The Art of Withdrawal

The art of knowing when to withdraw yourself is a very important one indeed. Knowing when to withdraw your attachment from somebody or something or a situation can save you from a lot of pains and struggles. With a little wiser head now, I realise that maybe I was a little too attached with my mom during the time when she was suffering  from cancer. Now being attached to your own mother is nothing wrong but maybe it would have helped me more in my badminton career had I been able to let go of my attachment sooner. 

In 2014, I went back to kolkata from Thane(the place where I trained for badminton) to stay with my parents to look after my mom for a few months. And after a month of my staying, we realised that she wouldn’t survive for long as the cancer had spread too much. I had already missed a lot of training because of my stay by then. So from that perspective, I believe that after knowing about her situation I should have probably left a bit early from kolkata. 
But, I missed the trick of knowing the art of withdrawal. I got emotionally carried away a bit then. I remember that my family members, especially my dad, my aunt’s husband (we call ‘mesho’ in bengali) and even my brother told me to leave and not waste my time in kolkata anymore. But I didn’t listen and I overstayed there for a month or so maybe. 

That overstaying had a devastating effect on my badminton career. I straightaway went to participate in a tournament after returning from Kolkata. I was not fully prepared for the tourney as I hardly got time to train before that. No wonder I met with a long term injury in that tournament. I tore my anterior cruciate ligament of the right knee while playing then and was sidelined for more than a year. 

I lost a lot of time and probably also a lot of opportunities during that time. So, looking back, I believe that it is really very important to know when to withdraw yourself from certain things. It will keep you well balanced which will help you in the long term.  

Om Shanti….?