Are You Living In Peace or Chaos?
One of the most important things that meditation and mindfulness has taught me is how to detach from drama and live in a more peaceful state of mind. Life always has some challenges and it is easy to become unconscious of ourselves and get caught up in the drama.
Using mindfulness we can learn to become more self aware, which in turn helps us to catch ourselves before reacting to situations we find ourselves in. We start to question ourselves and why we are reacting the way we are. It also inspires us to ask what is the point of my reaction and will it help the situation.
Next time you find yourself struggling to stay calm in the face of perceived difficulties, perhaps give this a go:
Notice the trigger and how it is making you feel
Step back so to speak and take some deep conscious breaths and let the feelings pass through you
You do not have to respond or do anything, just stay with your breath until you feel a sense of balance return and respond if you feel drawn to.
Or, if that fails, walk away.
The more you practice being mindful you will start to notice that there is a gap in your mind which you can 'step' into. The gap allows you to make more conscious choices instead of your pre-programmed reactionary behaviour. The more you practice this the more natural it will become and the more aware you will be of yourself and others.
Its really interesting, and may surprise you, that when you do not participate or react to the other person, they don't know what to do. The situation can be stopped without even getting started because of your refusal to participate in it. That is self mastery in action.
