Equanimity

We were tucked away in a mountain retreat center in Georgia. A weekend to become self-compassion trained teachers.

On the final day, I expressed my gratitude to our mentor/teacher. She looked me straight in the eye and said, “You have a way of embracing what life brings you with equanimity.”

I was struck by her words and honestly, I did not know the depth of meaning of the word

equanimity. That was May of 2019.

Three weeks ago, I was co- teaching a self-compassion class. The topic was the practice of equanimity and how to cultivate it in our daily lives.

I was teaching from a foundation of experience of the practice of equanimity in the midst of all ups and downs of life over the past year.

I shared this liberating quality allows us to keep our hearts open and balanced, quiet and steady. I can respond to my circumstances by resisting and fighting against them, grasp, cling OR allow.

Equanimity allows.

It is not cold detachment or passivity. It is the willingness to stay with what is.

It allows us to access deep wisdom.

The teaching moment released a shift in my soul that day as I was directly in the midst of a family crisis. The timing of the class, the curriculum and my life experience were exactly aligned with what I needed.

After the class, my heart was awakened the words my mentor spoke to me over a year ago.

I have a daily practice of language to cultivate equanimity. The phrases can be used as mantras/prayers:

All beings have their own journey. This is your journey.

May I be balanced and at peace.

May my heart be big enough to hold the joys and sorrows without being overwhelmed.

May I be open to the conditions of by body and mind with grace.

And the most common equanimity phrase is the Serenity Prayer Reinhold Niebuhr:

“Give us grace to accept with serenity the things that cannot be changed, courage to change the things that should be changed, and the wisdom to distinguish the one from the other.”

The practice has been one of my power tools for 2020!

Going forward I “see” equanimity having the quality of the sky-open and spacious,

with room for all that is.

When you’ve done everything you can do, that’s when God will step in and do what you can’t do.

2 Corinthians 12:10