The only hope for surcease,
the only possibility of stability
for the person,
is to establish an Island of Peace
within one’s own soul.
—Howard Thurman (1)

WWHILE MY SISTER WAS DYING LAST SUMMER, it was a great gift to experience moments of peace, strength, love, and even joy, despite the overwhelming intensity of it all. Through many trips to her faraway home, chores to be done there, swings of big emotions, and immediate needs to tend, any sense of calm surprised me. Looking back, I recognize I was steadied and energized by something like Howard Thurman’s “Island of Peace” within me.

Now in a wider view of the year ahead, we as a nation face social, political, and ecological turmoil. Stark realities feed dread, grief, and anger that surges through me and many others.

• How might I carry forward my summer’s experience of stability and peace into my response to contemporary upheavals?

Equanimity For Faith and Action

Thurman’s Island of Peace offers an image of equanimity—an “even-tempered state of mind that enables [us] to ride life’s challenges with calmness and serenity, instead of being tossed about like a ship in a storm.” (2)

But equanimity is more than a psychological condition. It’s also a virtue —a universal ideal of the best qualities of human behavior and being. The world’s faith traditions share many virtues that make our world a better place, like generosity, patience, integrity, humility, and kindness. Different religions recognize the virtue of equanimity with varied terms like contentment, tranquility, or “the peace that passes understanding.” Equanimity is an ideal of faith and faithful actions.

The calm, even-heartedness of equanimity seems vital for living through our contemporary upheavals. But if the word is too clunky for you, try serenity, emotional sobriety (3), or another term that calls to mind your Island of Peace within. The days ahead are bound to push buttons. I’m endlessly grateful for people who know how to stand steady in equanimity rather than jumping on roller coasters of fear and anger.

• What’s your own “Island of Peace” like? How does it influence your response to current events?

Trust—Not Indifference or Bypass

To be clear, the equanimity I’m encouraging is not indifference or an emotional-spiritual bypass. As I did through my weeks with my sister, Heidi, this year I’ll need to stay entirely present and engaged. Equanimity has an immediacy to it, an openness to what’s happening right now. It’s not spinning mental wheels into future catastrophe, or miring the heart in past regrets. With equanimity, we’re less reactive about what’s happening, less attached. We experience less defensiveness, self-protection, need for approval or control. Equanimity offers a spaciousness for more soulful resources to find expression through us—a depth of empathy, a courage to speak or act peacefully while the world urges, “Fight!”

I suspect that inner freedom of equanimity rises from spiritual trust. It’s not trust in politics or the “best” news sources; it’s not trust in a particular leader or government; it’s not trust in our finances to see us through. It’s not. We’ve got to trust something a lot bigger and more solid. For me, equanimity happens when I’m actively leaning into relationship with God. I’m aware of a sense of companioning Presence and inner guidance. For me, Jesus is one of the best models for how equanimity looks and works.

Emotional Spiritual Practice

Equanimity can be a gracious gift, but we can also prepare ourselves to receive it. Equanimity grows through spiritual practices that help us notice, honor, metabolize, and open our feelings to the Holy. We might not need to call it “prayer,” and there’s no intellectual formula or a “right” way to do it. Maybe journaling works for you, maybe talking with a friend or spiritual director. Maybe you play music or dance your way to equanimity. Maybe you a take vigorous walk or run. Maybe equanimity grows when you immerse yourself in creativity.

The shortest route I’ve found to equanimity is through contemplative prayer—a mostly wordless trusting and opening to the Divine. My bottom line: I must have daily time in quiet stillness with inner attentiveness and a clear intention toward mutual relationship with God. I use the format of Centering Prayer (4) , letting go again and again of what I’m thinking or feeling, and letting the Spirit lead. It prepares me to collaborate with the Source of Love in whatever comes my way the rest of the day. I’m building trust in that Island of Peace within.

