Positive Indifference….
How often do you get dragged into news stories that pump up your blood pressure and turn up your exasperation levels to the max? I know. We’re all prone these reactions. We’re heavily conditioned to respond to everything we encounter and some events just seem to be perfectly designed to engage our potential for righteous indignation. But is this the healthiest way for us to spend our emotional energy? Is this the best way for us to celebrate the gift of being alive? Fortunately, there’s a powerful way to adjust our reactions and discover an oasis of calm that’s always available within the domain of our hearts.
Every event and every encounter contain the potential to spark a reaction in our emotions. We carry these imprinted behaviours from our early childhoods that inform how we feel and behave throughout our lives. Most of these reactions are automatic and become closely associated with our sense of personality. It’s just the way we feel. But it’s helpful to remember that these behaviours are essentially artificial. They provide a series of filters through which we judge, evaluate and assess everything and everyone. And the process is almost entirely unconscious. It might be automatic but it isn’t fixed in stone. We can quickly learn to disengage the reaction sequence and discover a much healthier range of responses. It all starts with a breath.
When you learn to pause before reacting and breathe a little more deeply, you create a space in which you can choose exactly how you wish to respond. You might decide that you don’t need to react at all. But the choice is yours. The slight pause interrupts the conditioned reaction and offers the possibility of seeing the situation objectively. Choosing not to react frees you from the game of triggered, knee-jerk emotions. Welcome to the world of positive indifference where you can appreciate whether your reaction makes any worthwhile difference to the situation. Or whether your inner peace and wellbeing are more valuable than raising your blood pressure and feeling angry, anxious or frustrated by the latest raft of doom and gloom on social media. People no longer possess the power to irritate or annoy you. With one breath, you assume control over your thoughts and feelings. And life becomes a much more pleasant experience that isn’t subject to the random eruptions of chaos that fill the news outlets.
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