Rain starts falling, and what do we do? We lift our shoulders and hunch our backs to stay dry.
It turns out that this doesn’t keep us and drier or warmer. It’s just our primitive, protective stance in the face of discomfort. We shrink.
The other option is to intentionally stand tall, drop our shoulders, and stride purposefully. We don’t get any wetter, we’ve just stopped hiding.
The rain, as always, isn’t just rain.
But we are still, and always, ourselves. And we have the chance to see how our unconscious reactions might be the same in all situations—and to learn from this.
Just because we are confronted by something different, difficult, or scary doesn’t mean that our posture should be one of defensiveness, protection, or fear. These stances both fail to keep us safe and worsen our experience. Their only real impact is to increase our sense of suffering and hardship.
Lest we forget, inside of all of us is that fearless girl standing in front of the bull.
We just need to remember to tap into that.
The Fearless Girl (Mark Lennihan/Associated Press)