Sonakshi Sinha: Dearest Sadhguruji, I have a question for you.
I'm a very emotional person, and I often find it very difficult
to emotionally detach myself from a situation that I know that is not good for me.
Like, I can see that this is not going somewhere where I want it to go,
but it's very difficult to divert my mind and my emotions away from that.
How do you think I can handle that situation?
I would really like to know your perspective on it.
Sadhguru: This is a whole lot of talk in the world about...
you know, the head and the heart business; but the way you think, is the way you feel.
And the way you feel, is the way you think.
For different people, different things run first.
For some people, their thoughts... today, largely because of the type of education,
for most people, their thoughts run ahead of their emotions.
But, still there is a sizable percentage of people
for whom their emotions run ahead of their thought.
Now, what Sonakshi is asking is,
there are situations that you don't wish to be in, but the emotions are tangled up,
so thought keeps going there; unknowingly, you keep walking in that direction.
What you need to understand is, thought is agile.
Today my thought says, "She's the most wonderful person."
Tomorrow, if she does something that I don't like, immediately my thought says, "She's no good."
But, if my emotions have gone ahead with this wonderful person,
emotions are not that agile, they cannot turn around so quickly - it's little sappy.
It takes time.
In the meantime, you struggle because thought says this is not okay,
but emotion is still... entangled.
Now, what do I do about this? Don't try to control your emotions or thoughts,
because the very nature of your mind is such that,
"I don't want to think about this person" means,
that's the only person I'm going to think about for the rest of my life. (Laughter)
So, when compulsive thoughts and emotions come,
first and foremost thing that you do is, you simply see them for what they are.
You don't try to resist them - the moment you resist, they will multiply.
In this mind, you don't have subtraction and division,
you only have addition and multiplication.
So, what you need to do, one thing is,
just understand that thought and emotion
are just a recycle of the data that is already there – something that you remember.
It is just that memory is little smelly, it just keeps coming.
You just have to see it like that, little distance from that.
It is like you're jammed in a traffic jam; you were going to the airport,
you got stuck in a traffic jam. How much anxiety and struggle you had!
Then somehow you got there, and then you got into the airplane, and you took off.
From up there when you look down, how nice the traffic jam looks, hmmm?
(Laughter/Applause)
Simply because there is a little distance.
Still the same traffic jam, but because there is a distance, suddenly there is nothing to it.
Similarly with your thought and emotion,
a little bit of practice to create a little distance
from your physiological processes, and your psychological processes come.
But if you try to handle individual thought and emotion, they will multiply a thousand fold.