Looking after Begum post her surgeries reminds me of the days when Mithun had an operation when he was a baby. I remember being completely sleep deprived as I am now, and yet being fully alert and able to administer attentive care around the clock, besides multi-tasking simultaneously in all the other areas of my life that demand my personal involvement. What intrigues me as I observe myself from a detached space within my own head during such times, is the amazing ability of the mind to control the body if one so chooses.
I know it was seeing my father's training to withstand intense pain as a fighter pilot when medication could not be administered that impacted me greatly as a child, and even before I became a teenager I had begun to teach my body to listen to the rational interventions of my mind. In doing this as a conscious practice you therefore teach yourself to not function purely on the immediate responses your body signals.
This has also helped me greatly as a painter. In living the life I choose where I am involved with many things that often encroach on my time in the studio during the day, I have had to work long and late hours on my paintings when the day officially closes for others. If my schedule demands this then my mind suspends all fatigue to a place which does not distract me and it remains away from my consciousness till I choose to examine and acknowledge it.
The rational self is a great facilitator to many areas of mediation with the self and I always encourage all those I come to know to attempt to believe in this phenomenal latent human ability that each of us possess. I rely greatly on it and wish more people could benefit from this cultivated discipline in their lives. All it requires is for the individual to expand the boundaries of their tolerance, and know that fear is fed by panic which hemorrhages energy leaving one vulnerable and weak, so don't invite it in!
(The accompanying photographs of Begum, on this posting, has been taken before her surgery.)
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