If we peep into our mind any time, we find that there is an uninterrupted chain of thoughts right from the time we wake up in the morning till we sleep at night. From the viewpoint of Spiritual Science, nearly 85% of our thoughts are meaningless. The remaining 15% of the thoughts are, however, essential for our daily life and do not trouble us. Occasionally, some adverse events or strange things happen. Some people may also behave with us in an insulting manner. As a result there is turmoil in our mind. We are then unable to stop thinking about such things. In short, it is the experience of many people that such stressful thoughts can’t be stopped no matter how much we try to do so.

So, first and foremost, we should be able to stop these unwanted, stressful thoughts. For this purpose, Spiritual-Science has a strong remedy called the ‘Trident’

A trident is a three-pointed spear. The Marathi equivalent ‘trishul’ also means three kinds of pain. So, Spiritual-Science has given us this ‘Trident’ to get rid of mental stress caused by thoughts relating to importance, comparison and expectation. The three blades of the trident represent ‘importance, ‘comparison’ and ’expectation’. Another way to remember is the word ICE where ‘I’ stands for Importance, ‘C’ stands for Comparison and ‘E’ stands for Expectation. So whenever there is mental tension, keep this cool ICE on your head! And, watch how your head (mind) calms down! Now let consider each one of these three kinds of thoughts.

Importance: We often make a mountain of a molehill. In other words, we attach undue importance to some person who has hurt us or to some adverse event and keep on thinking so much about that person or event that there is a lot of mental tension. If attaching undue importance to such things causes mental stress, then why give them so much importance!

You might now ask whether nothing should be considered important in life. That is just not so. According to the changing circumstances and the needs of the changing times, importance has to be given to certain things. We also have give importance to the elders at home, to respectable people and to those in high positions. We should also give importance in our life to some work undertaken by us or a goal decided by us! That is because when the work is completed or the goal is achieved, you will get satisfaction and happiness.

Comparison: The world is presently governed by competition and wherever there is competition, there is comparison. As a matter of fact, progress is possible only because of competition. So competition is not at all bad provided it is healthy. We are actually never troubled by competition but by the comparisons made during competition. While making comparisons, do we ever take into account our physical, mental and intellectual capabilities? For example, will it be proper if an average player competes with a player of international standard? What is the point in insisting that our child should score 95% marks in the 10th standard examination just because our neighbour’s child has scored so? Without considering our child’s physical, mental and intellectual capabilities, it is wrong to expect that he will score as much or more than the neighbour’s child. If we, instead, encourage him and he makes full use of all his three capabilities, he may move up gradually from 55% to say 72-75%. The same holds good for objects. So to want something stubbornly just because another person has got or bought it could end in mental agony for ourselves. Do buy it, however, if you are financially able to do so and if you need it very much. Unfair comparisons will always harm us. On the other hand, if we assess our three capabilities and then have in mind someone superior to us as an ideal or a goal, we can not only make progress but also surpass the other person.

Expectation: Actually, we have expectations right from the time we are born. All that happens is that every person’s expectations change with age and circumstances. And, these expectations are the root of importance and comparison. Often, when we expect something from another person we don’t even consider his physical condition and mental state. That is because we usually think of ourselves first and take the other person for granted while expecting anything from him. Now, disappointments go hand in hand with expectations. What is amusing is that we quite often say very casually that life is nothing but adjustment. But who is to make the adjustment? And then, we always point at another person. Just as we have expectations from others, so also others will also surely have expectations from us. Do we then fulfill the expectation of others? Here too, the expectation is that he or she should adjust for my sake. If this happens, there will always be arguments and quarrels and consequently, we will have to suffer mental agony.

The above reasoning doesn’t mean that we should never have expectations. However, wrong or unrealistic expectations will only result in disappointments. So what should we do? While deciding any goal in our life, we should first assess all our three capabilities – physical, mental and intellectual – and then use them fully for attaining that goal. And suppose that we are not as successful as we expected even after quite a few attempts, we should acknowledge and accept the limitations of our capabilities. At the same time, without getting disheartened, we should explore some other option or alternative with equal enthusiasm.

We can rest assured that 75% of our mental agony can be avoided or eliminated if this psychological ‘Trident’ or ICE is used in our daily life whenever our thoughts are likely to lead to mental turmoil.