Lately I have been very conscious of my state of being. I have been trying to get a bit more control over my automated response to stimuli. For example, in the past when I got caught in unexpected traffic I would get agitated. I’d become restless, tapping the steering wheel mumbling “come on already.” This would usually leave me agitated for a while, and sometimes, I’d still be agitated even after the traffic faded.

My automatic reaction to external stimuli is nothing more than a habit. I see traffic and it triggers a response of agitation in me. What I started doing is remembering to pause from time to time and watch myself as I start reacting.  I watch myself being agitated. I find it immensely helpful to pause throughout my day to stop, and just watch everything (see meditation). I find this can dramatically neutralize the feelings of agitation. By doing this consistently, I am starting to break the nasty sometimes subtle habits of getting frustrated, angry, worried or whatever.

The hard part for me is to be conscious of it throughout the day. I am, however, quite dedicated to continue striving for this kind of open awareness in everything I do.

This entry was posted on Monday, March 12th, 2007 at 8:47 pm and is filed under Meditation, Purpose, Spirituality. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.