Suffering is Everywhere

Sometimes I think to myself … maybe if I escape all this and live a simple, low-impact, off-grid life, my problems will evaporate and I’ll live in cohesion with nature and community. Or maybe if I pay off all my debt and become financially free, my worries will walk away.

Celebrities often say “I wish everyone could be rich and famous so they can realize it doesn’t change anything.” I believe them.

I start many days with some sort of anxiety or depression, and I’ve been learning how to shift my energy as swiftly as I can. Some days it works well, other days I sit in it. Some days, I feel ashamed for feeling this way when there are folks without a roof over their head. I should be grateful for my blessings — and I certainly am.

I could move to Bali to teach yoga and sip coconuts all day, but I doubt much would change. Suffering is a product of the mind, an internal game often unaffected by external circumstances. It’s easier to be happy with a big bank account than a small one, but there are just as many happy folks with Nissans as there are with Bentleys.

So what are we to do? Sometimes it’s hard not to feel suffocated by the proposition of human existence. The answer is to accept it and find contentment with what is (santosha), continue to work toward what could be (tapas), while remaining devoted to something greater than yourself (isvara pranidhana) — a worthwhile challenge.

Suffering happens when our awareness strays from the present moment. Depression buries us in the past while anxiety buries us in the future.

Breathe in, breathe out. What if that’s all that existed for a moment in time? All of a sudden it becomes a bit harder to be anxious or depressed. We chant OM a few times and feel a glimpse of the union that’s available to us.

Then, that moment evaporates, our minds move back into the unbearable burdens of our pasts and futures, and we suffer. And we dance back and forth until one day we find a balance right in the center of it all.

And then the real journey begins. It’s actually kind of beautiful. And so it goes.