There is suffering in life. This is one of the key concepts in Buddhism , that an important goal in life is the reduction and elimination of suffering. This is generally in the pursuit of peace, although many don’t do much to try and work towards that goal. Speaking pragmatically, the elimination of suffering and promotion of peace within one’s daily life has a number of important health and mental wellness benefits attached, some of which we’ll try and address here a bit. For myself, I had the opportunity to go through a number of different iterations of how I’ve approached life, starting in my youth. As a child, I was reasonably withdrawn, solitary and shy. I would avoid most people and keep to myself. A lot of this came as a result of all the attention being placed on my brother, who was constantly ill. I can’t fault him for that but the result of such a childhood is that I grew up learning to stay silent, pushing down my worries and concerns and making as few waves as possible.
The result of that approach was the development of stress-related stomach issues, along with a ulcer in my gut. Not a great way for a preteen to be growing up. It didn’t take me long to recognize, even at that age, that I had to make a change. And it wasn’t long after that, that I began my martial arts journey. I’m the whole, I had a lot of benefits working in my favor. Our household growing up was always a quiet one. Despite how loud my mother and I could be, it was pretty easy to step up to an open window and enjoy the sounds of life without hindrance from the inside. It was at this age that I behave looking into meditation, humans books on the topic, as well as yoga and some medical texts that could help, in my local town library. That probably dates me a bit, considering there was no access to the internet at that time and all of my research was limited by the VERY limited resources of my local library. But it got me started.
As I grew into my teen years, a combination of hormones and increased level of fitness and martial arts skill changed me, and not necessarily for the better. I became angry, frustrated with everyone and everything, and prone to swing first and ask questions later. I was able to recognize this in myself as an issue and dove deep into my meditation and it was at this point that I began studying Buddhism. I always use the term “studying,” because it was in fact as study, to examine and learn as much as I could about the peace-promotions faith that nearly half a billion people worldwide follow. This allowed me to begin learning how to constructively focus that aggressive energy, to use it in constructive ways and to keep from bottling it all up and making myself sick with it. The result was a much greater control over what affected my day. I was able to keep from sweating the small stuff and live my daily life without feeling like I was on the icing of war all the time. The improvement was noticeable in my entourage, as well.
However, a lot of that changed when life choices that hindered routine and consistency came into play. For example, becoming a police officer certainly went a long away toward shattering my calm veneer. You want something that’ll crack your calm? Try working a career where you always see both the light side and dark side of humanity. That’ll put the itching powder in your boxers, let em tell you. This was combined with becoming a new parent. In 2014, we became parents to my eldest son. Nothing like spending every waking moment with a tiny human that does nothing but eat, sleep, cry and shit for 24 straight hours to put a chink in your armor AND your daily routine. I reached a point where meditation and calming myself with the external tools I had previously enjoyed were no longer possible. Ever try meditating when a baby starts crawling into your lap? Kind of tends to distract you. In both good and bad ways. But it simply means that one starts suppressing the negative instead of channelling or addressing it. And that’s where the problems begin.
Back in 2021, and with the continuing pebble in the shoe that was the COVID-19 pandemic, I found myself sitting at home, on leave from work due to my Type-1 Diabetes and contemplating life in all of its aspects. While contemplation can be good, there’s also the danger of one’s thought process going in the wrong direction. Take hands and all that. But for me, despite finding new employment and moving on to a cleaner environment than the one I had been accustomed to as a police officer, I slipped back into my persona of anger and frustration. Work bothered me. The drive home bothered me. Everyone was an idiot, everyone was in my way, everyone was saying or doing something to PISS ME OFF… It snuck up on me that this storm in my soul had been brewing for a few years. I suddenly came to realized that it wasn’t healthy or productive for me to be in a bad mood all the time and angry at the world. After all, if I’m being realistic with myself, the world cares little about my feelings and won’t change because I’m bothered. It would be up to me to make the change.
One of the big things that I started to work on was burning off excess energy. In recent months, I’ve come home and my first step when getting home is to change and go hit the punching bag for at least 30 minutes. Provided my blood sugars allow it, I try to follow that up with another 30 minutes but on the bike. You have no idea how well you sleep and how much aggression you burn off til a solid, 60-minutes of sweaty, exhausting exercise. I’ve come to discover that maintaining this routine, besides for the obvious purpose of working out and maintaining one’s health, helps me to sleep better, which means I’m better rested and in turn, I’m less cranky and Waterbury less aggressive and angry at everything. When you start to let go of all that anger, it’s amazing how easy it is to make one’s way through the day with calm and proper determination. And the more you stay calm and quit sweating the small stuff, the easier life gets. And in reality, that’s genuine peace; to live happy, with one’s family and within one’s own circle, without the messy noise that comes from the hustle and bustle of modern, everyday life. Good for thought…☯️
The Blogging Buddhist 