Just Don't Do It
Nike's iconic slogan urges us to act. But when it comes to our automatic reactions to life's endless provocations, perhaps the wisest counsel is precisely the opposite: Just don't do it.
Watch what happens the next time someone cuts you off in traffic or sends an irritating email or simply rubs you the wrong way. Notice how swiftly we react — anger, frustration, and judgment cascade through awareness without the slightest pause. There's virtually no gap between stimulus and response.
This immediate reactivity ensures we remain trapped in familiar patterns. We respond from accumulated conditioning, that vast catalog of learned behaviors built from past experiences. It's no wonder we repeatedly encounter similar challenges. Not because we're mysteriously "attracting" them, but because inputs filtered through unchanged reaction patterns will inevitably produce analogous outputs.
If we desire more peace and less turmoil, we have two choices. Option one: attempt to control life's inputs—managing environments, manipulating people, orchestrating circumstances. And we all know how well that works out.
Option two: Don't immediately react. Just don't do it.
Like breaking any harmful habit, the prescription is deceptively simple. How do you stop smoking? Don't pick up a cigarette. How do you cease drinking? Don't reach for the bottle. How do you end reactive suffering? Don't automatically respond to whatever life presents.
But in that pause—that sacred gap between stimulus and response—something extraordinary appears. We discover two aspects dwelling within: a lowercase "self" that gets agitated and an uppercase "Self" that observes the agitation.
Consider the statement "I am upset." Clearly there's an "I" experiencing upset. But who is it that knows I am upset? There's another I—one that witnesses the emotional turbulence while remaining untouched by it. This I that knows that I am upset, the Self, is not distressed in any manner. In fact, the I that knows is in a state of blissful joy.
As A Course in Miracles counsels, "Be still an instant and go home with Him [the Self], and be at peace a while." In the spaciousness of non-reaction, we shift attention from the self that suffers to the Self of awareness. The Self that knows remains in perfect peace, no matter what unfolds. And from that state of serenity, a healing love will flow into the gap, forming the basis of a most helpful response to the moment.
Join me in Thursday's class where we'll explore practices for creating this transformative space and discover the miracle that emerges from stillness. I look forward to seeing you then.