The Case of Mental Turbulence Can Happen to Anyone

Sastang pranam at your lotus feet oh Swamiji. Hope you are also taking care of your physical body as you do advise others. Since a long time, we have not received any of your videos. Whatever you are doing for us, cannot be expressed in words. But as you know, ‘Yeh Dil Maange more!”. We want to see and listen to you more and more. Yes we are selfish to that extent.

Today’s topic is inspired by the low phase experienced by legendary cricketer Virat Kohli. He is a quite household name. After Sachin, he is the Cricketing God worshipped by numerous all through the world. I still remember the news clip where a seemingly adolescent boy with a slight blackish complexion was holding the U-19 Cricket World Cup along with his Indian team-mates. The kind of attitude shown by him was never seen in any Indian cricketer before. The enthusiasm, the self talk, the reactions, the celebrations, the attack on opposition’s mind all are unparalleled. 

I remember him telling in several interviews, how fearless he was even against the dreaded, sledging master Aussies. He matched their temperament and took the battle to their camp! His body language, his confidence, his batting prowess, his captaincy do not need any description. The youngsters in the Indian Cricket Team of the like Hardik Pandya, Rishabh Pant and the entire brigade idolize Virat Kohli as their inspiration and pin-up icon.

Yes, he is the Virat Kohli. But off late, you might have learnt from news that, he has not been in the best of his form. His IPL outing was a forgettable one. He looks like a shadow of his own self. Yes, in the career of a professional player, athlete or almost any other profession, at times this kind of low phase may arise when your very own larger than life image engulfs your existence. In Virat Kohli’s own words, ” In a room full of  your loved ones, you feel like standing alone and feel as a stranger.” Just imagine the most feared batsman, the fastest breaker of almost all batting records, the tough minded resolute highly physically fit player of the like of Virat Kohli with these type of feeling! The man who singlehandedly dominated the wild Aussie team and emerged victorious, having such a sinking feeling! Not digestible, right!

But life is stranger than fiction and things like these, do happen. Virat went on to add, “For a month, I did not touch the bat, it was more of a mental fight”. Imagine, the bat which would send the ball out of the park through all possible shots created a mental fight within the mind of one of the toughest minded and most illustrious and brave batsman, the game has ever seen. Perhaps, he was the trendsetter batsman for India to reach Half Centuries or even Centuries by hitting big lofted shots unlike his previous counterparts who used to complete the milestone by hitting the ball all along the ground safely. The following news may be referred

“I am not shy to admit that I was feeling mentally down,” Kohli told Star Sports. “We don’t want to be looked at as mentally weak. Trust me, faking to be strong is far worse than admitting to be weak … I’m looked at as a guy who is mentally very strong and I am…

Link: https://indianexpress.com/article/sports/cricket/virat-kohli-on-his-high-intensity-people-from-outside-and-even-within-the-team-thought-it-was-abnormal-but-not-for-me-8114672/#:~:text=%E2%80%9CI%20am%20not%20shy%20to,very%20strong%20and%20I%20am.

The point is that, mind can trick you whoever you may be or whatever may your accomplishment be. That is life and its nature. But accept the same with open arms. Virat did not hesitate in seeking professional help and neither Ben Stokes, the captain of English Cricket Team. The following article published in The Mint may be referred.

“England Test captain Ben Stokes has revealed he takes anxiety medication every day to help his battle with mental health issues. Stokes stepped away from cricket last year to focus on his mental health after enduring a series of panic attacks.” 23-Aug-2022

Link: https://www.livemint.com/sports/cricket-news/battling-with-mental-health-issues-ben-stokes-reveals-he-takes-anxiety-drugs-11661244655089.html#:~:text=England%20Test%20captain%20Ben%20Stokes%20has%20revealed%20he%20takes%20anxiety,a%20series%20of%20panic%20attacks.

There is nothing to be ashamed of the same. The pressure to perform sometimes take the better of even the best in the business. One can obviously seek professional help. At the same time, spiritual inclination goes miles in minimizing such effects. As Swamiji himself has emphasized several times that meditation and medication are not exactly opposite of each other, rather they complement each other. Yes, regular meditation and spiritual practices will go miles in developing your mental strength, but one needs to have patience as it is a long term investment and process.

It is perfectly OK to take a step or two back. You need to relax and don’t pretend to be knowing everything unless your name is GOOGLE! Also please do remember that this low phase bouts do happen to a lot of people irrespective of their name, fame etc. Don’t think you are alone going through the phase. Please don’t hesitate to seek help for overcoming the phase. And whenever these type of low phases do appear, always remember that the phase is sent along your path to fight and equip yourself for some higher purpose. The phase is here to teach you something, which cannot be taught in any other way.

According to Robin Sharma of “The Monk who sold his Ferrari” fame – whenever a problem comes, celebrate! This is because life has chosen ‘YOU’ to resolve the problem to progress. Can you notice that ‘problem’ and ‘progress’ have common starting ‘pro’! So life wants you to be a PRO! Even in dictionary search, ‘problem’ appears first and then appears ‘progress’. So without facing ‘problems’, ‘progress’ cannot be made, it is as simple as that. Take examples of Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, Steve Jobs and the list goes on.

The recent launch of Artemis-1 which was slated to be launched on 29th August, 2022 (Moon mission which will eventually be manned moon mission in 2025) was scrubbed due to malfunctioning of one of the 4 engines. The entire world was watching and the mission was postponed to 5th September, 2022. Leaking of Hydrogen from engine is a very common problem. Don’t you think NASA Engineers did not put their best? Of course, they did. But things like this do happen. A 2 Dollar fuse has destroyed a project of 2 billion Dollars in the past. So better take a step back, re-asses and re-analyze.

The bottom line is low mental phases do occur, failures are a part of life. We cannot expect life to move at the same pace always. It should not be either. So a big round of applause to the Virat Kohlis and Ben Stokes in you. Wake up, stand up, acknowledge the low phase, work (and work out) to overcome them and as you emerge as a “Winner (and not a mere survivor)”, your life will never be the same in the face of setbacks or obstacles.

Hope everyone is doing fine. Though delayed, Happy Vinayak Chaturthi to all. May lord Vinayak empower all of us.

Jai Shri Hari…