“I survived because the fire inside me burned brighter than the fire around me.” ~Joshua Graham
When we hear about mindfulness, its many virtues are extolled. We are told that practicing mindfulness will make us more productive at work, improve our memory, help us sleep better, reduce our levels of stress and anxiety. All of these things are true, and there are so many more benefits to bringing mindfulness into our daily life. However, at the root of it all is one important benefit that I do not think gets enough mention: resilience.
When we come to our meditation practice, we sit with our present moment experience exactly as it unfolds. That experience might include pain, anguish, sorrow, frustration, or anger. Our mind might throw up defenses against these feelings, try to divert our attention, carry us away into dreams of the past or future, but despite its best efforts, we must eventually return to the present and whatever that moment holds for us. The more time we spend sitting with experiences we label as unpleasant, the more familiar they become. Rather than seeing them as something to fear and avoid, we recognise that they are part of us, part of our journey, part of the natural ebb and flow of our daily life and experience.
In the yogic tradition, resilience is embodied in the practice of Santosha, contentment. Through Santosha we learn to accept whatever comes and whatever goes; we cultivate a sense of equanimity and seek to respond to challenges from that balanced place within us. We grow stronger, building up our resources so that when storms lash at us from all sides, when the waves are so high we cannot see the shore, there is a well of strength deep within that keeps us buoyed until the weather clears.
Looking back at our life, we see grief and loss, joy and triumph, we climbed tall mountains and traversed dark valleys, and we survived through it all by drawing on the strength within us. On the days when you feel the weather turning, when the skies are dark and the seas are churning, dive deep inside and ignite the fire within, let it burn brightly and guide your way through the storm.