Day 224: Stairs

If I am walking up a set of stairs and my foot slips, I may bang my knee on the stair. It will hurt for a bit and perhaps leave a mark. Instincts steam up the feeling of being angry at the step, being angry at someone that could have left something slippery on the step, or being angry that there isn’t a railing.

But with every step, there is only one person that is to blame for those slips and falls. Me. It’s always me. That anger radiating from my knee may turn inward. The brain searches frantically to find the culprit of the pain. That is its job: to learn and find the cause of problems so that we may instinctively avoid those slips in the future.

To pause in that moment of pain and realize what the auto-pilot is doing allows me to change my body into pilot mode. I then get to choose my emotion instead of being driven by it. I can acknowledge the minuscule mistake along the bumping road filled with potholes. I can assure my brain that my knee will be okay, the pain will pass, there is nothing to worry about, and take the next step.