In 2017 (in the golden age of travel and pre-you-know-what) I was in Colorado, somewhere between Boulder and Longmont. A beautiful spot bursting with mountains, rocks and nature but I wasn't enjoying it. I was full of cold, suffering the worst jetlag I'd ever had and barely sleeping at all.
At 4:30am almost every morning, I'd find myself on the the veranda watching night become dawn and the odd coyote scavenge for food (at a safe distance - I wanted to eat breakfast, not become breakfast).
In the middle of the table was a feeder full of sugar water and by the second morning I'd figured out that if I sat still enough, by 0450h I'd be joined by a hummingbird. This most incredible creature, whose wings beat at 70-80 times per second joined me on the veranda. I had a front row seat while this beautiful little thing suckled from the feeder. Here's the video I took:
But this thing would vamoose at the slightest of movements. If I coughed, moved or even flinched it would disappear as fast as it arrived, only to return when it was absolutely certain there was no threat. This little bird seemed to value stillness above everything else.
If I kept absolutely still, the bird would return.
This is a lot like well-being. While the thoughts are bouncing around our minds, our health seems out of reach. But when there is calm, it reveals itself again and we re-discover we are ok, our well-being returns just as beautiful as before. Although, just like the bird, it never actually left, it was just out of sight plucking up the courage to return.
"Today I escaped anxiety. Or no, I discarded it because it was within me, in my own perceptions, not outside." Marcus Aurelius
Trying to think my way back to a feeling of calm is like me trying to wave the hummingbird back with table tennis bats, a loud haler and a neon 'welcome home' sign.
So my question is this: what are you doing to look after your 'calm?'
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