There
I was preparing an Instagram post. I had my sufficiently
athletic-looking fitness clips, an appropriate song, and what I thought
was an amusing caption. For whatever reason the editing app was giving
me trouble. Every time I would get ready to save the video the app shutdown and I would lose everything. This happened several times
and I was becoming increasingly frustrated. Since I have been
intentionally practicing mindfulness I reminded myself to breathe. I
tried again, but this time I breathed in, held, and
exhaled out. I somehow knew if I just relaxed it would work. Sure
enough, it did.
This
simple example reminded me how often I live in a frantic state.
Outwardly I appear calm; inwardly I'm like a dog spazzing out
trying to get one of those cones off its head. It's almost like I'm
afraid if I don't hurry and free myself I'll be trapped in my
circumstances forever. This perspective, however, only heightens the
desperation for things to change. Instead, I took charge of the moment in the
only way I truly could- by accepting it.
Acceptance
isn't about liking your reality. You could very well want to change it.
It's just that in order to keep your peace you train yourself to accept
what is right now. You fully enter into the present moment without
ruminating on the past or fretting about the future. It reminds me a lot of this scriptural passage about worry.
Matthew 6:25-27
25 “Therefore
I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about
your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more
than clothes? 26 Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow
or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are
you not much more valuable than they? 27 Can any one of you by
worrying add a single hour to your life?
I think of this passage often as there
are usually dozens of worries that plague me at any given time. They range from
the inconsequential like whether I'll create a satisfactory post for
the gram, to the considerable like will I be okay now and in the future. Either way, I'm challenged to consider what good it does me to worry. Can worry add time to my life? Nope! It can take time though. Can worry suddenly transform me into a clairvoyant with full knowledge of what's to come? I wish, but no. The conclusion, then, is that worry isn't helpful, but breathing is. Embracing the moment is. Trusting the process is.
I realize this is much easier said than done. There will be no "5 steps to get rid of worry" lists offered here because quite frankly there are none. Life is stressful. Anxiety will come. But through practice, continual, earnest, daily practice, we can discipline our souls to stay in peace. And when (not if) we drift from that peace, due to technological annoyances or existential crises, a gentle prompt to stay in the moment can bring us right back.
