Our thoughts dictate our emotional experience, not our surroundings.
To be relaxed, we must disconnect from the unhelpful thoughts we hold in our heads.
And, oh my, are we good at creating unhelpful thoughts.
To disconnect is not to try to think less. It is to be present to what we can physically sense.
With a blossoming of this understanding, I’ve introduced presence into my life wherever I’ve been able to.
I meditate when I remember to, more often. I do this in the sitting position, but more recently I have been doing it at opportune moments through the day, notably when I walk.
“People say that what we’re all seeking is a meaning for life. … I think that what we’re seeking is an experience of being alive, so that our life experiences on the purely physical plane will have resonances with our own innermost being and reality, so that we actually feel the rapture of being alive.”
~ Joseph Campbell
What is critical in all this is that beyond experiencing more calm, more of the time, I am much better able to deal with more intense sources of fear or stress. Things like socialising in groups, or interacting with provocative people no longer ignite a cascade of anxiety or anger as it once did.
I owe a lot of this to cultivating ‘reserves of presence’ like this.
I have always said the best way to ‘overcome’ fears is to face them incrementally and regularly. The experience shows us there is nothing to be afraid of.
We need to see our bodies and spirits as open vessels for the accumulation and spreading of that sense of presence.
