Demands

A few days back my little nephew was watching a kid’s show and the theme for the day was healthy demands and unnecessary demands. In the show, a boy around 9 years old was demanding his mom to buy a horse for him. But the mom laughed and said “A horse? what will you do with a horse?” The boy said he will ride on the horse and show it to his friends. The mom was not convinced and was seeing his stubbornness towards this demand.

He continued to persuade his mom by saying the horse will be an advantage to her as when her scooter breaks down she can go on the horse to buy vegetables. The mom started laughing, finding it so innocent and yet at the same time told him all demands cannot be fulfilled, so stop asking for it. He tried all means to persuade his mother but with understanding and joyfulness, both his parents made him realise that every demand is not good and not all demands can be fulfilled, so we should only ask for things that parents can buy them. Such a simple lesson of life, and apply to each one of us equally.

Similarly, as we grow we tend to demand from ourselves and others and sometimes others demand too much from us. But we fail to understand which demand is healthy and which is not good for us. We should draw a boundary and try to find ways to balance demands from others so that it doesn’t ruin our peace.

Also, demanding from others is at the same time an expectation. An expectation when unfulfilled leads to suffering. Which in turn paves the way to negative emotions. Maintaining a healthy outlook toward life and setting boundaries with our demands as well as others is paramount for happiness in relationships. Be free. Be at peace.

Love,

Neelam