If you watch carefully, there's a brief moment between the second something triggers you and the second you react to it. In that subtle moment, no longer than the blink of an eye, lies the power to change your life.
Things trigger us all the time
We read the news, feel a pain in our body, or have a rude encounter with a stranger. Life throws curveballs at us, and then we react. We all know this.
But most of us stop there. It's almost as if we accept that life is hard, and react to it according to whatever we're feeling in the moment. However, we're not accepting the truth. We're accepting a lie, and then using that false acceptance as justification to continue suffering.
On the other hand, healthy acceptance is an acceptance of reality, regardless of how it shows up, so that we can then respond to life in a productive manner that doesn't cause us more suffering.
There's a difference between reaction and response, and it's in this brief moment when we get to choose what our response to life will be.
In my experience, I've found we do one of two things.
Either we ignore the moment
First, by ignoring the special moment, we then latch onto the discomfort like an animal latching onto its prey. The moment we feel a disturbance, we tense up, close our hearts, and feel the need to do something about it.
Our minds start talking a mile a minute trying to figure out solutions, while our hearts close, sending tension throughout our bodies in a variety of forms. This is what the majority of us do when something uncomfortable happens.
Of course, the degree of discomfort is directly proportional to the degree with which we fight back. In other words, the more uncomfortable something is, the more we resist that it's happening.
Or we listen to it
The other approach - the one I explore in this blog and in my 3 Steps To Inner Peace Guidebook (linked below) - is one of relaxing and releasing. But we can only do this if we're aware of that brief moment between the trigger and the response.
In this moment, if we make the conscious decision to relax our bodies and welcome the disturbance, we notice a profound shift in what happens next. Rather than pouring fuel onto the fire of disturbance, we're simply letting the flames arise, and giving them space to burn out.
We're able to do this because we understand the nature of the flames, and our relationship to them. Anybody who does not understand where the flames come from or why they're there, will have little success in letting go.
But if you take the time to understand what's happening in side of you, you access a deeper wisdom which reminds you, even in the toughest moments, that this too shall pass.
You could even practice saying to yourself, "this inferno, no matter how fiery and hot, will die out, and I can handle it."
Look for this special moment, and reclaim your power within it.
Live with substance!
Gabe Orlowitz
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