Leo Babauta: how to be ready for anything

Never let the future disturb you. If necessary, you meet him with the same weapons, which today protects you from this. Marcus Aurelius

Complicated project, the crisis, the loss of a loved one, a quarrel with the second half or the zombie apocalypse. There are different ways to prepare yourself for the things with which there is a chance encounter in the future.

One way - to prepare everything necessary for any possible situation: get your equipment to survive, to plan the work, to consider their arguments and so on.

The problem is that we never know what will happen. So, we can spend a lifetime preparing for some things, but we will not really ready. And who wants to spend his whole life to prepare?

Another way is to develop a certain skill that will be ready to absolutely everything. This is called a "survival kit in your life."

First philosophy. We can not thoroughly prepare for any possible events in the future, because the future is uncertain. Instead, you must understand that external events are precisely those same parts, and the most important is preparation for what will happen at that moment inside of you. We will examine some of the internal coping skills to help cope with anything in the future.

The second point concerns little preparation before preparation. I found that, although the external details are not as important as processes within itself, the preliminary maximum optimization of life is still useful. Tidy your finances: Select out of debt, or at least reallocate their income for the early repayment of existing debt. Spend less than you earn. Invest as much as you can afford. So you rein in his passion for material possessions, and free time for the right. Tidy your health: make emphasis on unprocessed foods (especially vegetables) and eat less processed, lead an active lifestyle. As soon as you will understand from these moments, life will be much, much easier.

Survival kit

If you develop in themselves these skills, you'll be prepared for anything, ranging from normal operating activities and related to your event and ending with crises of all kinds, large losses and serious changes in the life.

Awareness. This is the basis of everything. Not practicing mindfulness, you will not be able to properly develop the other skills that they bring benefits. You can start the development of awareness with daily morning meditation, concentrating on your breathing. Improving awareness, you will better understand the processes inside at the time when they start to be external events. For example, if you have someone yells, you can see how your heartbeat quickens, and the person begins to burn. Attention to the body's reaction can warn you about what processes are in your mind.

Keep track of internal reaction. As soon as you start to notice the reaction of consciousness to external events, you will be able to manage it. For example, at the last minute you give a big project. You notice how involuntarily clenched his jaw, your breathing becomes shallow, and the feeling of tightness in the chest. You see your own concern about the situation. Offends you that you are being asked to make such a large amount of work in such a short period of time. Learn your reactions to events and think what to do. Your behavior will not manage emotions and mind.

Check the correctness of their beliefs. If you experience negative feelings such as anxiety, anger, resentment, fear (and procrastination), then, in you there is some belief that causes such feelings. At first, it is difficult to identify the causes of the negative, but eventually you will be able to notice them immediately. If you are angry or hurt, it means that your mind has an ideal situation, you would like to see now, but in reality everything happens differently. Perhaps you have heard in your address words that you have touched. You can get angry, because in your perfect world should not apply to you, which means that around injustice. In reality, your expectations do not matter regardless of whether you're right or not. If you want to make something happen is not as prioskhodit in fact, that you'll always be angry, offended and upset. Pay attention to your beliefs - this is a very important step.

Learn to let go. It is impossible to do not adhere to any belief, but if you see that your belief or ideal bring you pain, you need to accept and reject the destructive beliefs. Of course, people should treat each other well, but in life it happens not always. Refusal of idealization means acceptance of reality, which, in turn, people behave very differently. That's life. People do not always behave perfectly. We must recognize this and not try to pull the fiction of reality.

React correctly. Acceptance of reality does not mean that you can not do anything. This means that you let go of the ideals that have caused you pain, and then start to figure out how to respond to environmental events without anger, frustration, anxiety and resentment. Emotional reaction, as a rule, does not lead to a rational result. If you can let go of false beliefs and get rid of the negativity, you will be able to respond more intelligently. When my child, for example, divides the plate, I can be angry (he must not beat plates!) And yell at him (not very smart approach) or to abandon the belief that children are in any case can never break the plate, and to get rid of anger. Then I will make sure that a child is all right, and quietly sympathetic explain how to avoid such situations in the future. This will be an adequate response. When we react in anger, we will only exacerbate the problem. Calm sympathetic response means that we are able to deal with events that happen to us, whether it's broken plate, crisis, loss or anger on the part of a loved one.

Live in the present. Reproducing head in the events of the past (how could they do that?), We make the current situation worse. The same applies to thoughts about how bad everything will be in the future. At the moment, everything is OK. We will meet now calmly and reasonably, if we are able to live in the present. Noting that your thoughts are stuck in the past, and the arguments go in an uncertain future, pull yourself into the present. Do this as often as possible.

Be grateful and accept the present for what it is. Reality can be full of fluff, if expect any other, the fictional world in their thoughts. But we can accept the reality as it is, and be grateful for the fact that it is with us. This requires practice, because pretty hard to be grateful to life when people behave badly, or you lose your job, or a loved one is gone. But this is the reality - the only one that you have, but not a perfect dream world in your head. A reality in which there is a fine, just need to see it. This skill will allow you to live in peace with all phenomena and events that may be encountered only in your way.

It may seem that this survival kit in your life, designed to help deal with any situations that are too simplistic. But he was and is. The simplification is not bad, if it helps to focus on the essentials.

From my own experience I can say that these skills are important. They greatly changing lives. Practice them and you will learn how to cope with the vagaries of life an entirely new way.