“We don’t rise to the level of our expectations; we fall to the level of our training.”
~ Greek poet Archilochus
I can’t remember when I first read or heard this quote, but it’s been flashing in my head like a neon sign this past week.
I hesitate to say this out loud since it sounds like I’m bragging, but I also know that it’s important to acknowledge – savor, even – when we feel good about how we’ve shown up in the world. This has been one of those weeks.
Normally, I try to maintain some spaciousness between my offerings. Over the past week, however, I facilitated my new Secret Garden Reset nature retreat on Saturday, worked at the art gallery on Sunday, then taught an intensive two-day Search Inside Yourself program in person for the first time in over two years. My 30-Day morning meditation program is also currently in session.
A lot of preparation was required for the retreat and the SIY program. A week before the retreat, I developed a sore throat that gave me the opportunity to manage distracting covid thinking. I used my mindfulness tools to redirect my attention to my work over and over again. The symptoms resolved after a couple of days and my PCR test was negative. Onward!
The Secret Garden Reset was my most recent confirmation of the power of trusting the spark of inspiration that bursts from our heart when we are in alignment with purpose. The event was everything that I had envisioned and more. Listening to our body’s messaging and acting on that wisdom is another trainable mindfulness skill.
Monday’s Obstacle Test
Our virtual morning meditation sessions run from 7-7:30 am ET. The SIY client needed me at the site by 7:40, so my plan was to facilitate the audio Zoom session from my car in the client’s parking lot. Over the many years that I have offered my morning programs, I have developed the agility to do this easily when needed.
My intention was to get to the parking lot early enough to meditate myself before my 7 am program and carry that grounded energy into the SIY training. When I got into my car to drive to the venue, however, I was caught off guard by a loud beeping. Nothing on the dashboard gave me a clue about the source. The beeping continued for the whole drive.
I was consumed with thinking about how I was going to facilitate the meditation session with the loud, annoying beeping in the background, so didn’t notice until it was too late that I had gotten into the wrong line of cars at the federal government site where I was teaching.
I pulled over to the side to turn around. Within just a few seconds a police car with flashing lights sped up and blocked any further movement of my car. My mistake had set off somebody’s alarm system.
After I explained that I had taken a wrong turn, the police car escorted me to the correct parking lot. What I noticed, though, was that my own internal alarm system had NOT been activated. I was able to just laugh to myself about my mistake and the situation.
The beeping persisted even after I turned off the car. I did not waste time on thoughts that didn’t serve in the moment (worry, stress, panic). I looked in the owner’s manual. No luck. I googled “beeping in my Honda Odyssey” but only got answers that ended with “take it to a dealer.” Not an option before my meditation session was to start in a few minutes.
I pulled a yoga mat from the back seat and draped it over the console to see if it muted the sound. Nope.
I then decided to move myself as far away as possible from the sound, so I climbed into the van’s third row seat. Though a bit of an improvement, I was sure the beeping was still loud enough for people to hear through my headset.
“I need to create a soundproof booth,” I thought, still simply problem-solving moment to moment without a second of wasted time. I remembered that I had a wool scarf in my purse that my son had recently brought me from Peru.
I wrapped the scarf around my head, face, and the headset, making sure it didn’t rub against the microphone. I kept one eye out for police or security guards, since I’m sure if anyone had seen me I would have looked pretty suspicious in the back row of a van with a laptop and head wrapped in a white scarf.
I casually checked in with the meditation group at the end of the session, asking if they had been bothered by background noise or beeping. Nobody reported hearing anything. Success!
But here’s the real training win…
In the midst of a crisis – or in this case at least a lot of uncertainty – we fall to the level of our training. The mindfulness win here is that I did not feel stress at any point that morning.
I remained fully present, problem solving along the way, without getting carried away by “what ifs.” I was not hijacked by my amygdala, that part of our brain that shoots out cortisol and other stress responses that hinder our executive functioning and problem-solving capacity. My head remained clear and my heart remained open.
I did not waste an ounce of the precious energy that I knew I needed to get me through the rest of the day. Even without having my usual meditation session that morning, I had done the work through consistent practice over the years to rewire my brain to navigate the challenging situation that morning skillfully.
Mindfulness truly is a super power!
And that beeping? It hasn’t happened again, but was probably a temporary glitch with the passenger airbag alarm system. I’m grateful for the experience to see how far my training could carry me.
