Deadlines Make Me Anxious. How Can I De-Stress?

Acharya Prashant

6 min
92 reads
Deadlines Make Me Anxious. How Can I De-Stress?
Break it down. Just ask yourself, “How much is to be done right now,” and that’s all. Beyond that I don’t bother. You know, how the Upanishads put it? They say, “Yes, it’s infinite but it’s also very immediate; very, very far, but I also know that it’s also very immediate.” So, I’ll focus on the immediacy. Why horrify myself with the thought of the infinite? I would rather remain humble and think only of the immediate. This summary has been created by volunteers of the PrashantAdvait Foundation

Questioner: Pranaam Acharya ji. I’m very grateful to be here in your presence. And while I’m here, I’d like to ask one question, I’d like to take the opportunity to ask this question about thought.

And in the subject of thought and my question is, I have a lot of thoughts, when it comes to deadlines, I have a lot of racing thoughts that’s caused me to have palpitations even when and it also wakes me up, it causes me to have restless sleep at night.

How can I be peaceful when I have to meet deadlines as such in this situation?

Acharya Prashant: There is a philosophical paradigm to this question. If there is something that you know is well within your reach, does that result in palpitations? No.

The ego gets scared when it thinks of something terribly big or terribly distant. And that causes it to be anxious, right? Now that which you think of, as big or distant or unattainable; we are talking of deadlines here and something else as well. So, remain attentive. That which the ego thinks of as big, distant, unattainable, if it really were intimate, easy, immediately within reach, would the ego still be afraid?

That’s the difference between the common perception of the highest and the wise one’s view of the highest. We remain anxious because we think of that as distant. And if it is distant then the ego is anxious. If it is big then the ego thinks that you know, ‘I am so small, that is so big, I’ll have to lose my smallness’— all kinds of problems. How will I reach there, I’m a petty thing.’ I’m also talking of deadlines here.

What if we could break that deadline into something more immediate? Let’s say, there is something that you have to deliver or submit on the fifteenth day from today. What if you break down the whole thing to just see, how much is to be done in the next two hours? I don’t want to look at what is to be done tomorrow. Tonight, before sleeping I have two hours. I only want to see how much is to be done in these two hours. Would you be equally anxious still?

That’s why all the wise ones said that is very near to you, your problem is that you are looking afar. If you will look a far you will be afraid and you will also miss the thing as we miss our deadlines. We are also talking about deadlines! Just as we miss redemption, liberation, the truth; we also miss deadlines because they appear big and distant.

Now make them come near, break the whole thing down and ask yourself just this question — “What is to be done this hour?” This moment is all I have, so I won’t look beyond the next two hours or beyond the next thirty minutes. If I start thinking of what is to be done till day end or month end or year end, I’ll be bogged down. The very thought will be so heavy, I’ll be crushed under it. I won’t even think of that.

When I look at how much I need to do right now; oh! it’s so manageable, there’s nothing in it. But if I look at the aggregate figure it appears so daunting; “Oh my god! This much is to be done this week!” Sir, a week is a long stretch. If you just look at what is to be done this hour, it’s very affordable.

Are you getting it?

Look at this moment. Look near and you are home. There are a lot of wise quips on that. They said, “Those who have to go far they just keep looking at their feet.” This was said about the Buddha also that when he was walking, he was just looking at the ground, just three steps ahead of him, not beyond that. It’s very interesting. The Buddha would not look this way into the horizon, he would look at the ground, just two or three steps. Beyond that I don’t bother.

Otherwise, the more meaningful the life, the bigger the mission, the more infinite the target and you start thinking of that target and you’re destroyed. Which means then life has to be deliberately kept meaningless. If you have a meaningful life, it will involve a humongous target. And if you think of the humongous target, you’re dead. So, if you don’t want to be that you’ll have to keep your target as petty and a petty target means a petty life, that’s a bad paradigm.

The target might be infinite. I have volition, control, authority only over the now. So, I don’t think too far ahead of myself; one hour, one day. Some sensible horizon is all that I care about, not fifty years. Something more immediate and that’s what spirituality is about.

There was a beautiful poster we made? Oh, a lot of people took it.

Spirituality is not the blaze of the beyond but the intimacy of the immediate.

“Spirituality is not the blaze of the beyond but the intimacy of the immediate.” That was way back in 2015. I don’t know whether that poster is even in circulation anymore.

Break it down. Just ask yourself, “How much is to be done right now,” and that’s all. Beyond that I don’t bother. You know, how the Upanishads put it? They say, “Yes, it’s infinite but it’s also very immediate, tad doore tadwantike (isha upanishad verse 5) very, very far, true; but I also know that it’s also very immediate.” So, I’ll focus on the immediacy. Why horrify myself with the thought of the infinite? I would rather remain humble and think only of the immediate.

This article has been created by volunteers of the PrashantAdvait Foundation from transcriptions of sessions by Acharya Prashant
Comments
LIVE Sessions
Experience Transformation Everyday from the Convenience of your Home
Live Bhagavad Gita Sessions with Acharya Prashant
Categories