Q: I am under a lot of stress, I face too much of work responsibility, way too much for one person to cope. The same is the scenario at home, I am trying to do more than I am capable of; there are not enough resources also. How do I still my mind when my thoughts are continually racing, trying to meet demands of life, to stop would be to fail. I wish to make every one happy including myself. I would be grateful for you direction.

A: Dear Dipesh, take a halt, take a stop, take a deep breath and exhale. If you keep on running like this, you will only exhaust your life; don’t be that cruel to yourself. Before you can even think about making others happy, you have to make your self happy and you cannot make your self happy with the way you are living right now.

What can you do? May be, do more of chanting. Take any mantra, which you like; it could be Om Namaha Shivay, Om Namo Bhagavate Vasudevaya, Om Namo Narayanaya, Gayatri Mantra or Mahamrityunjay Mantra, just any mantra. Do it very religiously, focus on your breath, sit erect, close your eyes, do your chanting. If you don’t have time to do this, then when you are traveling in a bus or train, at that time keep your eyes not fully closed, just half open, down cast, and keep doing your chanting. This chanting will really help you to sort out your problems. At least it will give you some kind of stability at the level of your mind.

Remember this, you can not clean floor with the soiled duster. The duster should be cleansed first, only then you can clean up the floor. If you have an unhappy mind which is stressed out, how can you create happiness with such mind? You can’t be of any use to anyone or to your self. Be kind to your self, don’t hate your self, and take good care of your self. May be, have a massage, use some good oil. Massage your own body; put oil in your head, cool your head and do lots of deep breathing. You can also do KapaalBhati Pranayam, that’s the forceful exhalation of breath; inhalation would happen on its own. Do it at least for 20 to 25 minutes every day and do Jap, do Chanting. I hope this will solve your problem.