Even the Carpenter Ant in my kitchen sink this morning - a telltale sign of the thawing ground - seems confused about what season it is.
Typically, the bare, brown fields around my house would be well-blanketed in snow right now. But clearly, the extreme and unpredictable weather we’re experiencing is far from typical.
It’s a small illustration of the unsettled quality that’s become the backdrop of 21st-century life.
In a recent interview, Christiana Figueres, Costa Rican diplomat and author of The Future we Choose, offered a startling observation about our predicament. She noted that while life has always had its uncertainties, the rhythm of the changing seasons was the one constant we could all rely on. Now, even that isn’t assured.
It underscored the profound instability we are living with – a situation humanity has never encountered before. We’re all experiencing this disorientation to some degree. Even if we don’t articulate it, we feel it in our bones and in our nervous systems.
Simply acknowledging this can be validating.
How can our practices help us to find solid footing amid this unprecedented uncertainty?
Eastern traditions have long recognized impermanence as the fundamental aspect of existence. Consequently, many practices and perspective developed within these traditions offer guidance for finding stability within life’s ever-fluctuating nature.
Here are two remarkably effective starting points:
1. Release into gravity: What’s holding you up right now? The solid ground beneath you provides a foundation into which you can yield to find steadiness and support in any moment.
2. Feel your breath: Your breath brings you present and into immediate connection with something greater than yourself - the dynamic, unfolding energy of life itself. In any moment, you can turn to your breath as the bedrock of your relationship with all of life.
We all need ways to shore ourselves up when the reality we are living with feels unnerving. These universally-available building blocks of life are also powerful reminders that despite our differences, in the most fundamental of ways we are all in this together.
