Sat gives step by step advice on how to overcome anxiety and discomfort.
Question: I am not in a good emotional place right now. I cannot sleep, I have a lot of anxiety, and I have become very vindictive and cannot forgive others. I do all of the meditations that You have given us and used to feel the effect of Stop in my life. But now I feel that I have to go back on the anti-anxiety medications.
Sat: This happens when you do not practice Stop or the other tools and you go with your mind too much. This will cause the thoughts to become repeated for you, to the extent that you get exhausted and it is making you crazy. In other words, they cause you to suffer. You have gradually let go of your practices, because had you not read your thoughts and surrendered to them, and had you not judged yourself and others, you would not be in this emotional state.
This is a fact, when you absolutely do not open and read the letters that the mind sends you, how is it possible to worry?
Each and every one of our senses, such as hearing, sight, taste, smell and touch are like the tentacles of an octopus. To be free, we have to continuously bring them ‘in’; we have to bring our senses back to the center of our Being. When you pay attention to the outside world, or read one of the old letters from your mind, you become tired and desperate and you lose your ability to cope. My first prescription for you is to not blame yourself for showing reactions to your thoughts. This is because by doing that, you are going with your thoughts again and then you face two intense situations (reading the old and repeated thoughts and blaming yourself for reading them) which exhausts you both mentally and physically. Please listen to Me!
I will repeat it again, what you have done so far is not important; the first step is to not blame yourself. And the second point is for you to know that what others say or do does not affect your happiness or unhappiness, because it is your own reactions that cause your misery, not their reactions towards you. Their words hit the wall of the room too ... would the wall get upset? It is not important what your husband, neighbor, or anyone else has said; if you do not react to them, they will not cause problems for you.
Let whatever is bothering you take you deeper. In other words, the instant something from outside or inside bothers you, tell yourself, “This is a sign that I have to pay more attention to my Inner … to my main core.” Sit in silence; put candles, incense, flowers, music, etc. around your house and turn your home into a shrine to encourage you to go within more and more. Designate a place in your home where you can take refuge and let loose in the bosom of silence, until you taste the effect of it for yourself. Right now, you have read your thoughts and emotions so much that you cannot stand it anymore, and you cannot let go and forgive yourself or anyone else, and this is not your fault! You have sat yourself down under an umbrella whose only job is to show you beauty and ugliness.
The best thing for you is to listen to Me and do what I tell you, so that you can remove yourself from being under the umbrella of duality and going instead under the umbrella where there is no conflict. You only have to make an effort and not be lazy about it. Do not allow the water that has come from the heavens and has been poured into your hands to seep out through your fingers!
Participate in satsangs (spiritual gatherings) more often, watch our DVDs, fill your house with the sound of bhajans (devotional songs), listen to things that are worthy and valuable, look at beautiful things. All of your five senses have gone outward and because of that they have weakened … you have to bring them all back in. Put a Divine wall around yourself! Socialize with people who give you Divine nourishment, and if there are people in your family with whom you do have to associate, make that an opportunity for you to go deeper. In other words, accept that God has placed those people in your life so that by bothering you, they make you practice more. Say to yourself ‘I will no longer be fooled by this.’