This month the new moon, and thus my blog, falls on the last weekend of my semester of grad school with papers and projects due early next week. The moon waits for no one. It is beyond the made-up time world that we live in with our deadlines and stress.
This will be a shocker for those of you who know me even a little, I like to be busy. It’s a fact. I’ve said so many times, “I’ll have more time when…” I now know that I’m not likely to have a bunch of downtime on my hands, and that’s okay with me. I’m busy doing the things I want to do and, therefore, my busyness doesn’t feel stressful. It’s full and rich.
What matters gets done, most of the time. And when it doesn’t, the world doesn’t stop. I don’t worry a lot about most things. I attribute that to time which correlates with experience. Worrying is necessary in very limited situations when there is actually something we can do to affect a situation. However, the vast majority of situations are outside of our control and worrying about them just adds to the energetic noise in the world.
I love the Serenity Prayer. It says it all:
“God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change (other people and situations out of my control),
courage to change the things I can (my own actions and reactions),
and wisdom to know the difference.”
This was my grandfather’s copy of the Serenity prayer. He was born in 1886 and died just a year after this is dated, in 1973.
The Serenity Prayer means letting go of situations beyond our control and acting toward things within our control—mostly our own actions and reactions. We just can’t change what other people do or don’t do and we can drive ourselves batty trying to.
Being in a state of serenity is the opposite of a state of anxiety. Anxiety pulls us out of the present moment, clouding our mind with thoughts of the past, and worries about the future. It is a state of tension and chaos. Like anxiety, serenity is a perspective through which we can view the world. The world doesn’t need to be perfect to have serenity. We can learn to approach uncertain situations through the mental and emotional lens of serenity.
Yes, easier said than done. Like so many things in life, we need to keep re-learning this over and over again. Re-membering. There are some strategies that can help, and you likely know them, but I’ll re-mind you and myself. In short: breathe and meditate.
I was recently re-introduced to the Wim Hof breathing method and am amazed at how effective it is. In just 5-10 minutes I can change my state and be so much better re-sourced for my life. When I take the time to breathe and meditate, I am able to see more clearly what is within my scope to manage and change (basically myself) and what I just need to accept (basically, others and situations outside of my control).
What is within my control today is wrapping up this newsletter and moving on to finish my paper on self-actualization and our shadow for my Jungian Psychology class. Maybe I’ll have something to share about it next new moon!
