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Equanimity

Photo by Simon Migaj on Pexels.com
Once I boasted to one of my students, ‘You know what, I can clear up my mind and think nothing for five minutes at a stretch!’

It was 2014 I guess, neither did I know anything about meditation back then, nor had I practiced ever (I regularly read Bhagavad Geeta though, that was a sheer meditation unbeknownst to me). And most surprisingly, I thought that to be a normal state of mind – like everybody else might have the power to clear up the mind for five minutes.

Can you feel the peace kept inside those palms? Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com
Perhaps I am overstating the timeframe, but it was more or less 300 seconds for me.

Then I entered the era of mental turbulence, complaisance, and gratification – a constant state of living high maybe?

The upshot is, perhaps I have made some sweet memories. But in expense, I lost my mental stability. 

In one word, I lost equanimity.

Equanimity is a state of mind that can keep oneself steady on a rocking boat. An equanimous person feels momentary compassion or depression over any event, that cannot absorb her mind for a lingered period.

However, being equanimous is not tantamount to being a saint. As long as we are living in a society with all the ups and downs surrounding our daily lives, our boat will certainly rock so many times.

So shall we.

Analyze your surroundings in slow motion, Photo by Bernyce Hollingworth on Pexels.com
But the real question arises when we decide to shake ourselves with the wave and resonate with our difficulties.

Holding our downward emotions is easier for the mind, it doesn’t require any effort. You just have to keep thinking about something that has already happened or ailed you. Your mind will try to have peer empathy by doing so, or show you that it wasn’t really your fault.

To me, the solution is, simply to move on.

Any positive or negative emotion should not submerge the mind for more than a minute. Weal and woe come in cyclic order – you can’t stick to any of them.

Information turns into knowledge while putting into practice, Photo by Koshevaya_k on Pexels.com
Emotions have a superglue effect – the longer you get attached, the harder it sticks to you. 

On the other hand, breaking an emotional surge takes much effort and discomfort from the inside out. You have to ignore your mental inertia, the comfort zone of self-pity. 

Today I read a technique of staying equanimous. Anytime I face any fight or flight situation, I need to turn on a red switch in my mind, that will awaken the equanimous state of mind inside me. I shall sit back and take 60 seconds for myself thinking nothing. Such mental detachment will allow me to defer quick insurgent decisions or thoughts. Obviously doing so will be hard.

But like all hard things to do, it should also pay off.

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Location: Dhaka, Bangladesh

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