Find Your Equanimity Now! 5 TIPS

What is EQUANIMITY? It’s a word that began to be used in the 17th century, although I had not heard it until I began Buddhist meditation in my 20’s.

Merriam-Webster Dictionary describes it surprisingly well:

1: Evenness of mind, especially under stress ‘nothing could disturb his equanimity’.

2: Right disposition: balance physical equanimity.

Keep Things Balanced With the Definition of Equanimity – If you think “equanimity” looks like it has something to do with “equal,” you’ve guessed correctly. Both “equanimity” and “equal” are derived from “aequus,” a Latin adjective meaning “level” or “equal.” “Equanimity” comes from the combination of “aequus” and “animus” (“soul” or “mind”) in the Latin phrase aequo animo, which means “with even mind.” Equanimity came to suggest keeping a cool head under any sort of pressure, and eventually, it developed an extended sense for general balance and harmony.

5 TIPS to Cultivate EQUANIMITY NOW!

1. Simply Remember that your center IS always calm, peaceful and equanimous. Trust, believe, and know this. Make equanimity your golden rule: especially when things start to spiral (emotions, sensations, thoughts) keep the concept of equanimity in the front of your mind. Your mind is strong, and can bring you back to the wisdom of what is true “I am always calm in my center”.

2. Imagine a PEACEFUL PLACE (like the ocean, or somewhere on a postcard, or somewhere else), or a NATURE OBJECT (like a flower you like, or a leaf, or something else). Let the feeling of this PLACE or OBJECT fill you: That’s right, breathe it in, and imagine it filling your belly, heart, mind, every cell, and every thought. Let everything else go with this ‘mind sweep’ that puts in place peace.

3. Get Moving! Yoga, swimming, walking, running, weights, dancing, skateboarding, pogo-sticking 🙂 , or something else: choose a variety of ways that you like to move your body, and move in at least one of these ways each day. We all need an outlet to stop cortisol from building up, increase the endorphins, as well as work through the dynamics of held emotions and experiences in the body-mind. Body movement helps us to have healthy, loving connections with ourselves, and others. It also helps you cultivate a sense of poise and inner balance.

4. Breathe Out. Your exhalation is one of the most effective and the simplest relaxation strategies, and can effectively calm stress in body, nervous system, and mind. All you do is make your exhalation longer than your inhalation for a minute or two, or longer if you wish. You can blow out through the mouth, or the nose, or even ‘sigh’ it out. Exhaling longer than inhaling is proven to shift you into the parasympathetic ‘rest-digest’ healing mode.

5. Daily Yoga Nidra or Other Meditation. Many studies prove that regular yoga nidra/ meditation practice actually rewires your brain and your nervous system! The most difficult thing is to actually DO IT. Find the time that’s best for you every day to regularly commit to it: when you awaken, before sleeping at night, before a meal, after work, are all great times of the day for yoga nidra/ meditation. Yoga nidra is guided and thus inviting to enter into.

6. BONUS TIP: Equanimity does not come naturally to most of us, perhaps because of being human, and also that life can throw us off. What assists you to find your center? What allows you to come back into balance? Find a way to do that more each and every day. ⚖ ????