Equanimity = mental calmness, composure, and evenness of temper, especially in a difficult situation.

Are you stressed, worried, or anxious? Well guess what? See this dog with his red ball? He’s not stressed or worried or anxious. You know why?

“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?” Matthew 6:25-27.

This dog, with his red ball, is not stressed about where his next meal will come from. He is not worried about how many years, months, or weeks he has left. He isn’t anxious about how much longer his owner will let him play at the park. This dog is simply enjoying the present moment, breathing in the fresh air, feeling the soft grass under his paws, existing with gratitude.

He embodies equanimity.

“Both peace and joy and their counterparts, non-reactiveness and present moment awareness, all stem from a particular quality of mind, equanimity. When the mind is balanced and steady, when it is taking in the world without holding onto it, when it is simply observing without judging, the mind is in a state of equanimity. The door to access the full beauty of life and the wisdom of the universe is opened by equanimity.” — yung pueblo

Rather than stressing or worrying or being anxious, let’s be like the equanimous dog, with his red ball, and find peace and joy by practicing non-reactiveness and present moment awareness.