JOIN USMany of us, in various spheres of life, would have come across folks, irredeemably rigid in their views and opinions. Maybe, some of their rigid ideas would be sensible, while some would be wacky, some dreadful and some mind-scrambling, too.
For instance, when we try reminiscing those bygone times, redolent with childhood memories, we may recall the rigidities of some really strict teachers, who disseminated knowledge in pedagogic way – the way they made us cram down lessons in one particular fashion, the way they made us speak/write in one particular style, and so on.
And at the home scenario, we may recollect the rigidities of our elders, ever dishing out a string of dos and don’ts. How much we’d have resented their rigid perceptions in raising children, dismissing them as provincial attitude, ossified views and warped opinions, albeit these might have stood us in great stead now.
Even today, we may behold rigidities of some people at our workplace, too, wherein we find the lynx-eyed, nit-picking boss, expecting us to work in one particular fashion, foisting his own work idiosyncrasies, without granting us leeway to work in the manner we’d like.
Interestingly, if the aforesaid rigidities are imposed by the external factors, there are those self-induced rigidities, that are hard to dispense with. For instance, let us consider some of our daily household chores. Like say, you have a mindset about washing grubby dishes or scruffy clothes in one particular way.
The moment you find someone at home, executing that task in sloppy/shoddy way, lo! It’s enough to bombard you with agitation bouts, making you all fidgety. Incidentally, often we hear folks saying that they simply can’t enjoy their steaming morning cuppa, until they sip it from their fave teacup. Or, that they simply can’t enjoy blissful slumber at nights, unless they indulge in a hot shower before sprawling on their bed.
Many of us unwittingly would have gone rigid about virtually everything – about the food we eat, the way we deck up, perform poojas, etc, that all these rigidities would have got internalised in us forming deep-rooted habits, difficult to be uprooted. In other words, we’d have got inextricably shackled by our own self-made rigidities.
Even at workplaces, in case we are those perfection-seeking folks, then we’d be unable to find peace, till the work is done with pin-point precision. Though this is a sterling trait, this self-foisted rigidity can act counter-productive too at times. Since it may turn out to be a sisyphean task to complete work on time, especially when there is a cart-load.
And, if the pending work gets shelved, it’d engender enormous stress, with mental equipoise going for a toss. On the contrary, by being a tad flexible works wonders with our mental well-being. Also, by shaking off these self-created rigidities, we’d be less harsh on ourselves and of course, on others, too!