The Mindful Nepali

On a summer’s night in 2016 when majority of the population was deciding to call it a night, one 24-year-old guy was contemplating going on an eternal sleep. Reeling under immense pressure that arose from being debt ridden and with no clue on how to change his dire-strait situation, he had contemplated taking his own life. It wasn’t an easy cowardly conclusion to reach to, as you may think. But rather, it was a thought process of a naive young gun many had placed high hopes on, but felt overwhelmed by his perception of having failed everyone immensely.

As he was crying on top of his lungs agonizing about how lonely he was in the midst of this chaos, an email notification popped up out of the blue.

The email read:

 “Truthfully speaking, I haven’t met any person other than you who wants to help students by mentoring them so closely and personally. And I know that your presence is not where it ends because we must try to give our best as well. I am trying to take full advantage of these opportunities. There’s still long way to go but at the same time it’s up to me to perceive.

 Thank you once again.”

The sender of the email was a guy named Prajwol Wagle, who was himself going through his share of personal problems that were affecting his undergraduate studies but more importantly, plaguing his happiness and crippling his general well being. The two had met for the first time earlier that morning in anticipation of working closely in a newly launched mentorship program. Little did the guy know that his to-be mentee would challenge his own inhibitions about his self-worth and go on to give him the confidence needed to attain one of the best moments of his life in the months to follow.

Rachel Wolchin once said, “Be mindful when it comes to your words. A string of some that doesn’t mean much to you, may stick with someone else for a lifetime.”

We are inundated with so much of information throughout the day. These messages coming from all quarters (especially advertisers) are about how we aren’t complete already and ought to follow certain trails to be more happy and fulfilled. And when it comes to people that come in contact with us, it is easy for their words to be harsh and unkind, and penetrate through our hearts, leaving us to feeling miserable about our self-worth. In the midst of daily rush and frantic chase of that ever elusive happiness that we are all after, we ourselves are all too vulnerable in losing sight of the consequences of the little actions we take and a few harmless (at least what we perceive them to be) words we blurt out. But given how fragile we humans are, it would be fair to say that one mindless act (without malicious intent, of course) can still make someone take it personally and affect the entirety of their lives.

Looking back, the powerful words in that particular email changed the trajectory of the mentor’s path- helped him see his own worth and to be a little less harsh on himself in the process. And thank goodness for that, for it seemed destined that a failure to change from the previous path he was treading on could well have had a horrific ending.

Words have immense power- either to heal or to kill. What will your words do today?

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