Skip to main content

Practise Equanimity

Equanimity is a wonderful quality, a spaciousness and balance of heart. And it can be yours with a bit of practise and patience.

The skill of equanimity depends upon the ability to detach from emotions and thoughts. One place to start is with the belief that negative emotional states are to some degree inevitable. Depression, anxiety, fear, jealousy, hatred, anger, and other painful emotions are natural and human so you can expect them sooner or later.

By accepting this fact and understanding the nature of emotions, you will continue to change your relationship to your emotions. You will not be able to eliminate negative emotions, painful memories or harmful thoughts but you can change your relationship to them.

This is particularly important for people who suffer from strong emotional reactions and need to be able to tolerate painful feelings in order to pursue the rewards of long-term goals.

If you are at war with your thoughts and feelings all the time and you are fighting life events and problems such as a living with a chronic illness, mindfulness meditation is a way to step out of the battle. We need to approach these difficult situations and feelings instead of avoiding them.

This is so much the life of an individual with a chronic condition. We live with a lot of stress because of all the pain and disability that we endure.

So, equanimity is a way for us to reconceptualise our reality with our illness so that we can live well with chronic illness. And this can really help us to cope and to be the best that we can.

The capacity to recognize all thoughts as transient mental events rather than decisive descriptions of reality is crucial to relieving suffering. The capacity to observe fearful thoughts and feelings in a non-reactive way makes freedom of choice possible. The ability to observe in a non-reactive way is a way to experience peace and mental stability that reactivity does not allow.

Researchers have found that if individuals can change their relationship to their thoughts and feelings then healthy thoughts and feelings are able to follow naturally. The individuals who tried to practise equanimity learned the process of assuming a de-centered observing position in relation to their negative thoughts.

The goal is to recognize the earliest sign of a negative mood or thought and apply de-centering skills. Decentering is a three step process that involves learning to recognize, observe and detach from negative thoughts. To be able to do this regularly with negative thoughts, the chronically-ill individual must first learn to decenter from bodily sensations, ordinary thoughts, and common feelings through mindfulness meditation.

You can visualize your mind as an open sky with thoughts and emotional experiences as transient phenomenon like clouds which pass through but do not become permanent structures in the expanse of the sky.

You can have this kind of freedom of thought and emotion too with some practise, effort, patience and willingness to change your mindset. Being free from negative emotions and feelings is really within your reach.

Irene S. Roth writes for teens, tweens, and kids about self-empowerment. She is the author of over thirty-five books and over five hundred online articles. She also has four hundred and sixty published book reviews both online and in print. In addition, she has several books published about living well with chronic illness. Please double click on this link to read about one of them:    https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/689182



 By Irene Roth


Article Source: Practise Equanimity

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Kecemburuan semacam ini

Jacey melemparkan cangkir kopi kaca, (Mug Kaca Berinsulasi Dinding Ganda Zwilling), melintasi dapur. Itu menghantam dinding yang baru dicat (Behr, Sweet Coconut Milk, M230), dan hancur menjadi triliunan kepingan. "Inilah yang telah kamu lakukan pada kami!" teriaknya, suaranya berderak karena cemburu, kuku jarinya yang terawat (Orly Cold As Ice - perawatan bernapas + warna) menusuk udara ke arah tumpukan puing-puing kaca. Blayne menundukkan kepalanya, dagu keduanya mengenai dadanya terlebih dahulu. "Maaf, sayang," gumamnya. "Maaf?! Maaf!" Dia mengambil sekotak Wheat Thins dan mengangkatnya di atas kepalanya. "Tolong jangan melempar yang lain!" Blayne memohon, berdiri dari posisi setengah duduk di bangku logam di dapur. Ini adalah bangku yang sangat tidak nyaman (Bangku Meja Grejsi dengan Bingkai Logam), tetapi Jacey menyukai cara logam itu memantulkan sinar matahari di sore hari, jadi itulah yang dia beli. Dia mencondongkan tubuh ke arahnya,...

Thirteenth step

My grandmother attends the church basement on Tuesday evenings. I saw him there among the metal folding chairs and antique coffee pots, his figure trembling under the fluorescent lights that buzzed like dying insects. She wears the same powder blue pullover she was buried in, the one with pearl buttons that catch the light like little moons. Others can't see it, of course. They just feel a sudden chill as they pass by where she is, or smell the ghostly smell of her Shalimar perfume mixing with the smell of burnt coffee that never leaves these rooms. But I see clearly. He's been following me to AA meetings for three months since I got my first white chip after five years of being back in the bottle. "Your grandmother was my godmother in 1985," old Pete told me after tonight's meeting, hands shaking as he poured a seven-pack of Sweet'n Low into his coffee. "Toughest godmother I ever had. She saved my life." "Mine, too," I said, not specif...

A-Z of Corporate Governance Law

Corporate governance law can be seen as the law that states the way a company is regulated and managed. Any student of law must have a clear idea about the corporate governance law. This article provides an insight into the law, along with its importance. Corporate governance law  describes how a company will be managed and governed. This topic is an important one for any student pursuing a degree in law. They may also receive academic papers to write on it. Hence, individuals should be clear about this law. The article aims at clarifying the idea behind the law and why it is important. What exactly is corporate governance law? A business is directed and controlled by the system of corporate governance. It is a process for governing a company, establishing the policies, customs, and laws for all employees, starting from the highest to the lowest levels. It states the distribution of responsibilities and rights among the various participants in a company like the di...