One less, One more

[1]

Amrit Sadhana [1]

Robbie Vorhaus is a favourite blogger of a popular online American newspaper, the Huffington Post. He is a communications adviser to leaders, chief executives, government officials and entrepreneurs. While working with his clients he found that everyone is stressed in today’s world. The stress is created by the mind but it has a

negative effect on their body and the quality of their life. He has floated a new idea to de-stress his clients which can become a lifestyle. It is simply a change of the gestalt, how you look at things, how you respond to the events in your life. More often than not we resist, we don’t allow life to take its own course because we have preset notions of how things should be.
Mr Vorhaus uses two key words to practice this lifestyle: resisting and allowing. They are diametrically opposite to each other but that’s how life moves — through polar opposites. He teaches his clients to stop fighting and resisting life and start enthusiastically allowing all of life to flow through them. And how do they discover their true purpose and move in that direction? Through the ageless wisdom of conscious, intentional change. Commit yourself to one less negative action and one more positive action daily, resulting in almost immediate joy, exuberant style of living, harmony, peace and personal success. It is called: “One less, One more”. Mr Vorhaus has trademarked this phrase.
Most people do just the opposite. They resist the events and do not allow whatever happens in their life. Not that they succeed, for who can succeed against the vast forces of existence that construct and deconstruct each moment? But their ego tries to obstruct things and they suffer badly because of it. What you think is bad may not be that bad in the wider perspective. There is no need to sulk. Osho often jokes about it. “What is your worry?” he asks, “Your worry is, what has happened should not happen and what is not happening should happen.”
This is exactly what everyone is doing. They don’t count their blessings, they just go on complaining about things they could not get. If you implement the proposal of “one less, one more” it will add to your happiness and subtract unhappiness. For example, when you wake up in the morning and start preparing for the day, decide to have one less complaint and try to have one more gratitude. If the road is jammed with vehicles, don’t start swearing or complaining, be grateful that in spite of this jam you reach safely to your office. There may be lots of problems at work or at home, but decide to have one less frown on your forehead, have one more smile on your lips. An Osho tip could help you change your gestalt: do not call problem a “problem”, call it a situation. Every problem is a situation, isn’t it? If you agree, immediately your attitude will change. Your mind will not be closed to it, on the contrary it will be open to look at it and resolve it.
And it is not that you have to do it all at once as things change bit by bit. Add more drops of the positive and less drops of the negative, and soon your cup will overflow with joy and peace.
Osho suggests very simple steps to achieve this: “Nothing is to be done, just a simple feeling — allow nature. In the beginning it will be difficult because you have always been jumping in the way, always interfering. For just three weeks allow nature. When you feel hungry, eat; when you feel sleepy, go to sleep. When you don’t feel hungry, don’t eat. Allow your inner being, give it a chance. Just allow nature”.

— Amrit Sadhana is in the management team of Osho International Meditation Resort, Pune. She facilitates meditation workshops around the country and abroad.