How best to describe equanimity?

According to Wikipedia:
Equanimity is a state of psychological stability and composure which is undisturbed by the experience of or exposure to emotions, pain, or other phenomena that may cause others to lose the balance of their mind. The virtue and value of equanimity is extolled and advocated by a number of major religions and ancient philosophies.
Reference: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equanimity

Another way of describing equanimity is:
I didn’t lose my sh*t during a time of high emotional stress. Instead I maintain an even keel by recognizing the moment when the stress-o-meter starts to rise and BREATHE before speaking what’s already on the tip of my tongue and ready to lash out.

Wouldn’t be a good look.
Wouldn’t be a good time.
Wouldn’t be the right thing to do.
Wouldn’t be right speech.

And, so I practice equanimity daily while I accept the situation and my response to the situation with as much grace as possible.

It isn’t always easy and gets easier ...

Quite recently Ashara and I were working with a corporate executive to have one of his teams come out for a day-long team building event with the horses. I happen to be one of the team members so I know this executive pretty well. My teammates were really looking forward to this event.

After several discussions and his assurances that he wants our team to have an event he was unable to approve due to budget constraints. When I heard this news I felt an immediate sense of loss for our team as we would miss out on effective team connection and bonding and for Ashara since the potential income was good for the books.

More than that I felt a sense of loss because I remembered that coaching is so important to me and how I define myself as someone who is in service to humanity. The decision meant that we would not be serving this small group of people and that bummed me out for a few moments. The reason was totally understandable from the executive’s budget constraint perspective. My mind th...

I’m sensing a theme from these posts over the past few weeks. It’s the letter ‘C’.  Just look at these recent titles:

Confidence
Commitment
Curiosity

What is it about the 3rd letter of the English alphabet that has literally crawled into the far reaches of my mind quietly waiting, ready to compel me as I sit ready to connect with the title and content of these recent posts?
Huh. Now I’m really curious!

Letter ‘c’ factoids: there are 72,388 words that start with the letter ‘c’.
Reference: https://www.thefreedictionary.com/words-that-start-with-c
Mind boggling!

These are some positive words that I looked up:
compassionate, courageous, creative, confident, caring, charming, curious, cheerful, considerate, and cooperative
Which words do you align with? How many define or describe you at your best?

So, what are you curious about these days?
My friend and mentor, Alan Seale posed this question in his latest Transformational Presence article, “Seven Clarifying Questions for Complex Times”:
“What is import...

First, let me say "Thank You" to everyone who actually reads these posts and for everyone who sends me a comment sharing how they feel or how it helped them to reflect on their lives. BIG HUGS from me to you!

Last week I wrote about confidence. It was fun to write and share a story.

This post is all about commitment.

Like, what the actual Captain Marvel level of commitment are we supposed to have anyway?

Well, consider that if we aren’t FULLY committed to anything, what’s the point?

Imagine for a moment if your parents weren’t fully committed to creating a baby. Would you have been born? Or, if that ONE wriggly male reproductive cell out of 15-200 million of them didn’t reached the egg first? Would you have the same characteristics, physical features, and personality if it faded in the final stretch and another wriggly dude made it first?

We'll never know.

Some synonyms for the word commitment (really contemplate each one):

Pledge
Engagement
Promise
Guarantee
Responsibility
Vow

How do th...

Oh, yes! I love this fun and tasty subject for the week.

Firstly, let’s look at some definitions of the word confidence courtesy of Merriam-Webster.com:

1a: feeling or consciousness of one's powers or of reliance on one's circumstances
Examples: had perfect confidence in her ability to succeed
                  met the risk with brash confidence

1b: faith or belief that one will act in a right, proper, or effective way
Example: have confidence in a leader

2: the quality or state of being certain : certitude
Example: they had every confidence of success

3a: a relation of trust or intimacy
Example: took his friend into his confidence

3b: reliance on another's discretion
Example: their story was told in strictest confidence

3c: support especially in a legislative body
Example: vote of confidence

4: a communication made in confidence : secret
Example: accused him of betraying a confidence


Attribute: “Confidence.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/co...

Recent posts have shed light on mediation and mindfulness, two practices that help me each and every day. Without those practices in my life I’d be a quivering mass of goo.

