Awareness Changes Everything

“Nothing has more power to transform than awareness. When you become complete inside yourself, the worst conditions don’t matter.” –Deepak Chopra

If you read “Massaging a Meltdown” (Feb 23, 2009), my blog post which describes a rough re-entry I had after two weeks in the sun in Mexico, you might be interested to know what happened next:

Nothing…Everything.

Here’s what I did:

Nothing.

The emotional weather I was experiencing moved through as quickly as I could write it all down. As I described later in an email to a friend:

“Self-revealing ‘meltdowns’ go with the territory of what I do for a living. Not always pleasant, but it always seems that the space and the people who occupy the space are lighter (brighter, clearer, more balanced) after some soulful and unattached off-gassing.”

Bottom line: I feel clearer, and calmer these days. And in the space of my observing, the world “out there” seems to be reflecting that calmness right back to me…

Like the time Eckhart Tolle just “happened” to pop up on my TV screen on ABC’s Nightline, a show I hardly ever watch. In this six-minute segment, Tolle talks about the mind and our thoughts. He says that around 99% of our thoughts are repetitive, and habitual. And most of those are negative.

I especially loved the part in the interview where he uses the a weather metaphor to talk about non-identification:

Q: “Don’t you ever get annoyed, irritated, or sad…anything negative…?”
A: “No, I accept what is, that’s why life has become so simple.”
Q: “Even when somebody cuts you off in your car…?”
A: “It’s fine. It’s like a sudden gust of wind. I don’t personalize a gust of wind. It’s simply what is.”

Hmmm, right now I’m thinking how much thinking I do! And how much rehashing I do of all the thinking. Yes, I notice it is quite repetitive. And habitual. And exhausting. I wonder how much of my meltdown was me just short-circuiting from so much internal commentary.

Who knows.

For now I’m watching. Watching the mind and reframing negative chit-chat wherever possible. Also taking to heart this wonderful quote by Pema Chodron that my friend Nancy Shapiro sent me:

“If you want there to be peace—anything from peace of mind to peace on earth—here is the condensed instruction: Stay with the initial tightening and don’t spin off. Keep it simple.” –Pema Chödrön

This week’s wonder questions:

• How am I a perfect expression of calmness?
• Why am I able to maintain equanimity all the time?