Believes and Mental Strength

When you go to a religious place or pray you won't usually think how that is affecting your mind and body. You will pray and think of God and you will get going with your daily routine. I am also like that. But recently, I found out a very interesting relationship between belief (in God, in religious rituals) and mental strength.

I used to practice some yoga, meditation and also used to do fasting on auspicious days until few of years ago. Even though it is not an easy task for normal people like us to stick to those practices, I continued with it successfully. When I become a mom my priorities shifted. I got some solid excuses of motherhood so that I drifted away from all the religious practices.

I never realized that, when I was following all those spiritual practices, in addition to help me watching my weight, those practices were helping me to watch my mind as well. (Sounds very serious right? )

Well, I figured this out pretty recently.

I noticed that whenever I have to face something challenging in life these days, I feel so much under pressure and stressed out. It didn't take much to drain my energy these days, it didn't take much to make me worry or feel sad.

The interesting thing is that I used to be very optimistic and easy-going.  I used to shake out my troubles pretty fast and was able to forget/conquer/solve the challenges at a descent amount of time. And for the past few years it is not happening that easily. I was never been able to figure out exactly why it was happening? I thought I am loosing all my analytical and problem solving skills as I grow older and started brooding over that as well.
One day all of a sudden it strikes me that, may be all this happens because I am not giving enough food to my mind, so that the mind could stay sharp and focused. So the mind could stay strong . And what exactly is that mind food for me - all those spiritual practices.  When I was following those practices I had more control over my mind. I could say no to a favorite food of mine if I wanted to( If you enjoy food you know how tough that is )But not any more . Why ? Lack of mind control.  Isn't  this exactly what all our sacred books and gurus are trying to teach us as well. Control your mind and hence control your life ( I know I made this line, but you get the point)

So if think you are not as sharp or focused as you used to be, you can't control your mind as you used to be try this simple trick. Try to empty all thoughts out of your mind for 5 minutes a day. Increase the time as you need if feels like it. You will see the difference. This will also help you to keep a positive attitude towards life.