Hello everyone.
Please forgive me for disappearing from this blog. In January, I came down with H1N1 (swine flu) in London. It took me 10 days before I could fly home and only now have I gotten my life back together.
I want to share with you how grateful I am for my insight/mindfulness practice during this extraordinarily difficult time.
My husband and I lived trapped in a hotel room instead of enjoying a longed-planned-for vacation. How easily it would have been for me to feel sorry for myself, angry at life for being unfair, and depressed at how my vacation was ruined. Instead, I kept reminding myself that life happens. That as a human being, I’m subject to the following natural laws:
- I am of the nature to get sick.
- I am of the nature to age.
- I am of the nature to die.
Practicing insight meditation trained my mind and re-wired my brain so that I held a space of equanimity and grace – even in the face of a 104° fever, deep disappointment, hotel-room-claustrophobia, and feelings of helplessness. “This is what life has given me … this is what has arisen … this is what I have now, but this too will change.”
Even when I did feel depressed, frustrated, angry – I found myself accepting all of these unpleasant emotions without fighting them or wanting to change them. I also knew that how I felt in each moment wouldn’t last. And most importantly of all, my husband didn’t become the recipient of all these yucky emotions.
Without my insight meditation practice, I would have turned the unavoidable pain and frustration of life into avoidable suffering for myself and, therefore, others. Instead, my road to recovery occurred faster than expected. I’m deeply grateful for the power of an insight meditation practice.
