on March 20 | in Affirmations | by Matthew Catlett | with Comments Off on Tranquility Affirmation

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Today, I practice tranquility. This tranquility affirmation is about relaxing out of all seeking, all striving. In this relaxation, I set down all attachment and ambition – just for today, just for right now.

I cast off all worries about tomorrow as I begin my affirmation. I let go also lingering concerns from yesterday. I take a moment to let physical tension drain out of my body by focusing on my breath and letting go of my current trains of thought, letting them fade away by simply hearing them.

I start the affirmation with attachment to material items. I consider that all of my feelings of ownership arise because I feel my material possessions are somehow a part of me, that ownership is a part of my ego. Yet, all material things are fleeting and ephemeral, they will vanish as my circumstances change. At most I can keep these things about me for but a lifetime, then I will eventually be forced to let them go. I see that all attachment to material things is futile and will cause me to suffer with their inevitable loss. I also see that I spend a lot of physical and mental energy in the acquirement of new things and the protection of those things that I have already brought into my concept of myself. I set that energy free and give up my futile ambitions to increase myself through ownership.

I move to attachment to people. I consider that all of my feelings of superiority and inferiority, of victory or insufficiency, come about from my feelings of separateness. My pride as an independent, singular being is a part of my ego. Yet, the people in my life are also transient, for some will leave while new ones come. Those who stay will be constantly changing, constantly becoming someone new. I challenge my pride in accomplishment by considering there will always be someone more superior in form, more adept in skill, more acceptable, even more unique in the surface appearance of the world. I see that I cannot ultimately derive a stable sense of self in a social way, that I am just one center of a web of ever-changing connectedness. I release others of my expectations and my dependencies, and reformulate my love to be a pure outpouring of my spirit.

I move even closer to my crumbling ego and consider my attachment to my body. I consider that my body is constantly being renewed, constantly being recreated. I also consider that all living things eventually die and are consumed by the earth. My focus on or prideful disregard for health, my questions of diet and exercise, my longing for health amid sickness are all curves on the short graph of my life; this mortal shell will return to dust. I consider my gender and my sexuality, and to what degree I consider them to be core parts of my identity, and to what degree the circumstances of my culture and nation have defined my behavior in those areas. I see that this too is a doomed fragment of my ego, that ultimately my body, my health, and my sexuality are all dust devils in the desert. I release my body, not to neglect and decadence, but to be a whole, wonderful, beautiful manifestation of the universe.

I move to the level of my ego itself and consider my attachment to my thoughts. I consider that thoughts are the most fleeting and ephemeral of all, that they arise and subside in an instant. I see that my thoughts are in fact not me, I witness them spontaneously occurring in my mental landscape without any action whatsoever coming from my position as observer. I see that the habits I’ve cultivated into my body, those people that I’ve chosen to interact with, and those material things I’ve identified as part of myself are the sources of my thoughts. I see that these thoughts arise as ripples in the rivers of those feelings I’ve chosen to nurture. In these acknowledgements, I simultaneously see that my thoughts are not me and do not come from my essential self, but are nevertheless my responsibility as the result of my choices. I put down the negativity I’ve been unconsciously choosing again and again, not by striving to be better – but by simply choosing not to participate in my ancient rituals of self-enforcement.

Having released all of these attachments and ambitions, I move to gratitude.

I thank my essential self, my spirit and witness consciousness, for this another day and another blessing. I thank also God above, but the direction of my gratitude is the same, for God is within me and my witnessing is a prism facet of the divine. I accept and choose love.

I thank my body, the universe, and God for this physical manifestation of body that allows me the myriad beauty of this world, that allows me to choose my burdens and carry the spirit. I accept, choose, and love my body just the way it is.

I thank all of the people in my life, for it is through them that I am most easily moved to compassion, to kindness, to laughter, and to love. I am also most easily moved to understanding my failings of ego, my sense of pride, and my weakness through them – each person holds up a mirror to me. I let go of my understanding of them as people in obligation, and move to simply appreciate the time I am given with each. I accept, choose, and love the people in my life just the way they are.

I thank even the rocks, the trees, the world at large. Without ownership or possession, I appreciate that I no longer need to seek abundance – for I already possess it. I have been dwelling in the midst of bounty, blind, all this time.

Today I let go of all trying, all seeking, all wanting. I will attend to those things that arise as needful about me, but without ambition or irritation. My focus will remain on the current moment and the business of living, without interior movement. I choose to just be, and in that choice living will just happen.

Today I am a manifestation of peace and serenity. I am tranquil.

Blessings,

-M

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