Baba says, ‘transform reasons to solutions‘. When there are reasons, Baba says, there is also fear and worry. And where there is fear and worry, there cannot be peace and happiness. So, the key is to become free from reasons or complaints.

We live in stressful times and it is easy to let the stress get to us. There are events and crisis happening at a macro level and there are events occurring within my home. If I allow them to dictate how I feel internally, influence my stage, then I will always live a life of anxiety. I need an inside out approach where I first be, then do.

My identity is – peaceful soul and I am a child of God. Let me learn to stay seated on this seat of self-respect before I engage with the world- people, work, news…whatever.

When I do that, I am able to work with what I have and make the most of it. We are in the middle of a pandemic – rather than panic, constantly read about and rewind in my mind negative prognosis and thoughts, let me practice touching base with my original religion of peace. Given the facts, what do I need to do in terms of precautions? Let me take those actions and not worry about what might happen. Stress weakens my ability to handle the crisis or situation since it takes away my ability to think clearly by depleting mental resources. It also has been shown to weaken my immunity.

Sometimes, we say, ‘Baba, I didn’t mean to do that but that person said this or did this’, ‘Baba, I will change after she changes’. Irrespective of what someone else said or did, Baba says, pay attention to how you show up. If I am soul conscious, I see beyond the superficial and understand the underlying intent- we’d be surprised that most times the other’s intent is not a bad one, they are just going at it differently than us, their priorities are different than ours. When I see that, it become easy to work with them to identify common ground.

Even if someone did do or say something wrong, Baba says, ‘if you do or say something similar in response, then you’ve committed an equal mistake’. It doesn’t matter who triggered what…the question always is ‘what do I need to do to make this right for us’. Not only is that healthy for me, it completely transforms the atmosphere for everyone involved.

Baba says, ‘this is a family. Your fight is not with your brothers and sisters, it is with Ravan (the vices)‘. So let me learn to have a benevolent vision with others where I learn to see beyond the apparent, and have an attentive vision with myself where I pay attention to how I show up.

This is no time for reasons and complaints, Baba says. It is a time to summon your spiritual powers and find solutions.