Hey y'all,
It's Dave.
Good to be with you.
This meditation will focus on cultivating equanimity,
An even-minded mental state or dispositional tendency towards all experiences or objects regardless of their affective valence,
Which basically means their attractiveness as pleasant,
Unpleasant,
Or neutral.
Equanimity is often an essential quality to cultivate along with mindfulness as a tool for recovering rapidly from difficult emotions or physical stressors.
So let's explore the practice of equanimity in which you can use imagery,
Explore your potential emotional reactions,
And connect with your body.
Here we go.
Let's start by taking a few deep breaths,
Settling the mind and body.
Allow yourself to be relaxed but alert.
Feel free to close your eyes or keep them open,
Checking in with the breath.
Bringing your attention to the direct sensations of breathing at the nostrils or the belly or the feel of your whole body breathing.
Now that we've settled a bit,
I'm going to describe a couple scenarios for you to imagine yourself into.
Are you ready?
Okay,
Here's the first one.
You are sitting wherever you are,
And suddenly you hear a door slamming nearby.
How would you absorb the sound?
Would your heart jump?
Would your muscles clench?
How quickly would you recover?
Would you be indifferent?
With equanimity,
You are poised to let the salient and intense stimulus arise and pass,
Not resisting the experience or needing it to be different in any way.
Take a few moments to imagine and explore this now.
Okay,
Here's another scenario.
Imagine you are driving in a car on a major highway,
And you have the intention to bring in mindful awareness and equanimity into the experience.
So you might be aware of thoughts or emotions that pass through your mind without getting lost in them.
You might experience the flow of sensory and mental objects with an impartial yet caring attitude.
Now into this mindful scenario,
Imagine another driver suddenly cuts in front of you in a dangerous way.
Fear or anger may arise as you automatically hit the brakes and honk your horn.
But instead of reacting with perhaps road rage or panic,
You bring your attention to the quality of your breath.
Is it stable and smooth?
Are you fighting any thoughts or feelings that may arise?
Are you welcoming the experience?
Equanimity offers us a container in which to hold the full range of our experience.
Try sitting with any tension that might arise in your body in response to this scenario.
Focus on your breath and see if this helps the tension melt away.
Okay,
Let's drop all attempts to focus your attention and just completely relax.
You no longer need to consider any challenging scenarios,
Thoughts or sensations.
You can completely let go and enjoy a few moments of rest.
Try this now.
Okay.
Okay.
One major study demonstrated that in response to emotionally charged stimuli,
In this case people screaming and babies crying,
Meditators show increased activity in parts of the brain responsible for generating a stress response,
The amygdala specifically.
While also showing activity in frontal regions.
Which basically means that the meditators were experiencing negative emotion while also showing some element of control.
Now if a neuroscientist saw this relative increase in amygdala activity,
They might think that the meditators are not regulating the emotion very well.
When in fact the meditators were experiencing the emotion fully with composure and without suppressing the experience.
Continue staying focused on settling in the body and coming back to your breath.
Okay.
When we cultivate calm,
Concentration and mindfulness,
We are less likely to be blown about by the worldly winds.
And at the same time,
Equanimity becomes an inner strength and a kind of composure that keeps us balanced in the middle of all that is.
Okay.
Okay.
Equanimity is sometimes described as standing in the middle of whatever is happening with balance,
Strength and stability.
There is a strong presence of inner calm,
Smoothness,
Wellbeing and integrity that can keep us upright like a ballast keeps a ship upright in strong winds.
Meditation teacher Gil Franzdal describes it like this,
As inner strength develops,
Equanimity follows.
Okay.
Okay.
When you're ready,
You can open your eyes.
Take a moment to notice the room and reconnect with the world around you.
Practicing this kind of baseline equanimity can help us develop more resilience and more confidence in our body.
And this kind of baseline equanimity can help us develop more resilience in all areas of our life,
Not just in dealing with a moment of frustration or sadness,
But in the larger landscape of our emotional life and our capacity to feel happiness and contentment.
Thanks for giving this a try.
Thank you.
