Feeling fractured

It's all well and good looking at how we can build up our inner stillness, but it's worth looking at the other side.

What do I mean by that?

I want to take some time to examine the kinds of things which tend to drop a chaos-bomb on our attempts towards calm. If we can recognise our personal triggers then we can take steps to counter them. Being better prepared to handle the inevitable disruptions means we will feel more stable, more in control, more ... calm (!) when they happen.

Here's some of the obvious destabilizers:

Physical - illness and injury take plenty of mental fortitude to overcome, whether from dealing with the pain or from just working through the logistics of any impairments. Whether it's a head cold slowing your thoughts, or a broken leg preventing you from walking or driving. The little things and the big things chip away at your sense of balance.

Change - Relationships coming or going. Money coming or going. Living situation shifting about. Any kind of change by definition will disrupt the status quo. And if you're not ready for it, those changes will shake you up.

Stress - At the root of it all is stress. A broad topic indeed! Feeling out of control at work or school, feeling powerless but nevertheless responsible, feeling anxious about the future or depressed about the past. Stress squeezes at our equilibrium, threatening to burst it like a balloon.

Take a moment to work out what the high impact items are for you. That's the hard part (though most of us are pretty aware of all the most irritating parts of our life are). Now they're written down, you'll be more conscious when they start squeezing. You can acknowledge them for the normal parts of life that they are, and choose your response.