Tariq Saleim's Blog - Posts Tagged "gratitude"
TWO INCHES
This morning, when I woke up for prayers, I felt I had a stiff back. After I had finished praying, I did my regular stretching / yoga exercises and struggled because of my stiff back. Almost immediately, I felt bad for myself. I was sitting down, with my legs extended in front of me and trying to touch my feet. I noticed about two inches of distance between my fingers and toes. Despite my best efforts and multiple tries, I could not touch my toes. I let go and cursed ageing.
I regretted my ingratitude soon thereafter and apologised to God and myself. The incident has promoted me to write this brief note and I am hoping some of you will be able to relate to this.
When we are growing up we take a lot of things for granted - health, ability to take risks, flexibility (physical and mental), family, etcetera. We believe all of this comes naturally as a matter of right and we must have done something to deserve it. We are not capable of pausing and reflecting – why me? We hardly look at our poor relatives who are less privileged. We think they must have done something wrong to deserve this life – at least this is what I thought.
Somewhere in our twenties to thirties we mature physically. We realise it is not possible to outdo our previous records. A physically active person starts noticing his / her peak or rather decline by mid thirties. One can no longer run as long or fast as he / she did previously. You need longer intervals to recover between weight training sessions. You struggle to beat your previous best.
This is normally the first reminder that Mother Nature or God, whatever you believe in, has stopped giving and is in a mood of taking things back – things that we had taken for granted so far. Health is normally the first thing to remind us that times have changed.
It is important to clarify that I am talking about average people and not professional athletes who may be able to stretch their peak well into their forties, in some cases.
Somewhere in our forties to fifties we stop growing financially as well. There are several reasons for it. Our depleted health inhibits our ability to work as hard as we did in our twenties and thirties, ability to take risks is comprised, skill set becomes redundant, we fail to reinvent ourselves, etcetera. By the time, we are in our fifties; most of us have seen our peak and are into the descent stages of our health and financial affairs.
Around this is time the third and the most significant change starts to happen – we stop growing mentally as well. We talk about our glory past, how world is so different and bad now, how old times were better, etcetera. This is the most significant of our losses – ability to grow mentally. In a span of three to four decades a young child who was once full of promise and hope becomes a complaining and self declared redundant part of the society.
I experienced a bit of this when I could not touch my feet this morning. That two inches of space between my fingers and toes prompted thankless emotions that were not warranted at all. The reality of life is that we start complaining about blessings when these are taken away from us. But, we hardly show gratitude and care when we had these. In our glory past we had hardly stopped and shown any concern for people who had less than us. Now suddenly, we feel sorry for our lesser self. What about those who never had anything we had in our past? Did we ever feel sorry for them?
We miss parents when they are gone, although when they were alive we never spend time with them. We want to spend time with children when they are busy with their own lives, but when they were young we were busy with our lives. We want to be healthy when we feel the pain associated with being unhealthy, but when it was time to nurture health we were busy drinking, smoking, and eating unhealthy. We value the good in our life only when it disappears. We feel someone’s pain only when the same pain is inflicted upon us.
I started doing yoga in my teens and in a span of about three decades, I have managed to lose lost about two inches of space between by toes and fingers. With a bit of practice and technique, I think I can cover the gap. Even if I am not able to, it is only two inches – not much to lose in three decades. However, instead of being thankful for my good health at this age, I was focused on the two inches I could not cover.
I regret this attitude and promise to check my thoughts as they wander into negative territory. You should do the same.
I am thankful to God for all that I can still cover.
25 Aug 15
SingaporeTariq Saleim
I regretted my ingratitude soon thereafter and apologised to God and myself. The incident has promoted me to write this brief note and I am hoping some of you will be able to relate to this.
When we are growing up we take a lot of things for granted - health, ability to take risks, flexibility (physical and mental), family, etcetera. We believe all of this comes naturally as a matter of right and we must have done something to deserve it. We are not capable of pausing and reflecting – why me? We hardly look at our poor relatives who are less privileged. We think they must have done something wrong to deserve this life – at least this is what I thought.
Somewhere in our twenties to thirties we mature physically. We realise it is not possible to outdo our previous records. A physically active person starts noticing his / her peak or rather decline by mid thirties. One can no longer run as long or fast as he / she did previously. You need longer intervals to recover between weight training sessions. You struggle to beat your previous best.
This is normally the first reminder that Mother Nature or God, whatever you believe in, has stopped giving and is in a mood of taking things back – things that we had taken for granted so far. Health is normally the first thing to remind us that times have changed.
It is important to clarify that I am talking about average people and not professional athletes who may be able to stretch their peak well into their forties, in some cases.
Somewhere in our forties to fifties we stop growing financially as well. There are several reasons for it. Our depleted health inhibits our ability to work as hard as we did in our twenties and thirties, ability to take risks is comprised, skill set becomes redundant, we fail to reinvent ourselves, etcetera. By the time, we are in our fifties; most of us have seen our peak and are into the descent stages of our health and financial affairs.
Around this is time the third and the most significant change starts to happen – we stop growing mentally as well. We talk about our glory past, how world is so different and bad now, how old times were better, etcetera. This is the most significant of our losses – ability to grow mentally. In a span of three to four decades a young child who was once full of promise and hope becomes a complaining and self declared redundant part of the society.
I experienced a bit of this when I could not touch my feet this morning. That two inches of space between my fingers and toes prompted thankless emotions that were not warranted at all. The reality of life is that we start complaining about blessings when these are taken away from us. But, we hardly show gratitude and care when we had these. In our glory past we had hardly stopped and shown any concern for people who had less than us. Now suddenly, we feel sorry for our lesser self. What about those who never had anything we had in our past? Did we ever feel sorry for them?
We miss parents when they are gone, although when they were alive we never spend time with them. We want to spend time with children when they are busy with their own lives, but when they were young we were busy with our lives. We want to be healthy when we feel the pain associated with being unhealthy, but when it was time to nurture health we were busy drinking, smoking, and eating unhealthy. We value the good in our life only when it disappears. We feel someone’s pain only when the same pain is inflicted upon us.
I started doing yoga in my teens and in a span of about three decades, I have managed to lose lost about two inches of space between by toes and fingers. With a bit of practice and technique, I think I can cover the gap. Even if I am not able to, it is only two inches – not much to lose in three decades. However, instead of being thankful for my good health at this age, I was focused on the two inches I could not cover.
I regret this attitude and promise to check my thoughts as they wander into negative territory. You should do the same.
I am thankful to God for all that I can still cover.
25 Aug 15
SingaporeTariq Saleim
