Guest Blog: The “Watchout!” State of Mind

For those of you who don't know, my father is my spiritual guide, nudging, encouraging and coaxing me to be more mindful, ever since I was little. He sent this piece to my sister, mum and I way back in 2010. Reading it now, while on my spiritual diet, makes me smile in true understanding. Without further ado, here is the piece. Thank you dad for letting me put this up :-)


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Its 7am this morning and I’m blissfully asleep when the jarring doorbell rudely wakes me up. It’s this guy Ravi from Mayurvihar whom I met just once before when he came home two weeks ago with family to meet Balupita who was our guest. He came to pick up something which they forgot behind last time. He dint call and inform before appearing at my door! I sent him off in just two minutes after delivering his bag and offering him a glass of water. Due to this, I missed my routine early Morning Prayer meditation which takes between half to one hour.

Since I am all alone at home, I go through the morning routines of lighting the lamp, brewing coffee, making bed, washing clothes, reading news, etc. The News paper guy dint deliver today since our house was locked for the past ten days, so I switch on the computer to check the news.  Suddenly I realize that it’s already 9am and have to start cooking breakfast, lunch, have bath and get ready to go to office. I realize that pranayama has to be abandoned today!

I should have gone back to bed after sending off Ravi early in the morning and completed my half an hour of meditation before starting with the routine morning chores. This was my thought as I started analyzing my state of mind while cooking sambar and rice. It was then that the term “watchout state of mind” came to mind.

Usually when I go on a long tour and come back home it’s just chill out time or a time to “Let go”. This is what I did yesterday after reaching home at 2.30pm and deciding not to go to office. But today morning was completely different. Since I am alone at home, after 7.30am the door bell keeps ringing and even the phone starts ringing so meditation is not possible. I was trying to find out the origin for my “watchout state of mind”.

Take a few minutes of your day to just sit

Is it because Ravi woke me up suddenly? I normally wake up around 5am and leisurely complete my Morning Prayer meditation. Sometimes if I go to bed late, I set the alarm for one hour before the time I have to get up so that there is enough time for meditation. But since I had just come back from a long tour and it was Saturday, I deliberately did not set the alarm and due to IPL cricket match, went to bed around midnight. I realized that although circumstances led to it, that actual fact is that I allowed the circumstances to emerge in the first place and subsequently did not rectify it when I could have done so.  In other words, I went to bed late but did not set up the alarm and then I did not meditate after sending off Ravi.

“Watchout state of mind” happens when you are ready to face the outside world or when you are planning or preparing to face the outside world. It is as opposed to the “Let go” or “at home” state of mind. But it is not the restless state of mind. I used to believe that you are either completely relaxed or else you are restless. 

But now this watchout state, in between those two states of mind seems to have emerged! This state of mind is probably more harmful in the long run because it is so deceptive.

If you are in a restless state of mind, you are ‘hyper’ and the moment you become aware of this, you can seek help or help yourself to come out of it. But this watchout state of mind can happen indefinitely. Come to think of it, most of the people are in this state of mind most of the time and that is the root cause of all ills faced by all mankind.

A new awareness for this watchout state of mind needs to be created. It can be triggered when you live alone, when you are waiting for someone or something, when you feel a sense of boredom, loneliness, mildly depressed or anxious. Of course, it can happen when none of these or any other external trigger exists. It can also be prevented in spite of any or all of these triggers being present.

Life is not a continuous flow of events. Each moment is separate from the other and can be experienced afresh. The illusion of continuous flow of events occurs because of memory. Just as light is not a continuous wave but is made up of packets of particles, so also, time is not a continuous flow of events but of separate individual moments. If one person deeply irritates you and goes away, you end up expressing the irritation on the next person who happens to come before you. This is because we experience life as a continuous flow of events rather than momentary! This is also the reason why we continue to remain in the watchout state of mind even when its triggers fade.

Deep wisdom and maturity is required to enable us to naturally realize the momentary nature of life and live as such. Until then, we need to take a break every now and then so as to cut off the continuous flow of events and make our experience of life momentary and fresh.

Sleep does not give us this kind of break from the flow. Even after a full night’s sleep you can get up with a depression or with irritation! This is evident from today’s morning experience. Only Pranayama or Yoga or Meditation can give us this break.

Awareness is a wonderful tool. As I became aware of all this, I could take a short five minute break and meditate and get the break from my watchout state of mind.  Even though I missed my pranayama, I felt fresh and went ahead and had a good eventful day. But for that five minute meditation break, I am sure my day could have been worse. If you start looking at your state of mind regularly and remedy it with these tools, I am sure you can experience a more wholesome life.

S. Selvan.
March 13, 2010.