A few weeks ago my hard drive died. Its a strange experience to suddenly be bereft of one’s computer – and even more so the information contained on it and the connection it gives to the internet. Its been like loosing my filing cabinet key! Fortunately a new hard drive has arrived and all my information is backed up online so I shall soon be set up as before.
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Its been an interesting process arriving at this point. At first my mind was delighted to have an opportunity to catastrophise -“How will I afford a new computer, just when my printer has broken as well….what am I going to do…this isn’t fair…” Then I remembered to stop, breath, accept that this is how things are right now so worrying and lamenting won’t make them otherwise. Then out of this breathing space emerged the memory of a friend saying “you only need buy a new hard drive, you , don’t need a new computer” and the memory of a web page that offered a £12 cleaning kit to fix bunged up printers. So from worrying about having to spend over £600 I had the much more manageable prospect of paying £64, which immediately put me at ease!
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This is just a reminder that however long one has meditated, if the tendency of one’s mind is to look for calamity the mindfulness training is there not to stop this from happening, but to act as an anchor to stop one being washed away by the stormy waves of worry and anxiety. Mindfulness is like a safe harbour where one can weather the storms thrown up by the mind. The more often this happens the ore quickly one can recognise what is happening and step back from engaging with the calamity mind and instead be open to creative solutions to the problem.
