SELF SUFFICIENCY (ATMANIRBHAR JIVAN)

Growing up in the era of technology we have become so much dependent on others for our basic needs be it emotionally or for basic food requirements that we forget what we are capable of doing on our own. Have you ever wondered why is it necessary to be accepted on social platforms? Why is your existence has to be validated with the no. of followers or likes you got on your profile? How our ancestors survive when there were no grocery or vegetable stores? Did they live without food for days? Why do we have to earn money for a living whereas our forefathers had a very happy and big family with not even one-fourth of the income we are having now? Is it because the cost of living back then was less and now it's high? Maybe and maybe not. Here we will try to find answers to these questions.

There are two interlinked concepts self-sufficient and self-reliance. Let's first know What self-sufficiency is?

Self-sufficiency as described in the dictionary is the state in which you can maintain yourself without any outside aid. Now, what does maintain mean? Maintenance here refers both emotionally and physically. Physical maintenance includes our basic needs like food. We are dependent on the supermarkets for our grocery and vegetables. But the question still floats in the air how did our forefathers, no not our grandparents, our distant ancestors, lived when there was no supermarket? The answer just popped up your head. They did there own farming. But many might mockingly put this aside that we in today's generation can not do farming for our living. Right? No, wrong. We can and we should. 

Mahabharata Vana Parva 193.29

Prior to explaining how we can do this, I will explain how they used to do it. In the early days where there were no supermarkets and no fancy restaurants to order their meals. They used to grow their vegetables and cereals and did hunting for meat. Everyone earned their own living. Not money, but food. With time it changed to farming, poultry, and dairy farms. Where people not only grew food for themselves but for others too and after that slowly with the advancement these supermarkets came to existence. But do remember, the packed cereals and vegetables in your kitchen are also grown by someone like you. How easy things would be if you can grow them yourself and do not have to depend a lot on others?

Now let's find the answer to how can we do this in this modern era. It was easy for them but we who live in apartments and concrete jungles, how can we do farming? Saying "No" is very easy but have you tried to figure out a way to say "Yes"?

The answer is pretty simple. Of course, the ones from cities and towns cant do farming on large scale but you can grow Vegetables in small pots which can find a place in your rooftop or even your balcony. There are many vegetables which do not need much space to grow, like, tomato, beans, beetroot, radish, potato, carrots, chilies, cauliflower, cabbage, salad onions and herbs like Mint and Coriander. This makeup for most of our daily food diet. This concept of growing vegetables in pots is widely famous as a Kitchen Garden. If we have these potted plants in our kitchen garden then we save 10% of our annual expenditure on vegetables. 

Now coming to Pulses and Cereals, they need large plots to be sown and harvested, which is not possible for city dwellers. But many people living in the city have lands in their village. They can utilize the idle land for farming of cereals and pulses. Now, this is a difficult part because all land types do not support every cereals and pulses to be grown but you can find out what your land type is and what can be grown in that plot so that the idle land will be a source of the livelihood. Here again, constraint arises, many might say they do not have land or property. For them, I Would suggest, you are forgetting the fact that many have the lands and are not capable of utilizing it as they are enough old to start-up farming and maintain it now or they do not live in the country and are out for a job. Reach out to these people and ask them to use their land for farming and make some deals like you will be providing some percentage of the profit to them in return of the land. 

Now comes the third option Poultry and Dairy. One cow and a few hens are enough to provide food for your daily breakfast. I remember back in my village we used to have cows which provided us with milk for our breakfast. We did not depend on the milkman every morning. In India cow is worshiped as a god. My father says, "Having a cow does not only provide us with pure and fresh milk but a cowshed gives positive vibe to the house too." Now I know this is difficult to get in apartment life. But if you are staying in the city having a backyard you can still find space for a cowshed and a small container for egg-laying hens. Eggs are protein-rich food. Milk and egg together make your body strong and healthy. And milk is a source of many things like Paneer, cheese, butter, etc. We can process the milk ourselves at home to make these dairy products for our daily use. I strongly believe my father has a better build of the body than mine because what he got when he was a child was pure and what we get these days to have are all these chemicals and less nutritious. Now if you want to breed hens and have a dairy farm then that's a different story. For that, you do need a big enough space for farming. 

