About Energize Your Mind; Learning the Art of Mastering Your Thoughts, Feelings & Emotions by Gaur Gopal Das:

When we see monks like Gaur Gopal Das, we often paint a picture in our mind ‘how are these monks so happy, calm, and energized?’

I am a fan of Gaur Gopal Das’s work. His words & speeches are so soothing that I can listen to him nonstop on a loop. Though, I often wonder, how someone can calm you down with their presence and words as they know you from the start. And somehow they know exactly what to say to make you feel understood.

Gaur Gopal Das is one such personality for the modern world. Not only in India but his fans are present around the globe.

Being a fan of Gaur’s work, I wanted to read, Energize Your Mind as soon as it was launched. Today, I want to share some of the key lessons from his book so that you don’t have to read the book.

A Little Brief of Energize Your Mind; Learning the Art of Mastering Your Thoughts, Feelings & Emotions:

Unlike his first book, Life’s Amazing Secrets, Energize Your Mind is more like a memoir where he has shared everything that he has gone through in his life and how he became mentally stronger after every heart-wrenching incident (including his father’s death). Energize Your Mind by Gaur Gopal Das is a kind of book where readers feel that they are sitting right next to Gaur Sir and listening to the hardships of his life which end with a learning/lesson that we can apply in our life.

As I said earlier, when we look at people like Gaur Gopal Das, we assume that they are happy. Although when you listen to Gaur Gopal, you feel understood and soothed but at the same time, there is a voice that whispers in our head, ‘why are not we like them? How can we become happy like them?’

However, Gaur’s book Energize Your Mind breaks this myth as the book shares how many times Gaur Gopal Das went through painful situations. How he also felt jealous and disheartened at times but in the end, he kept his hold tight on one lesson that Shrimad Bhagwat Gita shares, ‘this too shall pass’

With that being said, I wanted to reveal the first hidden lesson of Energize Your Mind that ‘everyone has baggage. No one has a perfect life, not even people like Gaur Gopal Das. We all are a messy chaotic child who is trying hard to understand life and learning to deal with the pain. Just because someone looks happy and cute on Instagram doesn’t mean their life is perfect. Everyone is dealing with mental or emotional challenges. Some people are just good at hiding their pain while other people are like Gaur Gopal Das who know how to acknowledge their emotions and let them flow freely so that you don’t end up caged behind the bars of your pain’

And that reminds of,

3 more lessons that I learned from Energize Your Mind; Learning the Art of Mastering Your Thoughts, Feelings & Emotions:

1. You Are Not Sophia:

Everyone asks, ‘what is the problem of our generation?’ We have inventions that feel like magic and resources that can help us build our dream life. Yet we are not happy. We are the most depressed generation. Why?

Well, that’s the root of our problem. Our generation is obsessed with being happy and cheerful all the time. Go on YouTube and you will find plenty of videos with titles that say, ‘how to be happy all the time’ or ‘how to find happiness’

We have created a belief that if we are not happy then we are ungrateful. But Gaur Gopal Das says in his book, Energize Your Mind that ‘you and I are humans. We are designed to feel all kinds of emotions’

If you are happy today then there will come a day when you will feel sad. If you are excited today about your goals then there will be a day when you will feel disheartened for not being able to achieve your goals. And sometimes, you will be sad without any reason.

And that’s completely fine. You are not a machine (aka Sophia, a robot that delivers motivational speeches). You don’t come up with particular commands. You are not an android phone in which iPhone features wouldn’t work or vice-versa.

When Gaur’s father died, he felt sad and cried as well. He didn’t force himself to smile when his father’s body was lying before his eyes. Does that make him a culprit? Or how could he cry when he has already abandoned all the relationships as a monk?

No, right? As long as you have a heart, you will feel all kinds of emotions. So, let yourself feel every emotion. Allow yourself to be sad, happy, excited, angry, or whatever. At least don’t judge yourself for feeling sad. Kick out that belief that says you should be happy all the time or have a gratitude list prepared.