Like a cylinder of red jello the size of the Empire State Building attempting to hold still during a 7.6 magnitude earthquake. Fortunately, earthquakes are rare in the New York metropolitan area, so, you know it’s fairly safe to say the 1,454 foot tall jello being would be okay to stand next to.

This morning I checked email as Ashara and I were getting ready to meditate.
Word of advice. NEVERRRR CHECK EMAIL BEFORE MEDITATING.
What was I thinking?

One of the emails that caught my attention was from Badlands Ranch, a company that sells food and treats for dogs.
Not just any dog food mind you.
Just ask Katherine Heigl.
She’s the founder.

Anyway, our recent order arrived on Tuesday which was confirmed by email. The delivery address listed our street address which is strange because we use a post office box for snail ma...

Today’s post was inspired by our two male cats, Ry (pronounced Ree) and Jackson (pronounced Jack-Son).

Yes, I know. Ashara usually writes about our furry family in her weekly blog posts. This morning the two boy cats were in the post-breakfast state we like to call ‘The Zoomies’ while we were meditating.

Canned sardines.
Bones and all.
For.The.Cats.

_{Sardines!
Photo and breakfast credit: Glenn}

We’re sitting in bed listening to a guided meditation and ready to close our eyes when suddenly we hear scamper, scamper, scamper from the library and towards our bedroom. Ry attempts to leap straight up the door frame, with paws clutching the frame he ascends maybe a foot up and slides back down to the floor. Jackson chases Ry into the bedroom where Ry jumps on the bed and in a flash jumps off with Jackson in fast pursuit.

Jump up.
Jump down.
Run out.
Run back in.
Repeat non-stop until…

Silence in the house.
 
The Zoomies are over.
For the moment.
Until they let us know in very certain terms they want to go o...

The post for today is all about contrast and how it shows up in our lives.

A quick online search for the definition of contrast resulted in this:

The state of being strikingly different from something else in juxtaposition or close association: "the day began cold and blustery, in contrast to almost two weeks of uninterrupted sunshine".

The person who wrote that example must have lived in Colorado.
In the spring.
During the month of June.
When spring becomes summer.
Or, when winter bypasses spring and goes right into summer.
During the month of June.

What’s the point of this?

In Colorado the weather changes in a heartbeat.
On a dime.
Or, like Taylor Swift during her Eras Tour (that’s 16 outfit changes).
Google that!

The other point of this post is how contrast can be FUN!

For all you eye rollers out there keep reading…seriously.

Contrast shows up in myriad ways.
For example:

On Thursday, June 6 my friend Peter and I went to see Brit Floyd at Red Rocks Amphitheater. I purchased tickets last year when th...

“There’s something about the outside of a horse that is good for the inside of a man.”

Winston Churchill said that and from my perspective he was right!

The other evening after attending a 2-day training session from which I was somewhat brain tired my wife said to me “the water tank for the horses needs to be filled” as she made her way to an online meeting.

Usually this is not a big deal since we fill said tank every couple of days. BUT….this time I was in the middle of a mini-project attempting to get plastic sheeting over a raised garden frame to protect newly planted tomatoes and peppers all the while fighting the wind that threatened to blow the plastic sheeting over to the next county with me still holding on for dear life.

SERIOUSLY!
The wind here could lift a 1,200 pound hog if it had wings.

Looking at her with my best incredulous facial expression I said “I’m in the middle of something” while thinking YOU MUST BE OUT YOUR MIND WOMAN!

So much for practicing equanimity.

Getting back ...

Let’s face it - just reading the word cancer conjures all kinds of gremlins in our minds.

Remember this gnarly-looking gremlin from my Inner Critic post last week?



Well, it’s screaming BIG TIME whenever the ‘C’ word is mentioned.

Hell, I had a small basal carcinoma on my forehead a few years ago. Thankfully, it was caught very early by my dermatologist and he removed it with clean and clear results. Living in Colorado where the altitude at our home is above 6,800 feet the sun is very strong. Whenever I go out the most prominent feature on my face, my nose and my forehead look a bit ghostly white from sunscreen. Eventually my skin absorbs said sunscreen and I go about my day whether it’s taking the furry family out for a hike or working around our horse property.

Oh, and, I always wear a floppy wide-brim hat to protect my face.

Ode To Cowboy Hats
No cowboy hats on this dude.
Tried it before.
Not a good look - it was crude.
Some guys have a cowboy hat head.
No, no, no, not me.
End of story I ...