What Does Equanimity Mean To You?

This week, I’ve been looking at what equanimity means to me and this has been the theme of the yoga classes I’ve been teaching.

I’ve been working through Baron Baptiste’s book for the 2nd time – 40 Days to Personal Revolution and this also happens to be the focus for the week.

I love how he says in the book “Equanimity is the art of meeting life as it meets you – calmly, without drama or fuss.”  And he also says that “we change by finding equanimity learning to relax right in the middle of conflict-filled moments.”

Even yoga can seem like conflict sometimes and that’s what I’ve had my students take a look at this week.  We can be in situations and start to panic because we think it hurts or we can’t stay any longer because we are too tired or get too shaky to continue.

So, whether we decide to stay in a pose, get out, we are shaky or lose our balance, can we still stay calm in these times?

Can you still stay calm when things aren’t going your way?  Can you stay calm when life hands you things that you weren’t expecting that take away from the things you wanted to be spending your time on?

I’ve noticed that meditation helps me a lot with staying calm in these moments.  The more that I can relax and stay calm during meditation, the more it carries out through the rest of my life.

If you do not have a regular meditation practice, would you be willing to try and just meditate for 5 minutes a day the next week?  The 40 days book I mentioned above suggests working up to 30 minutes 2ce a day.  So, could you just commit to 5 minutes a day to start?  It just might be the best 5 minutes of your day and you could begin to see you enjoy it so much you may end up wanting more.

You can sit in a comfortable seated position (best if knees are below your hips, so sitting on a pillow or blanket can help) and just take big deep breaths in and out through your nose.  As you recognize thoughts and sounds, try and let them pass through without judging them.  Just go right back to your breathing and pay attention to your next breath.  When it happens again, repeat and go back to your breath.  Set a timer for how long you want to meditate and when the timer goes off you can go about the rest of your day hopefully a little more calm and peaceful and you will have certainly given your mind & body a huge gift!