Chelliah Chandrarajan discusses money and the mind
Photo credit : The author Chelliah Chandrarajan
“Mind is a Monkey”. This is the first book I read at our book club (St. John’s College, Jaffna) at the age of 15 years. There is a saying in Tamil that even a “dead body will open its mouth if it sees money”. So, it in not easy to tackle the subject I have undertaken to do. When the money is on your mind you could begin to feel the stress. If you cannot balance it then problems start. When I say balancing it must be a happy medium of connection.
As an expert on the Mind (Psychiatrist) as well as Money (accountant and Management Consultant) I thought this will be an interesting subject to explore in the current climate. Mind and Money are two very important factors that influence and control our life and lifestyles. However, we do not either think about them in the way I am planning to spell it out or realise the effects of them. We all take it for granted that let these factors do their trick and we shall do what we want.
However, if we can try and understand them, we could live a more meaningful life. Balancing the Mind and Money evolve over our lifetime. To say how we balance it when we are young, middle age and old age are all different. The money can influence the Mind, but the Mind can control use of Money if we wish or culturally regulated.
Do not expect a millionaire to lead a better lifestyle than others. Some millionaires live like paupers. But some paupers attempt to live like millionaires! Any way let that rest. Problems with money either income or expenses may affect your mind unless you manage them well. In the current climate the most worrying factors are anxiety over Covid 19 and your financial situation. The Covid 19 is easy to manage by following the government guidelines. Obviously difficult for the front-line staff. For others I think the financial implications of the lockdown is probably an issue. Did you ever think that money can kill you! Yes, there are both cases of suicide as well as homicides due to money as a primary issue but never written on the death certificate as an underlying cause of death!
If your mind expects all what you did and had whilst better times, at a time like now, you have a problem. However, if your mind accepts that there are times you cannot do what you did before and had in terms of comfort and convenience then life would be easy. Here personality attributes play an important part, but you can overcome by using your intelligence.
People say that life is about give and take. Similarly, I will say that life is about balancing particularly the Mind and Money. Now we shall go into some simple practise sessions.
Close your eyes for 10 minutes and think about the wealth you have and the consistent revenue you get unaffected by the macro or micro economic factors. Does your mind get stressed in any way? If it is then open your eyes and write the reasons for the uneasiness or stress you experienced during these 10 minutes.
Close your eyes for 5 minutes and think about any other issues in your mind that worry you in any way. Now open your eyes and write them down.
Now is the time to sit and analyse them. In my experience the best part of our intelligence is called “adaptive intelligence”. My understanding of this is adapting to the situation in such a way you minimise the unpleasant effects on your mind and thus your lifestyle. Remember there will be a relationship between 1 and 2 above but varies to individuals and circumstances. Only you will know. Try and do what your mind tells you rather than what money dictates you. However, do not forget that after all the “Mind is a Monkey”.
Chelliah Chandrarajan