By Nilay Ankur, Practical Spirituality Teacher

Stories are an integral part of human evolution. As humans, we mostly think from the perspective of the story. Our thoughts are an accumulation of information and experience received from the outer world. It creates a web inside our brain where most of the time, we imagine things revolving around the acquired information. Controlling our thoughts, as suggested by many, is not possible. As a human, we live in a society surrounded by people while working for food and taking care of the family. In the process, we have also acquired an identity on social media. With these identities, the intake of information is just never-ending. Eventually, a point comes when staying, in reality, becomes difficult. With such loaded information, when we get time for ourselves, there is a tendency to imagine things. So, how does it hamper our lives?

Less understanding of our surroundings:

Imagination is a unique power a human being posses. It helps us perceive things from a different point of view. But imagination can become painful if we are not aware of it. For instance, if we imagine things, situations, or surroundings without accepting the reality and truth, it can become dangerous. It keeps us away from understanding the true nature of the event. If we fail to understand the true nature of the event, then judging the best possible way is a challenge.

A false sense of security:

The false sense of security develops with a false sense of understanding of the situation. Not accepting reality brings us to a point where a false sense of security about our surroundings plays an instrumental role. A real sense of security can only be achieved after seeing things. This is the only way a human being should act to overcome challenges

Waste of valuable time:

While you watch a movie, how many of us realize in between an intense scene that it is not a reality, it is just a movie! We get so engrossed in the projected reality that we lose a sense of reality. The same things happen inside the mind, where we stay tied to the thought of the web. We live in a world that does not exist and waste our time.

So, why do we run away from reality?

False hope:

Many times imagination gives us hope, but the hope generated from imagination is no real solution. It is just in our minds. Mostly reality is something else. This false sense of hope becomes so dangerous that when reality hits, a comeback becomes almost impossible. But for the immediate validation of our ego, we run away from the reality for this false hope. We run away from reality because we are afraid of facing the truth.

Ego satisfaction :

Most of our problems start with the ego. To satisfy our ego, we do many things in life that are not worth doing. We run away from reality to satiate the same ego. We are afraid to face the truth, as we do not want to put our ego in an uncomfortable position. Acceptance is the only way to correct mistakes. It is the first step towards fixing the problem. But running away from reality keeps us away from the acceptance that leads to a messier situation.

Teachings of our surroundings:

 Nowadays, many people have made their carrier by fooling people around the situation. They keep you away from reality and tell you to chant certain mantras or practice certain steps to make your awareness nonactive and reap the benefit. It is nothing more than a lie. Life itself will happen, even though you do nothing. The world is changing every moment. It will happen. And we can not control anything here apart from our actions and thoughts. Experiencing false experience that does not exist, puts us in a pit. It does nothing, apart from wasting our time and energy. If nothing more, using our cognitive power, we can easily understand it. Look, if it is night and someone asks you to believe it is a day time, then even though you can see it, you will still say that it is day time. Thus, it’s nothing more than being foolish.

Hence, we should never run away from reality. We should watch reality as it appears. Without perceiving anything, firstly, watch reality. Let it pass if it is required. Then use your wisdom to find out several ways that are present already. Perceiving things not only presents you a chance to cope up with the problem but also brings insight into the root cause of the problem. So that one can avoid the same in the future and bring peace.