it off and be cool. Remember? AYE, LYE and FLY ……is the key. Isn’t that what life teaches us?