Equanimity

Well! Another eventful week here in the south of France! A week in which the long hot and dry spell here in Provence has dramatically broken, with temperatures plummeting by 20 degrees, people putting their heating back on, and endless rain, which is predicted to continue until well into next week. This is not a typical month of June down here in the “midi”! The farmers here have gone from relief as the drought breaks, to acute anxiety as the rain continues to fall……..
Add to that the latest food scandal with E.coli bacteria infecting 1,800 people in Germany. No one can identify the source of this bacterium, which has already killed 18 people in the past week and is terrifying all of mainland Europe. Initially organic cucumbers from Spain were accused, followed by lettuce and tomatoes. Although off the hook for the moment, farmers are now facing ruin of a different sort as the media go into sensationalist mode and medical advice here in France is to avoid all salad produce as well as fruit until further notice. Emotions are ranging from fear and anxiety on the part of the consumer, to anger and desperation on the part of the producers.
For my part, this week has seen me abandon my summer shorts and sandals and I’m currently rugged up in my winter woollies, working on the finishing touches to my new website (more on that in a later post). The constant rain has meant that I’ve been stuck indoors, unable to do my cross country jogging circuit, or even go for a walk to blow away the cobwebs. It’s hard not to start to feel claustrophobic and frustrated when you work from home in these conditions. Especially when it’s supposed to be summer! So, this week’s blog post concerns the following:
Equanimity (E`qua*nim"i*ty) (?), n.
[L. aequanimitas, fr. aequanimus: cf. F. équanimité. See Equanimous.]

Equanimity is defined as evenness of mind; that calm temper or firmness of mind which is not easily elated or depressed; patience; calmness; composure; as, to bear misfortunes with equanimity
With this week's events in Europe in mind, today I’m reflecting on how we can nurture our capacities to recover our equilibrium in the face of stress, chaos or confusion. Whether it’s personal conflict at work or at home, or a political or global crisis, how do we learn to be able to stand back from whatever is happening, reflect and see clearly what is going on, before re-engaging in a calm and resourceful manner.
We are all born with innate capacities to experience calm when we’re not ruffled, when things are gently ticking over in our lives. That state of ease and balance, or homeostasis, when there’s no disturbance to the body/mind is our natural state.
We are also hardwired to react – instantaneously – to any perceived threat or danger in our environment, and that can include our own thoughts and emotions. So how can we learn to soothe ourselves; to regulate our anxiety, rage, shame etc and come back to that homeostasis, when our automatic flight or fright reaction has been triggered?
Well, there are various ways in which we can cultivate this self regulation and, the more we practice certain techniques and strategies, the more they are reinforced in our neurology and can become automatic, or default responses.
One thing we can do is to seek out and spend time with those people in our lives who are already “equanimous”. People you can go to when you need to “re-settle your molecules” Spending time with these people as regularly as you can leads to “emotional contagion”, which is to say that simply being in the presence of someone who is in a calm and tranquil state soothes our nervous system and brings us into a more equanimous state ourselves.
Another thing that we can do is to learn how to take responsibility for our own houses, while allowing others to get on with maintaining their own. By this I mean being conscious of the consequences of our own behaviours, actions and choices, without taking on responsibility for other people’s choices, other people’s actions. Equanimity brings clarity and wisdom to any leanings we may have towards co-dependency, or toward over-functioning for others.
Finally, there is the strategy of resourcefulness and clarity that I teach in my training course, and which I call the “Stress to Success Strategy”. This is essentially stepping back initially from the external event, observing what’s going down, and then asking yourself whether it is a real threat, or perhaps a challenge or even an opportunity in disguise. The next step is to learn how to access the most appropriate resources that you have within you to deal with the situation optimally. We actually have all of the resources that we need within us, and so it’s just a question of learning how to access them and make them live and breathe when we need them.
With regard to the current European health scare and its repercussions, as well as the climactic uncertainties and risks threatening farmers and wine makers in France, the capacity to develop a steady equanimity in the midst of all of these disturbances and uncertainties would surely lead to a calmer more measured response from every quarter, with perhaps the exception being, the media! Now wouldn’t this be the best way to handle any crisis, large or small?