Why A Steady Mind Is Better Than A Serene Mind

Even a rage room has rules. There are guidelines and tips for thrashing items, and once you go in, you get 20 minutes all to yourself. The staff has already placed items there for you to thrash, from laptops to bottles, and whatnot. You are allowed to bring your items as well after getting them reviewed by the staff.

Rage rooms were made to relieve anger and stress within a safe and controlled environment. Ever felt like you were about to burst into flaming anger with the undying urge to throw things around? The rage room was created not just to relieve stress and anger but also as a recreational activity, and an alternative to violent acts. It’s a place you can go to remove all your frustration by thrashing some disposable items for a limited amount of time.

But it also reflects a societal trend of aggression and violence. Many have suggested that a rage room is a response to a lack of emotional connection and growing social isolation.

In a world where meditation and other calming techniques are available, why is a rage room gaining importance these days?

Maybe people are tired of keeping it all bottled up. Meditation can give you a calming effect but as soon trouble hits the fan, the mind is no longer calm.

It’s like visiting a holy place of worship like a Mosque, a temple, or a church. When you enter, the place is a sacred space that has a certain vibe to it. It is maintained in harmony so that all who are weary may come there to rest their chaotic mind and put their troubles in the trusted hands of the divine. However, after 30 minutes to half an hour, once they leave their holy place, they are back into the world of chaos.

The peace they found inside isn’t available outside. It’s left back where they left it.

This signifies one clear perspective – that the mind does not need serenity all the time, it needs steadiness.

A steady mind is a Sturdy Mind

DeBlanc: “You want this end? You want to be free of all this? We have a job for you.”

Saint of Killers: “What job?”

Fiore: “We want you to kill someone. A Preacher.”

The saint of killers was once a man living in a world of violence. He was a murderer who killed several people when he was alive. A well-played character in a dark, thrilling series called Preacher. As soon as he died, he descended to hell and was hence called the saint of killers, hell’s butcher, or the angel of death. From thereon, the horror of losing his family played in front of him like a tape on repeat. He had to go through every sequence of events, experiencing the horror of losing his family repeatedly. A day had finally come when two angels from heaven needed him to do a job. The deal was that the saint would be free from hell if he killed a priest.

I won’t go into the details of why two angels wanted to kill a priest, but I will say this – the angel of death was desperate to leave hell. He entered into the world walking to the end of every city until he could find the preacher. He was not about to leave any stone unturned till he could find and kill the preacher.

“Violent excitement exhausts the mind and leaves it withered and sterile.”

~Francois Fenelon

When the mind isn’t calm, it’s a playground creation of its own hell. There’s no saying what the mind is capable of conjuring up when it is in a state of absolute chaos. Therefore, staying calm is very important, but is a serene mind enough in such situations?

We live in a transactional world where every situation pulls us in different directions. For instance, winning the lottery, and then getting robbed the next day. Living a life of poverty and then one day landing a high-paid job. Suffering abuse and then slipping into depression. Struggling for 20 years and then finally reaping the rewards of one’s efforts and sacrifice.

When such events occur, the mind is hardly a place seasoned for serenity. It is a backdrop of fitting the presence of steadiness.

Only a steady mind can deal with the internal as well as the external conflicts encountered daily.

I once read a funny line that said, ‘Some people just need a high-five. In the Face. With a chair.’

Many people try to suppress strong emotions like anger or frustration with calmness. Eventually, it starts to feel like dealing with a high-five in the face with a chair.

So, it is not calmness or serenity that helps you eliminate anything adverse. It is the ability to develop a steady mind.

A steady mind helps us develop the strength to deal with unfavorable situations in our lives. Steadiness anchors us to deal with the stormy seas of things that don’t go as planned, unexpected outcomes, or unanticipated tragedies.

We’re divine beings having a human experience. If it were the other way around, we could easily work with a calm mind in a transcendent state. However, as human experiences demand, our role is to work within the confines of a transactional world.

Therefore, one must develop the strength to manage complex situations. This can be done with a steady mind where strength is built, leading to valor where action is taken based on the wisdom of a steady mind. It is through action that one can develop a steady mind and make wise decisions accordingly, from the profound ground of neutrality.

Being serene all the time is extremely difficult and unnerving. While Emily Dickinson’s poem, I Felt a Funeral, in My Brain can have numerous interpretations, it can also signify forced calmness. The common interpretation this poem represents is that of a mental breakdown or severe emotional distress, a nightmarish descent into madness. It depicts ever so clearly the internal struggle of a person who tries to stay calm when all they truly feel is stress and anxiety, the high-five of a chair in the face.

I felt a Funeral, in my Brain,

And Mourners to and fro

Kept treading – treading – till it seemed

That Sense was breaking through –

And when they all were seated,

A Service, like a Drum –

Kept beating – beating – till I thought

My mind was going numb –

And then I heard them lift a Box

And creak across my Soul

With those same Boots of Lead, again,

Then Space – began to toll,

As all the Heavens were a Bell,

And being, but an Ear,

And I, and Silence, some strange Race,

Wrecked, solitary, here –

And then a Plank in Reason broke,

And I dropped down, and down –

And hit a World, at every plunge,

And finished knowing – then –