Consider
this passage from the book, “Radical Acceptance” by Tara Brach.
“In the 1950s a few highly trained pilots in
the U.S Air Force were given the task of flying at altitudes higher than ever
attempted. Going beyond the earth’s
denser atmosphere, they found, much to their horror, that the ordinary laws of
aerodynamics no longer existed…a plane could skid into a flat spin…and tumble
end over end towards the earth.
“The first pilots to face this challenge
responded by frantically trying to stabilize their planes… The more furiously
they manipulated the controls, the wilder the ride became. Screaming helplessly to the ground control,
“What do I do next?” they would plunge to their deaths.
“This tragic drama occurred several times
until one of the pilots inadvertently struck upon a solution. When his plane began tumbling, he was thrown
violently around the cockpit and knocked out.
Unconscious, he plummeted toward earth.
Seven miles later, the plane reentered the planet’s denser atmosphere,
where standard navigation strategies could be implemented. He came to, steadied the craft and landed
safely. He had discovered the only
lifesaving response that was possible in this desperate situation: Don’t do
anything… Take your hands off the controls…It counters all training and even
basic survival instincts,…but it works.”
We have all been there, in one way or
another. We have all faced a situation
in life that has literally thrown us for a loop, brought us to our knees, or
knocked the very wind from our sails. We
have all experienced some situation in life that we simply have not known what
to do.
When
we are faced with such circumstances, it is quite natural to do everything we can
to control the situation. But imagine
for a second what it would be like to deliberately take our hands off the
controls. To interrupt our normal
patterns of thinking, feeling, and doing, and instead take a moment to pause
and observe what is going in our surroundings and inside of ourselves.
And
while taking our hands off the controls certainly does not solve all of our
problems, it does suspend time just long enough to gaze inward instead of outward,
and re-evaluate where we are, who we are, and what is happening in the deepest,
most intimate parts of our hearts and souls.
When
we take a moment to pause, we may not know what will happen next, but we open
ourselves to subtle messages, new possibilities, and potential clarity. We develop the capacity to stop running,
hiding, controlling, and camouflaging, and instead accept our immediate inner
experiences.
Ultimately,
we open ourselves to who, what, and where we really are…at that moment.
Now
and then, considering giving yourself permission to take your hands off the controls. Find the power of the pause, and observe what
is going on inside of yourself. Accept
the experience that you discover, and learn, most of all, something from
it.
-El
