EQUANIMITY

We are taught from an early age that freedom is somehow inexorably intertwined with choice. So we go through life with a giant, imaginary mental & digital thumb, liking & disliking what confronts us in an attempt to get happy with our thumbs up or down.

But what if we are wrong? What if the real way to get happy is to get off the merry-go-round of choice & develop equanimity?

The word equanimity is little used in modern life. The dictionary tells us equanimity is “a state of psychological stability & composure which is undisturbed by experience of or exposure to emotions, pain, or other phenomena that may cause others to lose the balance of their mind.”

But really equanimity is being willing & able to accept things just as they whether they’re boring, exciting, disappointing, painful, or challenging: what we want or what we don’t want.

Equanimity brings balance to moments of joy & pain, knows everything changes, protects us from overreacting & helping us trust life. Equanimity is the eye of the storm pleasure or pain, praise or blame, success or failure, profit or loss.

Without equanimity, we can get overwhelmed by the world, shut down or turn away or alternatively, the beauty and joy of the world can seduce us & make us lovesick.

Yet equanimity is not indifference, is not gritting your teeth nor is it ignorance. Equanimity is vast & holds life lovingly. Equanimity helps us care deeply but easily, relaxed & safe in the knowledge we don’t have complete control.

#beinghuman #mindfulness #experience