The Wisdom of Omicron Madness
In just the past five days, as the Omicron surge has engulfed New York City. Jay Michaelson writes about how to be resilient in the face of yet another wave of COVID.
In just the past five days, as the Omicron surge has engulfed New York City. Jay Michaelson writes about how to be resilient in the face of yet another wave of COVID.
In just the past five days, as the Omicron surge has engulfed my hometown of New York City, I’ve felt and thought the following:
I’ve felt every one of these, I swear, as well as many more. And I know that, because they reflect my experience, there are many other feelings and thoughts that aren’t on that list, but that may be up for you.
I’m sharing this list for two reasons. First, because if you’re on a similar merry-go-round of emotions, now you know you’re not alone! And yes, I’m a meditation teacher. Feelings still happen. We are human.
Second, because being able to notice all of these feelings with mindfulness, and to RAIN them (Recognize, Accept, Investigate, and Not-Identify-With) has been incredibly reaffirming. It’s what secular mindfulness is for. It’s what Buddhist meditation is for, at least in some traditions: observing the incredibly impermanent, impersonal, and difficult flow of feelings and sensations, and seeing in their flux the fundamental characteristics of human experience. And it’s what Ten Percent is for, at least in part. This is what really helps. Not the suppression of feelings, but relating to them from a place of mindfulness, self-compassion, and balance. Even humor.
I remember one time on a long meditation retreat, I was watching a similarly crazy-making parade of thoughts and feelings pass by. But I saw that that’s what it was: a parade. I wasn’t caught by the various emotions that presented themselves, in all their contradictory absurdity. I felt them, I liked some and didn’t like others, but I wasn’t ensnared. Not most of the time, anyway. Even in the midst of very challenging emotions, I was free.
The same has often been true over the last week. It’s not that I haven’t felt anxiety, despair, and anger – believe me, I have. It’s that they haven’t trapped me, at least not for long. The whole unfolding catastrophe continues to unfold. I have had noble thoughts and ignoble ones (I left the most ignoble ones off the list). But throughout, there’s been just a bit of loving awareness noticing the parade – and another bit of awareness noticing that I’m noticing. That is the expansive space of freedom.
It’s a subtle teaching, and, in my experience, it’s sometimes overlooked. Yes, meditation can be used to chill out, and it’s worth doing it just for that. But its greater gift is training the mind to be able to be present with the full spectrum of life. The chill and the un-chill, the apathetic and the intense. Right now, it’s like this. I can see it, I can feel it, I can not be tormented by the hard feelings or tantalized by the good ones. I’m here. I’m resilient. And so are you.