If one made a wish list of all the things people seek in life — whether at home, at work or in relationships, harmony is sure to find a place. Harmony translates to happiness and absence of conflict, promotes health and well-being, ensures peace and equilibrium and enhances the beauty of things regardless of whether it is a piece of music, a work of art, an intricate design or a carefully put together ensemble with accessories et al or even a partnership. Harmony at several levels — inner harmony, harmony with people who touch our lives, harmony with nature and other living things makes a definite difference. But yet harmony remains elusive. In many areas of life it has to be found amid discord and dissonance and is sometimes destroyed because of our own doing as in the case of living in harmony with nature or of mind, body and spirit.
In personal relationships harmony is often difficult to find because differences get exaggerated and blown out of proportion. On occasions we force ourselves to maintain harmony even with our loved ones either by avoiding them or by reducing communication and dialogue to a bare minimum which is not how it should be for we end up hurting ourselves in the long run. It helps to remember at such moments that we are all interconnected and inter-dependent and never separate, that we all come from a common source. It is comforting to recall the words of Eckhart Tolle who explained it beautifully — “Love is loving the essence of all forms and living in harmony with the permanent nature of all forms.”
The interconnected aspect almost always gets highlighted during times of an emergency. Just think about what happens if your car or two wheeler suddenly stalls in the middle of a busy road and you need someone to push the vehicle out of the way or if you or anyone dear to you is in need of blood or some such component. When a total stranger pitches in to help doesn’t your thought process about whom you share harmony with undergo a paradigm shift?
And as for harmony between man and nature it is all too apparent that many of the ecological and environmental crises we face today are because of our actions that upset the balance — the indiscriminate falling of trees, destruction of natural habitats of animals and plundering of our natural resources without any attempt at replenishing them.
There is also a strong connect between harmony and health. According to Hippocrates, the Father of Medicine, health depended on a state of equilibrium among the various factors that governed the operation of the body and mind. Caring for the body through the right foods, exercise and rest, engaging in activities and practices that nourish and soothe the spirit and facilitate the free flow of life energy will aid this. Reaffirming that one is harmony and meditating on that thought will enable one to look beyond differences and better equip the individual to handle situations wherein disharmony prevails.
The writer is a Reiki channel, yoga practitioner and a spiritual seeker
