Rise above events that are inconsequential, both bad and good, for they are not worth disturbing your equanimity. –Cheshbon HaNefesh
Never fear! I have not forgotten the middot! In the busyness of graduation, accepting a new job, and moving I have not been able to update this as frequently as I’d like to. This is a really involved post so I’m going to break it into 3 parts so that it is more easily digestible.
Part I
While we’re towards the end of Sh’vat, I have actually spent much of this month meditating on and working towards this month’s middot, tranquility.
I wrote out that last sentence intentionally: meditating on (intention) and working towards (implementation). Any time we strive for change in our lives, we have to complete both of these steps. If we sit around and meditate on things, ruminating, collecting intentions like fallen leaves, then we will never find the time to put our intentions into action.
It’s a trap I’ve fallen into time and time again. I am a great thinker. I can think things backwards and forwards, inside and out. It’s putting them into action where I typically fall short. On the other hand, I put into action many things in my life. Doing things automatically, reactively, and completely without intention. These reflexive actions rarely bring satisfaction and often bring downright trouble into my life (think: binging on coffee and sugar to get through a shift at work. It is a compulsive, reflexive action, not based in sound logic or intention).
My exercises in tranquility have been based in this idea. I have to think it, then I have to do it. I set it as a priority in my life. What this means to me is setting tranquility as my intention every day, and then when the opportunity for it to be disrupted inevitably shows up, being prepared to conquer it.
When I wake up 30 minutes late, I have 2 broad choices: freak out and start my day in a tizzy, or accept that I might be a little less groomed as normal and go on with my day. The reactive part of me wants to freak out and deem the entire day as a “bad day” (amazing how we can decide such things in the 10 seconds it took to realize we were late?!). But I have the intention of tranquility, so I am going to compress my morning routine, and then continue my day as planned…until something else is thrown off. At this point, I again get to decide (YES YOU CHOOSE!) whether that moment makes or breaks my day and my tranquility or is just another bump in the road.
Next up… What tranquility means to me (it may surprise you!).
And You Shall Love 