Above are the three ways to achieve self-sufficiency in food, vegetables, cereals, poultry, and dairy that are the main ingredients of our daily diet. If you have land which can be used as a resource then please do give this a thought. Many are going jobless now. Do give this a thought where you can achieve self-sufficiency and would have no fear of losing the job, the next day and go hungry for days. "There is always a door open only if you remember to try the knobs of each door to check if it's unlocked." The COVID-19 has taken away many jobs but at the same time, it is offering us a new opportunity to change our way of living. To become self-sufficient. To not depend on others for our basic needs, and even can be a source of our income if we produce in large amounts. No doubt it feels difficult but it will seem very easy once you take the initiative.

This was all about how to achieve self-sufficiency in food now lets come the more complex yet simple part of how to achieve emotional self-sufficiency. This is known as emotional self-reliance.

In this era where we are so dependent on someone else to validate our existence that if we do not get the attention we feel lonely and rejected, it's really needed to be self-sufficient emotionally. It is the foundation of good mental health and happy life. The better you deal with your emotions the more positive moment you can extract from the worst situation. How to find out if you are emotionally self-reliant or not? Answer the question below in yes or no.

• Do you expect a partner to make you happy?
• Do you get excessively jealous?
• Do you feel your friends should be there all the time?
• Do you consistently look for external validation?
• Are you dependent on likes, subscribers, and followers on social media networks?
• Do you distract yourself quite often?
• Do you feel a sense of anxiety come on when you are alone?

If you answer yes to more than one of these questions then you are not emotionally self-reliant. This is quite understandable as we all are humans after all. Even my answer to few questions was yes. So the question here is how do we change it? How do we get or feel the happiness from the inside without any external factors? How we ourselves become enough for our own happiness. Honestly speaking this is a tough process, but the result is worth it. Below are a few ways to build emotional self-sufficiency:

• Spend time alone. Spending more time alone you can really connect with yourself. With the true self which has the emotional resources and capacity to achieve the impossible. Only when you spend specific and structured time alone with your true self, you will find how great a person you are and how awesome companion you are to yourself.
  
  
  
  
  
• Challenge and distance yourself from the things you are dependent upon. Now, this is similar to spending time alone but here the main factor is finding the happiness within yourself and not from somebody else. You should not be dependent on somebody else's presence for your own happiness. Take stock off the things that are attracting you, take stock of the things that are pulling or driving you towards them, be it social media, tv, mobile, or anything. Now, this is a difficult part but not impossible.
  
  
• Take responsibility. take responsibility for your own emotional and mental well being. What we very often do, is we feel an emotion and if uncomfortable or sad we distribute them to some other soul external to ourselves. Here we got to understand the pain is ours and just by saying that the cause was something or someone else is wrong. It's inside us and we should take responsibility for it.
  
  
  
  
• Meditate. Now in our previous blogs, we have mentioned the importance of meditation. In the last blog self-hypnosis, we talked about how its all a state of mind. If you create a strong belief that you are happy from inside and calm yourself down then you surely will be able to find the light to self-sufficiency. Meditation helps a lot.
  
  
• Journal. Here you express your inner feeling to the diary where you get a chance to think about it and without being distracted focus on them and find a different perspective to look at it. This way you find the solution to your won problems and a companion to share with too.
  
  

Why is it important to be emotional self-reliance?

Self-reliance is necessary to have long-lasting happiness and prosperity in your relationships. Just give it a thought, if you have two emotionally dependent people and they both are having emotional expectations from each other and clashing, eventually one or both of them are going to drop the bow and they clash shattering the relationship. so emotional self-sufficiency is the most crucial thing for healthy relationships, I believe.

I want to make it very clear I don't intend to say that you can completely be self-sufficient in this 21st century. But you can at least achieve most of it. You can have your own kitchen garden, those who have a property in the countryside can and should think of starting farming, we can be emotional self-reliance. Again do not misunderstand emotional self-reliance with a Yogi or a Sanyasi. You stay emotionally attached to people but depend on yourself for your happiness, that is the concept of emotional self-reliance. 

I am sure many would feel farming as a job not fit for their reputation. My dear friends no job is small or big. Being self-sufficient means to have resources for your happiness and maintenance. It highers your self-esteem and boosts your confidence. Those who have the opportunity should think about this idea. COVID-19 has caused much havoc. We when going out to the supermarkets for our daily groceries and vegetables feel suspicious of the person in front of us in the queue for billing. What if he is a carrier of COVID-19? we feel the fear of losing our job for the job cuts all over the world. What if we do not have money for food the next day? We feel lonely alone without being able to meet and talk to our friends. To solve all these problems the answer is self-sufficiency. Learn and practice it to have a great life ahead.