The Aurora Beam

I have been living in Indiranagar for almost 12 years now. I grew up cycling and playing cricket in the streets here. It's been great so far but the downside being my neighborhood is too noisy. There are kids screaming, parents yelling, dogs barking or couples quarreling throughout the day. An Aspirin and migraine is on the cards if you stay here for a while

I could put up with this in the best of my spirits but nearing exhaustion noise would drive me insane. I tried listening to music but lost patience with my playlist after a week. I then, bought the best ear plugs from from ebay. The moment I plugged them on, I knew bliss. I enjoyed my solitude in silence. I slept well, concentrated better and was at peace with myself. My peace was broken shortly as it became very painful to remove the ear plugs. I came to realize that I was damaging my ears and stopped immediately.

I now lived with my mood swinging with the decibels of the neighborhood. I came across a book recently "7 habits of highly effective people". The author says that in any situation, we have a choice to react. We usually let the situation alter our mood. The neighborhood was noisy but I chose to get irritated.

"People can hurt you only if you let them"

The author explains the story of a man tortured in Nazi camps. The prisoner realizes that he can be tortured physically but he has choice to let it bother him. He discovers a new form of freedom, an internal paradise which cannot be invaded without consent. He focused on this and learned to live happily even in the worst of situations. Thinking this way made noise inconsequential in my life. I had given some random people (and a few dogs) the power to irritate me. I focused on the a few happy thoughts in my life, I collected them and made my own paradise. As the collection grew, the noise stopped irking me.

Noise need not always come in the for of sound, We are bombarded with opinions from everybody. Sometimes, they affect us the way my neighborhood did to me. The best solution is to ignore and be proactive. Choose to carry your own aura which is independent of the surroundings. Have an aura of our inner paradise which we carry around with us. If we channel well, we can spread it around like a beam 😛

P.S I am a huge pokemon fan