YOU CAN’T ALWAYS CHANGE THE ROOM—BUT YOU CAN CHANGE WHAT LIVES INSIDE YOU

YOU CAN’T ALWAYS CHANGE THE ROOM—BUT YOU CAN

CHANGE WHAT LIVES INSIDE YOU — Your Outer Environment May

Be Beyond Your Control for Now, but Your Inner Environment Is Always

Yours to Build. One morning, Dr. Abhishek Gilara was taking his usual

rounds on his walking track when a foul smell forced him to change his

route. A dog had vomited beside one small section of the track. He first

avoided that portion altogether. But avoiding it meant compromising his

entire walking rhythm. Then came a simple solution: He could not immediately

remove the foul smell from outside—but he could stop it from entering

inside. For a few seconds, he controlled his breathing, crossed the unpleasant

patch and continued his full round.

The outer environment remained unchanged. His experience of it did not. And from those few seconds emerged a much larger

question: If we cannot always change our surroundings, must we become products of them? This book explores the difference

between what surrounds us and what we permit to live within us. Other people’s negativity does not automatically have to

become our negativity. Their fear does not have to become our fear. Their anger does not have to become our anger. Their

limitations do not have to become our limitations. Their definition of success does not have to become ours. The world outside

has influence. But influence does not have to become ownership. Change the environment when you can. Improve it when it

is your responsibility. Leave it when leaving is the right action. But when the outer environment cannot immediately be

changed, protect the inner one. And remember: Everything around you does not deserve admission into you. That morning

carried one final lesson. Dr. Gilara continued walking—and further along the very same track, he saw four young peacocks

playing. The foul smell and the peacocks existed on the same track. Just like difficulty and beauty often exist in the same life.

Do not abandon the whole track because one patch smells bad. Protect what enters you. Perform your karma. Follow your

dharma. Keep your inner sun burning. And keep walking. There may still be something beautiful ahead.