In other words, what’s gonna happen is gonna happen regardless of whether we are anxious about it or not. Like death, what’s coming is coming. I’m not saying ignore it, or just put it off in the back of your mind and say, I’ll consider that later.

No, consider it now. But, why get anxious about it? Why not open your heart to it, let it in, let this moment in. Letting it in, opening our hearts to all of it - is going to enable us to actually receive this moment and not defend ourselves all the time. We waste a lot of time and energy in anxiousness. Which is really just some sort of self-defense from a future full of things we can not control (aka, nothing, there is nothing that is truly in our control). Anxiety is the illness of our time, and it comes primarily from our inability to live in the present moment, and our need to control things.

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I understand why we’re anxious - capitalism, war, rent, forever chemicals in our water, climate, student loans…. I get it, but also, our tension around these things will not serve us or the issues that need our spacious loving attention. I believe that if we can carry less anxiety, less tension, then we can have more spaciousness to respond creatively and more compassionately to the moment, to whatever this moment needs. We would have more spaciousness to be able to face what is and not need to turn away. More spaciousness to be moved to action, not simply moved to habits that protect us and keep us “safe.”

A life without anxiety or fear may seem like an impossible dream, but it is possible, and it is also within our grasp. We can, through the practice of awareness and liberation, find spaciousness from the grip of anxiety, anger, and despair.

And from that place, that calm, loving, spacious, even peaceful place, may we all take loving action.

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