A Whole New Operating System

In the years I’ve been teaching and accompanying others’ spiritual journeys, it’s entirely clear to me that the people who stick to a daily “sit” start to change. It’s not a passing thing, a diet fad, or an overlay of new theology. From the inside out, the Spirit rewires us. Centering Prayer teacher and mystic, Cynthia Bourgeault, suggests we gain a “whole new operating system” (5).

I often wish I wasn’t a highly-emotional being, easily swamped with inner melodrama. My morning sit usually includes noticing and letting go of feelings and thoughts like: What do they think of me? She’s better at that than I am. I don’t have what it takes to do that… Centering Prayer shifts things. I can go into it with mind/heart/body in a swirling mess and come out with equanimity. My best self. Really, it is a miracle!

I seem to be unable to not feel things, but as I age, I’m choosing how to tend my emotions: How much news will I watch? What will I read? When will I interrupt destructive conversation spirals? How will I contribute to protecting people more vulnerable than me? With growing trust in the Divine, I can choose loving responses instead of emotional reactivity.

Through regular contemplative practice, I’ve watched myself and others come to “care” less about fears, angers, beliefs, and what other people think, while “caring more” about love, service, relationships, people on the edges, and the earth our common home. I see equanimity bear fruit in greater compassion, courage, service, self-discipline, authenticity, steadfastness, generosity, patience, hope, and even joy!

• What spiritual practices help you tend your emotions and restore equanimity?

Contagious Calm

This year, I want to be one of those people that can offer a non-anxious presence in whatever chaos comes my way, sowing contagious calm. I want to be aware and attentive to what’s real, but not be swept up and swept away by it. I want to keep my spiritual feet on the ground of that Island of Peace within, the Intimate Mystery of God.

There’s a Bible scene that captures my ideal of equanimity. Three Gospel authors tell it (6), which means it must have been pretty meaningful to their communities: A bunch of friends are in a heaving boat on a stormy lake, sure they’re going to drown. Their teacher is sleeping through it. When they wake him up, Jesus quiets the weather and waters. Imagine that sudden “great calm”—the abrupt silence of it, the cessation of movement, the intake of breath, mouths hanging open, hands loosening on the gunwales. Literal history or not, the story offers a powerful image of return to equanimity.

Jesus then questions his friends’ faith. Here I encourage you to remember he doesn’t mean intellectual assent to a creed. Jesus is talking about what we describe today with the English word, trust (7). What if the scene reveals what happens when we trust the Divine with the storms within and around us? Would they no longer terrify us, or cease to toss us up and down? We might still drown; that’s possible. But we would paradoxically remain on the solid ground of an Island of Peace. We’d be living an alternate reality in the Spirit.

• How will you practice equanimity this coming year?

May God’s own peace, which is beyond all understanding, guard our hearts and our minds (based on Philippians 4:7).

NOTES:

(1) Thurman, H. (1953). Meditations of the heart. New York: Beacon Press. “Surcease” means ceasing action, a stop. Thurman had been describing the pressures of modern life, dealing with the “evils” of oppressive systems, and the tyranny of our own strengths and weaknesses.
(2) Bernhard, T. (2019). “Equanimity: The key to happiness”. Retrieved from https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/turning-straw-gold/201911/equanimity-the-key-happiness.
(3) Richard Rohr on 12-Step Spirituality and emotional sobriety: https://cac.org/daily-meditations/emotional-sobriety-and-letting-go-2015-11-19/
(4) For an intro to Centering Prayer, see a blog post of mine: “Eat Your Spiritual Oatmeal – Experiencing Centering” 1/12/24.
(5) Bourgeault, C. (2016). The heart of centering prayer: Nondual christianity in theory and Practice. Boulder, CO: Shambhala. .
(6) See Luke 8:22–25; Matthew 8:23–27; Mark 4:36–41.
(7) Greek Bible text analysis of faith/trust (πίστις) here: https://biblehub.com/greek/4102.htm

Image credit, Ollie Craig, Croatia: https://www.pexels.com/photo/small-island-in-sea-near-sailing-motorboat-under-sky-5032165/