Don’t wait till sh*t hits the fan.
“I think this is a quote from Bruce Lee: in crisis, we don’t rise to our expectations, but we fall to our training...my teachers always said it’s really important to practice during the good times when there’s not a crisis. Take advantage of those times, because when something happens- sometimes we don’t have the space to consciously say “I’m going to pay attention to my thoughts”. ”
I was listening to the Ten Percent Happier podcast a few months ago when I heard the above quote. It resonated with me, because it’s so true- during times of crisis, we all fall back to our old practices and habits. Whether you’ve been unwittingly practicing anger, jealousy, hatred, or greed - whatever your training has been (and I really mean training- not just knowledge), that is what you default back to during a crisis. Therefore, it is of utmost importance to practice mindfulness really hard during the good times. Because if you do, it will be slightly easier to get back up when sh*t hits the fan..something we’ve all experienced firsthand for the past year and a half.
In February 2020 I signed up last minute for an 8 week Mindfulness Based Skills Development course through the Centre for Mindfulness Studies. I had just completed an 8 week Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) course in 2019, had experienced a mindfulness “high”, then hit a slump with my practice. I knew I needed something to hold me accountable, so I desperately signed up for this course with the expectation that I would be attending in person for the next 8 weeks. Little did I know that the wor
d would soon be entering a year long (possibly 2?!) pandemic shortly after and I would enter lockdown with this course as my saving grace. I have immense gratitude for this course because immediately after it ended (a month into the pandemic), I decided to continue the 40 minute daily meditations, which was one of the daily course requirements. I’m not sure why I decided to, but I thought- why not? What do I have to lose right now since I have all the time in the world? I felt as if the universe was giving me back time and saying “Here you go, here’s all the time in the world. You’ve been asking for it all your life. The entire world has stopped, and now you have all the time to practice meditation- something you always said you didn’t have enough time for”.
And so, I kept on with my daily practice until one day, it dawned on me that I had been on my longest daily meditation streak- 3 months to be exact..and I was pretty amazed. Pretty amazed because I had struggled with maintaining a consistent meditation practice for my entire life. However, my daily meditation streak was disrupted when I went on a West Coast trip during the summer of 2020. I missed a few days of meditation during that trip, and became a little anxious, but surprisingly I didn’t beat myself up about it. I was confident that I could pick it right back up. And I was right- when I returned from my trip, I jumped right back into my daily practice. And this is why it’s so important to remind yourself that when you do fall off your practice (because you are human), be gentle with yourself. The more gentle you are, the more likely you will pick up any habit you are trying to form.
So, am I now “Zen Yen” and fully enlightened after spending my year meditating? Obviously not. Was it all flowers and rainbows for me this past year? Of course not. And it certainly was not a panacea for me. The meditative path is not an escape to some fluffy cloud or heaven where one never gets angry or mad, and is able to remain compassionate 110% of the time. Instead, it is a practice of learning to be at peace within the chaos of our minds and our lives. There were and still are many days where I don’t feel like meditating at all. However, for me, maintaining a consistent meditation practice is a preventative measure and a skill. It won’t prevent bad things from happening, but it will prevent me from falling to the ground and staying there when life gets tough. Because that’s life- bad things will continue to happen no matter how fortunate or blessed you think you are. Natural disasters will happen, pandemics will occur again (hopefully not in our lifetime), and many things will be out of our control. However, by practicing mindfulness, especially when things are going well in life, you will be equipped with a toolset that you will more reflexively use when you are hit by the rollercoaster of life. You may fall, but you will be able to pick yourself back up more easily- and that to me is true resilience.
These past two years have ebbed and flowed for me, but I somehow managed to keep my head above the water. Going into the pandemic, I felt OK. Granted, I still had a job, a roof over my head and my loving family and friends, so I can acknowledge that I had a lot of things on my side. However, I noticed that by already having a consistent meditation practice, I was a little less jolted by the uncertainty that COVID brought. I found myself really and truly at peace despite what was going on around me. And this is all thanks to practicing mindfulness before COVID hit. Which is why I urge you to consider practicing and working on yourself even when you are happy, stress and worry free. Practice. Practice. Practice- when you are at your strongest, happiest, and best self so that you can be ready when things go awry. Work on being slightly less judgmental, slightly more accepting, and slightly more present in your everyday life and trust me, it will go a long way <3
Tips to get you started on a mindfulness practice:
Start small and commit- even if it's for 1 minute upon waking up, or taking 5 breaths before going to bed- something is better than nothing! And by habit stacking, you’ll lay down a foundation for consistency and can then slowly increase the time you spend being mindful.
Sign up for an app- although having a mindfulness app does cause you to be on your phone more, it’s a great way to capitalize on the benefits of having a phone. Instead of only receiving text message, news and social media notifications, why not have some apps that remind you to meditate or take a few deep breaths throughout your day?
If you fall off your practice, be kind to yourself- it sounds obvious and maybe even silly, however by being kind to yourself when you fall off your practice, you will be more likely to pick it back up rather than become self deprecating. Instead of being hard on yourself and giving up on your practice, tell yourself “How human of me” (a beautiful phrase my meditation friend taught me), and gently ease yourself back into it.