Awesome Every Day

iZen

In this age of instant gratification and ordering pizza online, people talk a lot about how to do basic shit quickly.

One thing I’ve taught myself how to do, because I get bouts anxieties & frustrations fairly regularly, is how to get my insta-zen on.

Preface: I’ve been meditating for years, and I feel fairly comfortable with what I need to tell myself, and where I need to go to achieve a specific level of comfort or whatever. That is easy for some people, and often comes with a lot of practice.

Something I find myself doing (mostly when I am not on some rag rage, and am able to put my logic in front of the rat in my cage) is putting what I’m about to react to into perspective IMMEDIATELY. I evaluate how my body is reacting to what someone is saying. I think about what the effects of my words, actions or whatever are going to be directly after, and maybe 20 minutes later.

If the result is that I’m not going to like what happens, or I’ll just be doing something dumb, I put myself in my insta-zen spot. I take a deep breath and just do the kinder, gentler thing.

This is not always easy. I probably wouldn’t be able to pop on some insta-zen and keep myself from whooping the ass of someone who punched me in the face and spit on me. But it keeps me from saying a lot of dumb shit.