Equanimity, The Sublime State: I have been through many difficult situations in this life, from economic crisis to heartbreaks, family breakdowns and personal insecurities. But I always end up resolving every situation, placing myself back on firm ground and feeling joyful again. Nevertheless, I started feeling exhausted from transiting through stressful situations. This made me ask, why do I have to be anxious and stressed about a situation, when in the end everything turns out just fine? This is how I began to discover the wisdom of practicing equanimity through the ups and downs of my life, and I felt a huge sense of empowerment.

In Buddhist literature,
equanimity is sometimes
described as a perspective shift.

Equanimity is defined as evenness of mind, especially under stress. Equanimity comes from the combination of “aequus” and “animus” (“soul” or “mind”) in the Latin phrase aequo animo, which means “with even mind”.

In Buddhist literature, equanimity is sometimes described as a perspective shift or sense of detachment from the ongoing experience. This can cause a misunderstanding because the word “detachment” can imply “indifference,” whereas in this case detachment refers to the elimination of craving or clinging to what we desire. It is important to dive deep into the practice and meaning of equanimity, so you don’t confuse it with indifference as I did in the past.

Through the beautiful path of life and the natural rising and falling of all kinds of experiences, I discovered a few mindful practices that helped start developing my existing power of equanimity. I would like to share them:

Use every challenge you encounter to train your mind to see the good in everything. This will stop the momentum of the problem and will direct you to peace.

When you face a so-called unwanted situation, ask yourself, what is this trying to teach me? When you direct your attention to the lesson and the gift contained inside the struggle, you will find a feeling of relief, space and lightness.

Do something that makes you happy. It can be something small like listening to a song or putting your feet in the sea. This will shift you from the frequency of anxiety to the frequency of joy. In this place, ideas and possible solutions will appear.

Write about the situation in a journal. Take the stress out of your mind and put it on paper.

The practice of equanimity will bring a special quality of mind to bear upon your experiences. It will facilitate an attitude of non-resistance and receptiveness.