Two Key Sanity Tactics

Be still. Turn loose. Those are my two favorite san­ity tac­tics. When some­thing unex­pected hap­pens, our first responses have to do with pro­tec­tion and con­trol. Our minds race. We grasp and hold onto what­ever it is that we think will make it okay. Iron­i­cally, the more fran­tic we get and the harder we try to hold on, the greater the per­ceived cri­sis grows.

There are numer­ous para­doxes to being sane. For exam­ple, if you real­ize that you are at least a lit­tle crazy, then you are pretty sane. If you think you are the only sane per­son and that every­one else is crazy, then you are crazy. San­ity goes hand-in-hand with humil­ity and hon­est self-evaluation.

We humans are blessed and cursed with a flight/fight mech­a­nism. It saves us phys­i­cally on occa­sion, but it can drive us crazy when it is trig­gered too eas­ily. The life of spirit works oppo­site of this mech­a­nism. When taken seri­ously enough for it to work, it will lead you peace­fully through chaos and allow you even to for­give the unforgivable.

Get still. Turn loose. Both con­cepts are tran­scen­dent. They push you above the hys­te­ria of the crowd. Your stress responses drop, and you will gen­er­ally live bet­ter and longer. These par­al­lel a phrase from a Rud­yard Kipling poem in which I find con­so­la­tion: “If you can keep your head while all about you are los­ing theirs and blam­ing it on you…”

Faith and for­give­ness = be still and turn loose. It is a sim­ple equa­tion. It works. It is strength­ened by use. The for­mula even­tu­ally becomes your first response. At that point, you can “walk on water” (the ancient sym­bolic action of one that is fully above chaos).

Be still. Turn loose. Take a walk across the flood waters of con­tem­po­rary chaos. Enjoy the stroll.