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| Summary of Question: | Need Some Guidance |
| Category: | General Sikhism |
| Date Posted: | Tuesday, 3/02/2004 7:26 PM MST |
I am a 24 year old girl who is currently in my second year of medical school. I consider myself very fortunate to be a part of such a wonderful religion and loving family. I love GOD and instead of crying to anyone else I often bring my fears and pain to him. I am also very grateful to him for giving my everything that I have. I have some concerns though I think that I may have Obsessive compulsive disorder and anxiety. Whenever I get stressed I often think of very immoral thoughts or bad thoughts about someone that I love, something that may be my greatest fear and although I want to stop my mind keeps circling around these thoughts and I am often afraid that these thoughts may come true. At the time I did not know that it is not good to make promises to GOD ( because it is like bargaining) but I have done this when I was going through these bad times and I have broken one of these promises, and I knew that I was breaking it and I now I feel guilt. I also am not to sure of what other promises I made and I hope and pray that GOD will forgive me. Also after I had broken this promise something bad happened to someone that I love and I feel that it may be my fault for breaking this promise to GOD. I also had a bad dream that came true, and I am scared now whenever I have bad dreams. Please help me because all of this often causes me anxiety and although I do tell my parents some stuff I do not want them to worry about me because I am far from home.
Thank you
(REPLY) Sat Nam. I think you just have a very strong conscience, and your guilt is making you suffer, and your subconscious is producing those bad dreams. Please remind yourself that God loves you always, and with every breath you receive, it is confirmation of the fact that God lives and breathes in you. So, I might suggest that you meditate every morning, early - before sunrise, for at least 11 minutes, with the mantra; ANG SANG WAHE GURU. Just sit with eyes closed, spine straight and hear these syllables in your mind with each inhalation and exhalation. All our feelings and mental patterns are just on the surface of our real identity, and to change those feelings from negative to positive, we need to replace them with the most positive words -- and starting with Japji Sahib, each of the banis give us the wisdom, the strength and the cleansing of the subconscious to eliminate the negativity and the guilt. Dont' underestimate the power of positive thinking, either, and I would suggest that you write down a list of beautiful blessings for all the people whom you love, and read them out loud to yourself -- possibly in the evening, and whenever you think of each person, send them love and blessings. Being in medical school, I know is very intense and stressful, so you absolutely need to calm your mind, which has created this whole fantasy of negativity. One simple and effective meditation is to silently think SAT as you inhale, and NAM as you exhale,breathing long, slow, deep breaths through your nose as you sit calmly with your spine straight and your eyes closed. Even 5 minutes of this will help, whenever you can do it. May God and Guru bless you, and bring you peace of mind. SP
Need Some Guidance (03/02/2004)