Just remember one thing, this too shall pass. No emotion is permanent. If you let them flow freely, the emotions will pass. But if you force them to go away, you will give those emotions more attention. Hence, the longer they will stay, the more painful it will become for you.

2. The Judgements Kill Our Soul:

Gaur Gopal Das shares in his book that when his father died, there was one person who blamed him for his father’s death in front of everyone. I cannot even imagine how tough it must have been for Gaur. His father’s dead body is in front of him and people are blaming him for that. It must have killed something in Gaur. A kind of pain that is beyond words.

However, Gaur Gopal Das shares in Energize Your Mind that as long as people have a tongue, they are going to say something. You cannot stop them from abusing or blaming you.

I am sure you must have encountered such people in your life as well. People who don’t understand you, blame you, and take advantage of you if the time demands.

But the problem is some people are too innocent to acknowledge such people. It happened to me. When I was in college, my friends took advantage of me while spreading rumors about me and I used to think they are like my family. It kills when people who you love end up hurting you.

Well, the first thing you need to understand is that not everyone is capable of understanding your good heart. Some people will be by your side because you can offer them something or because they want entertainment in their life. Once they extract everything from you, they will leave you. It’s you who needs to be mentally strong enough to analyze who are your real friends and who are just using you for their own benefit.

Here is a checklist of the red flags that Gaur Gopal Das has provided in Energize Your Mind. He says that you should avoid these types of people if you want less drama and more peace in your life.

And on another note, if people can judge monks like Gaur Gopal Das, you and I don’t stand a chance. No matter what you do or say, you will be judged. You cannot make everyone happy. But you can make yourself happy. So, why don’t you take a bet on yourself and do whatever your heart craves.

3. Journal & Become Self-Aware:

Sometimes in our life, we carve someone to listen to us and understand us. We don’t ask for love but a little bit of understanding.

However, this is too much to ask for in our generation. If you tell someone what you are going through, they will share their pain too as if it’s a competition of who is suffering more. And sometimes, you are afraid that people might misjudge you. Hence, you and I prefer to be silent and pretend to be happy.

But our hearts cannot pretend. In the end, we are left with a void. The more we ignore ourselves, the deeper the void gets.

That’s why Gaur Gopal Das shares in his book, Energize Your Mind that before you expect others to understand you, first understand yourself.

One of the best ways to get closer to yourself is to JOURNAL like your life depends on it. Every time you feel the need to be heard and understood, take out a blank piece of paper and start pouring your heart. Vomit your emotions like no one is going to read them. Write everything without worrying about the judgments.

Write until you think you don’t have anything unresolved left in your heart. And guess what? your journal is quite patient so it will keep listening to you until you are done.

If you practice journaling like this every day, after a couple of weeks, you will feel much lighter because everything that your heart was carrying is now out there. Journaling helps you unload the burden of your mind and heart and set you free.

Secondly, consistent journaling practice will help you analyze a common pattern in your emotions and feelings. After a couple of weeks of consistent journaling, if you read your own journal, you will be able to pinpoint some common problems in your life. Some common issues that keep disturbing you. or maybe a particular person who triggers you.

In any case, you will end up with the root cause of your stuck emotions. Once you know that, you can solve the problem once and for all. All these ‘how to be happy’ hacks are good for instant relief but to solve the problem from the core, you have to understand what is causing you troubles. That’s where journaling comes.

Conclusions:

Energize Your Mind; Learning the Art of Mastering Your Thoughts, Feelings & Emotions by Gaur Gopal Das is a great book for anyone who is looking for mental clarity and peace. However, I must warn you that there is nothing unique in the book. Everything that you will read in Energize Your Mind; Learning the Art of Mastering Your Thoughts, Feelings & Emotions is already out there. The solutions to mental problems that Gaur has talked about in his book are so common that you might already know them. Yet, I would recommend reading the book if you want someone to calm you down and offer you some level of peace.

You can buy the book here; Energize Your Mind by Gaur Gopal Das

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