31 Aug 2024

Clarify My Mind: 10 of 12: Equanimity

by | posted in: Mindfulness | 0

Equanimity is composure, calmness, and a balanced outlook that helps me hold disturbances and all experiences in life with a peaceful heart.

Acceptance

One aspect of it is acceptance – accept the reality of life as it is. Life is living through me. All things emerge and pass away – joys and sorrows, agonies and ecstasies, fun and frustrating events. Can I avoid the struggle of resisting them, or fighting with them, or denying them? Acceptance can save me the pain of navigating life with an inaccurate map of virtual reality that doesn’t align with what is here and now. Once I shift my focus away from resisting or complaining, space opens in my mind for insights to emerge. It can help connect with peace and harmony from inside.

Detachment

Detaching from the drama of emotions and reactive thinking patterns and seeing it all objectively as a witness can help cultivate equanimity. When I can train my mind to be aware without getting caught up in the objects I see or experience, it’s like navigating the terrain without thinking, labeling, liking, or disliking what I see along the way. It’s about witnessing experiences without judging them as good or bad, and observing the drama without getting caught up in it. It can open space between thoughts, allowing my mind to focus on the present moment and unlocking liveliness, peace, vibrant joy, and healing from within.

My True Identity

I am spacious awareness. I am the Atma – the soul. I am like a big open sky, and the weather of experiences – thrilling and challenging – passes through and dissolves like clouds emerging and disappearing on the horizon. When the plane of my mind is flying through clouds of thoughts, that’s all it can see. When I steer the plane to rise above the clouds, there is deep, crisp, open blue sky all around, and a beautiful view of the clouds below.

Awareness and acceptance can clarify and refine my understanding of reality – they can help me detect and release the habitual patterns that lead to chronic stress, unhealthy emotional patterns, and other forms of suffering.

Give

Developing a mindset to help others, give, and help them realize their potential can help me cultivate positive vibes and a connection to abundance, which, in turn, can help cultivate calmness, composure, and joy from within. The mindset of letting go, healing, and nurturing can help connect with the peace within in the trying moments.

Prayer of Peace

Please may I find a way to peace? May I love life no matter what?

Tara Brack in Trusting Gold: As I sat on the deck repeating that prayer of longing, my heart opened and opened until the grief turned into a pure, tender loving of life itself, no matter what might unfold. At that moment I knew most deeply that I could lose everything I cared about and that love would always be here, a timeless essence of my heart.

I know that everything I hold dear will eventually go – except this loving awareness that cherishes our ever-changing life.

Positive Vibrations - lightness

Answer to the Serenity Prayer

Equanimity helps me meet each moment with clarity, awareness, and compassion, rather than fear, reactivity, and contraction. It can help me find an answer to the Serenity Prayer: “Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.”

I wish, hope, and pray that all my friends, family, colleagues, customers, neighbors, and all living beings find ways to live with a peaceful heart.

What are your thoughts?