C for chaos and contentment

Have you ever felt like you have no control? A little as if someone had taken control of your agenda without consulting you and that this “unidentified entity” knew better than you what you had to do and with whom. This is exactly what happened for me this summer, thus offering me an intensive course of letting go in situ. Something tells me that this experience might help a few control freaks like me…

2019, the summer of all chaos?

Explanations. Since I have been combining jobs (both in the city and at home), I have got into the habit of preparing for the summer well in advance in order to best reconcile the constraints and desires of all the members of the family. Including mine, I'm not one to forget myself. Once everything is booked, I feel lighter, freed from some of that famous mental burden that most of the time falls on that fabulous half of humanity called women. So, when nothing goes as planned, emotions such as anger, annoyance, frustration and injustice crowd into the gate! I grumbled and moaned while taking the first annoyances that appeared in July and realized, fortunately quite quickly, that if I did not change my state of mind, the summer of 2019 would remain in my memory like that of all chaos.

Why did I find it so hard to accept what was and try to make something out of it, rather than complaining about it and regretting what wasn't?

Because even if the reversals of the situation - the "plot twist", as the screenwriters call them - have followed one another at a rhythm which would have been hardly credible in a television series, cycling in Auvergne, instead of a training course yoga in Ramatuelle is not what one might call divine punishment either. No more than spending a week with family rather than alone with Monsieur. So why did I find it so hard to accept what was and try to make something out of it, rather than complaining about it and regretting what wasn't?

Because it's not natural to take power over our emotions. Because you first have to recognize them, by being vigilant and honest with yourself. Because you don't have to block them, but don't give in to them either. Because I am French and moreover Parisian, therefore necessarily perfect (!), and that if I organized something, it is necessarily because it was what was best for everyone! To the question: “Ego, are you there? I heard a deafening "yes" and I had to admit that I had to learn to let go and accept what is.

Practice the art of contentment

To achieve this, I began to practice the art of contentment daily. I made it, so you will too!

Exercise.

To pause your mind button, take a deep breath and observe what you are doing, where you are, and with whom. Feel your support on the seat that welcomes you, its stability and, through it, your anchoring on the ground. Then listen carefully to the sounds that surround you, to the voices, to the siren in the distance or to the wind in the leaves of the trees... Taste the moment, with all your senses.

When you are thus installed in the present, in confidence, in yourself and in the space you inhabit, you are relaxed. A smile can even appear spontaneously on your lips...

You are well, here, here and now. Simply and totally alive. Then everything in your life appears to you to be right. You are in the place that has always been waiting for you.