When you feel like you cannot tolerate any more, that is not weakness. That is the mind telling you it has been carrying too much for too long.
Everyone has a threshold of endurance. If you keep suppressing and pushing, at some point it will overflow. When it overflows, you do not respond the same way. You become reactive, sometimes even harsh or revengeful.
So the point is not to reach that limit. You have to offload before that. Do not even let yourself get to 80%. By 60%, you should already be clearing it.
That offloading can be through things like exercise, talking it out with friends, japa, therapy, or whatever helps you release that build-up. Otherwise, you will not have the capacity to deal with anything properly.
From the Mahabharata
If you see Draupadi, she endured for years. But once her threshold was crossed, it turned into a demand for war and complete destruction of the Kauravas, without a single second thought. That is what happens when build-up is not cleared.
We think enduring everything is strength. But if you do not clear it regularly, even a small situation will feel too much, because internally, you are already full.
This reflection draws from Swamini Supriyananda’s Mahabharata teachings at Chinmaya Mission Hong Kong.
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