LET’S EXPLORE ‘WAITING’
What happens to us when we wait...? Everyone of us finds ourselves waiting for something or someone. An event to ‘happen’, someone to arrive, a phone call, a letter, it could be the end of a term or end of holidays or exams. One could be waiting for a loved one or news of someone…
So what happens while the waiting is ‘happening’? There are physical and emotional reactions in the body and all are inter connected. Waiting leads to anxiety, stress, anger… feeling dejected and depressed.
These feelings then lead to moodiness. Different people react differently to the above feelings, some find solace in eating, while some cry it out, there are few who would just get into a shell or others would go all out to party. All this is the body’s defense mechanism to help put the actual feeling on the back burner. But does that help do away with the worry that the waiting causes?
When the worry and anxiety that accompanies waiting is pushed at the back of the mind by one’s indulging in various activities such as going on a food binge or a crying bout or even shutting off from what’s around us it is just avoiding of dealing with the real issue. The result is that we take on unnecessary stress, anger, fear, sense of dejection, and depression. We are simply internalizing the negative feelings. Instead if these very feelings are helpfully ‘processed’, talked out, understood, and dealt with, the result would be a healthy and peaceful mind.
