We don’t often discuss this term, but it has lasting, beneficial impact for those who practice in its cultivation. Its presence is particularly meaningful in difficult, challenging, and stressful moments as we remain balanced and even in our awareness. The mind is relaxed and at ease yet alert to what is experienced. Despite the potential for heightened emotional affect, we remain surprisingly calm and centered. We are fully connected and engaged, but in an impartial manner. Objectively we witness without overreacting- we stay with the experience– we remain in the moment– without taking it too personally and over-identifying with it. The outcome of the situation does not affect ultimately who and what we are. Equanimity helps us to “let be & let go”- to be integrally a part of our own experiences, but not to be defined by them.

To see our situations through the perspective of equanimity helps us to realize the true transient nature of all that we experience within our own minds. In the absence of personal attachment, our situations arise and pass by their own natural course. To stay calm and centered within our experience allows us to cultivate a curious acceptance for things as they are- and as they happen. With repetition and practice, our open mindedness gives way to greater, more sustaining equanimity. We naturally become more observant and less reactive as awareness and attention becomes refined with calm and stability. The even-mindedness of equanimity can become a mindful trait strengthening our capacity to both monitor and modify the events of mind- the habits of mind.

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