Mountains out of Molehills

To make mountains out of molehills is something that everyone is good at; exaggeration is an easy art which all of us master without our knowing. No one needs to teach us how to exaggerate beyond all proportion the mistakes of our companions, friends or coworkers, and exaggerate our own achievements as well. In the same way, over reacting to things, persons and events is yet another thing which we get used to too easily. In all these things mentioned above, there is surely a truth factor, but if the fact is only 25 per cent and the rest is mere fabrication and exaggeration, then even the little bit of fact may get submerged in exaggeration.

I did not mean to react to what had happened to my friend; it was something to do with her personal relationship, and it was not proper that I reacted very strongly towards this incident, which had disturbed my friend, and later disturbed me too. At the bottom of it all, there were several lays of insecurity, jealousy and possessiveness, which surfaced in the form of anger and over-reaction. When the mind is too agitated, it does not see any reason; it tends to look at everything through a particular color glass, which might be quite different from plane reality. I was carried away by what happened to her, without looking at it in a proper context.

To probe into facts before reacting to pigment of the mind is something that most of us are not used to; we are used to reacting to things, persons and events, and only later seeing a point in what had taken place; if only I had taken time off to calm my mind to see the incident with objectivity, probably I would have saved the excessive emotional outbreak, which smothered my spirit at least for half a day. There is a tendency in me to react to things, persons and events sometimes too strongly; so when I am biased and prejudiced against certain person, I have learned to postpone the confrontation, anything which might force me to break out, because of the exaggerated nature of the negligible amount of truth.

There is no human person who does not have bias and prejudice towards particular person or groups of people. In the recent times we had been reading about the attacks on Indians and people of Indian origin in Australia, a clear sign of prejudice and racism, though the Australian government seems to deny the charges. Most often these bias and prejudices are based on either ignorance or lack of proper information. If an Australian attacks an Indian, because the former thought the latter was there to swindle Australian resources, it is surely not a fact; or it could happen the Australian thought that the Indians were “untouchable” and had no right to live in Australia, the argument may not hold water. At the core of it all is prejudice leading to exaggeration, further leading to overreaction.

There is not a single day in our lives, when we do not over react to things, persons and events; at least two or three occasions in a day we exaggerate things beyond all proportion; this has become our second nature, and most often we do it quite unconsciously, and we may not even realize the need to look into it. If only we learn to pay attention to facts and truth, then we may be spared from so much of mental tension and anxiety; but it is also true that not always we have access to all facts and figures, and that only complicates the matters to our disadvantage. But being alert not to exaggerate and thus overreact to things, persons and incidents can save high blood pressures!