Are your reserves of calm feeling a bit depleted? Do you find yourself more reactive than usual, or even downright crabby? You’re not alone! (and please make sure to read to the bottom for a new opportunity to get to the root of the crankiness and access something more helpful). There is a common theme I am hearing from clients and friends (and noticing in myself) right now. We think we’re doing OK and then something relatively small happens-something that under normal circumstances would be just a tiny blip of annoyance. But now this annoyance erupts into a full-blown, internal festival of catastrophizing and seemingly endless misery-making. Many of us are finding ourselves with less resilience and a shorter fuse. Does this sound familiar? Here are a few examples: 😡”How dare that woman yell at me for being on the wrong side of the bike path?” ~even though it happened 4 days ago, you WERE on the wrong side of the bike path, and it was a minor incident. 😱”My friend sounded a bit distant the last time we talked-I bet she’s mad at me! I bet that last thing I said triggered her. What if she never speaks to me again?!” ~even though the friend is dealing with 2 kids at home, trying to transition to working from home and has a sick husband. The examples go on and on. I’m guessing you might have a few of your own. There are a couple of things going on here for us to look at.
Where Does Mindfulness Come In? In mindfulness, our guiding books are called things like ‘Full Catastrophe Living’ by Jon Kabat-Zinn ‘When Things Fall Apart: Heart advice for difficult times ” by Pema Chodron ‘Fear: Essential Wisdom for Getting Through the Storm’ by Thich Nhat Hanh Mindfulness specifically, and the Vipassana meditation tradition in general, offers an elegant road-map for dealing with suffering and being with uncertainty and discomfort. As Pema says:
There tends to be this misconception in Western culture that we’re supposed to be HAPPY all the time. And when we’re not, we are doing something wrong. If we just buy that one more thing, or eat that one thing, or change our hair or our face, or lose the weight…THEN we will have arrived and we can be happy. We can spend our lives waiting for that perfect moment to arrive, and of course it never does. It can’t because even if it were to arrive, it would be different in the next moment and then we’d be chasing again. Whew, no wonder why most people are so exhausted and confused. Our capitalistic belief system keeps the economy chugging along nicely, but it will never lead to fundamental contentment. It’s not designed to. It just keeps us ping-ponging back and forth between grasping onto pleasant events and pushing away the unpleasant, leaving us always trying to control external circumstances. What if you could step off that treadmill of suffering and access deeper truths and a well of equanimity and peace within your own being? I promise you this is accessible, even when times are uncertain and unpleasant. But it takes some dedication and determination to unearth the inner treasures. I have heard it said that all of the Buddha’s teachings of how to liberate the mind can be boiled down into this one concept: Nothing whatsoever is to be clung to as I, Me or Mine. This concept of ‘no-self’ is somewhat antithetical to our entire culture where we’re taught how to get ahead for ourselves and to get more for me and mine. It can feel radically liberative to just begin to question this paradigm. Opportunitiy to Join Me: Mindfulness: Navigating the Unknown This online journey starts in a couple of weeks and we’ve re-worked the curriculum slightly to be more aligned with these challenging times. Because of Covid19 and all the challenges people are facing, we decided that the price of this 10-week class is now reduced by 20%. We will meet by Zoom and will methodically explore the foundational practices of mindfulness and see how you can utilize them in the laboratory of your own life. You’ll have a guided practice to do every day of the week to help literally rewire your brain. I’ll be there with you every step of the way, cheering you on and encouraging you to challenge yourself, to get to know yourself better, to cultivate and strengthen what is best and brightest within you. As Harvard says in this article that outlines some of the neuroscience: “Mindfulness should no longer be considered a “nice-to-have”… It’s a “must-have”: a way to keep our brains healthy, to support self-regulation and effective decision-making capabilities, and to protect ourselves from toxic stress.” We use the book ‘Mindfulness in Plain English’ which supports the practices and teachings in a no-nonsense and practical way. I’ll give you a free pdf copy. Moving Forward Skillfully Into the Unknown There is already a pathway mapped out for us to start to unravel the internal patterns which create and sustain human suffering. It can be a fun exploration. And really, what is more important in the world right now than alleviation of suffering? If you’ve been feeling called to dive more deeply into your mindfulness practice, now is the right time to say YES to that inner knowing. The communities that have come together in trainings over the past several years have been beautiful, loving and supportive. This is a foundational course for the All That Matters Mindfulness Teacher Training. Please sign up today to reserve your spot. You can read more and see what people are saying here. Also,💃🏽Thanks to everyone who came out for the virtual Dance Party!!! What great fun we had! 💃🏽 “Around us, life bursts with miracles–a glass of water, a ray of sunshine, a leaf, a caterpillar, a flower, laughter, raindrops. If you live in awareness, it is easy to see miracles everywhere. Each human being is a multiplicity of miracles. Eyes that see thousands of colors, shapes, and forms; ears that hear a bee flying or a thunderclap; a brain that ponders a speck of dust as easily as the entire cosmos; a heart that beats in rhythm with the heartbeat of all beings. When we are tired and feel discouraged by life’s daily struggles, we may not notice these miracles, but they are always there.” Please share this with anyone you think may benefit. Blessings to you and yours, Erin
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Unexpected Bouts of Crankiness
