Be mentally fit, not mentally fat

When fat accumulates in our body, we feel burdened because of having to lug around all that extra weight. We are often concerned about physical fat, but we hardly ever notice its mental equivalent – the baggage of unnecessary thoughts that we lug around in our mind. Most mental fat arises from our contemplation on titillating but agitating temptations. Such contemplation triggers myriad desires and anxieties within us. Consequently, we often have to battle through many stray thoughts just to get to the task at hand, leave alone doing it. This struggle and the resulting tiredness often make us irritable. When others make a small mistake, we explode disproportionately giving vent to the irritation that has been building inside us. Over time, being burdened by the thoughts running wild internally and the things going wrong externally, we become pessimistic, cynical and depressed. Just as we counter physical fat by diet regulation and exercise, we can counter mental fat by regulating our mental diet and by doing the exercises of meditation and scriptural study. Regulating our mental diet means minimizing our consumption of mental fat that is dangled before us by external perceptions or inner impressions. Scriptural study enables us to understand our outer and inner worlds better, thereby discerning what comprises healthy mental diet and what comprises mental fat. And meditation involves focusing on the supreme spiritual reality, the all-attractive supreme person Krishna. Such contemplation gives us the inner satisfaction and strength to resist the urge for munching on mental fat. Pointing to the shedding of mental baggage, the Bhagavad-gita (02.41) recommends one-pointed focus as foundational for success, cautioning that distractedness is the recipe for failure. The more we shed mental fat and become mentally fit, the more we can face obstacles without feeling disproportionately burdened, and can respond with greater dexterity and maturity. -