Accepting what is—or else

Is the following a matter of computer viruses or (if you’re into astrology) perhaps Mercury is in retrograde?

A few Fridays ago, late in the day, both my PC and Mac computers shut down for no apparent reason. I’m somewhat computer challenged so I was a bit helpless until I could take my PC into the shop the next business day, which was that following Monday morning. I didn’t have any idea they’d be keeping my precious computer for two weeks. At the time, I used my PC on a daily basis. Now with both computers on the blink, I was going to be stuck—Internet-less.

I felt this “happening” was an important reminder for me: Take life as it comes, and then relax. Eckhart Tolle (author of The Power of Now and A New Earth) talks about accepting what is. Not an easy concept right off the bat, but without acceptance we usually cause ourselves unneeded mental anguish and suffering. Sometimes happiness comes from simply accepting what is.

At the very time my computers gave out, I had a lot of work to do on my website along with articles to write for this blogsite. I also do a lot of communication with clients (as well as family and friends) online, so it was incredibly inhibiting to not have access to my own, personal computer and running over to Kinkos to keep up with my business emails. (And that is exactly what I ended up doing!)

The good news is I got through this computer glitch without too much pain and suffering. I decided to just let go and let life do what life wanted to do. I could have gotten upset and found all the reasons why this event was causing hardship in my life. Instead, I decided to just relax into the now and do other things in the meantime. Things that didn’t involve a computer.

It’s not that easy to “just relax” when life takes unexpected twists and turns. But what other choice is there—really? The alternative to breathing and relaxing in the moment is to stress and worry about things that usually you have no control over. Obviously, computer problems don’t compare to real life traumas like the loss of a loved one or news that actually changes your life. But staying in the moment and not letting your thoughts go too far into the future or delving back into the past can really help you from getting too stressed-out at any given moment. It is not effortless to do—actually, that is exactly what it is!

Happiness is having my PC back

Practice staying in the moment and accepting what is as often as possible—especially when things go sideways. Once you get used to relaxing in the now, the calm state that follows will come more naturally to you, and I believe it will serve you when the winds of change come blowing through your life.




Also see:

• Axioms for Life 
• Coping through tough times
• The Webs We Weave