Welcome to the Buddhist Boot Camp Podcast. Our intention is to awaken, enlighten, enrich, and inspire a simple and uncomplicated life. Discover the benefits of mindful living with your host, Timber Hawkeye. Before I dive into this episode, I am happy to announce the audiobook for The Opposite of Namaste is finally available.
If you've never tried an audiobook before, go to BuddhistBootCamp.com and click on the Audible link to get The Opposite of Namaste for free, along with a free month to try other audiobooks for the first time. I mean, if you love this podcast, imagine it without the intro and outro, 84 short chapters, each less than ten minutes long, that you can listen to at any time, in any order, with food-for-thought designed specifically to alleviate so much of the anguish we cause ourselves.
If you prefer an autographed hardcover to keep on your bedside or coffee table, or to gift copies to your friends and family, get it from BuddhistBootCamp.com, and another copy will be donated to the Prison Library Project on your behalf. It sounds like marketing, but truly, I'm just so excited the book is finally available on audio, and since this episode is called What Else? ...As in.. What else am I feeling?
The longer I think about what's going on with me at any moment, the better I understand one feeling doesn't need to dominate everything else that's going on. So, yes, I'm excited, but I also feel relieved, accomplished, grateful, and... in pain. I broke my foot in two places a couple of weeks ago, and it hurts... A lot. I can't walk on it for two months, I am bummed my backpacking trip to the Grand Canyon was canceled, I can't be active like I normally am, but what else am I feeling?
I'm thrilled that it's not worse, that's for sure, and blessed my foot broke close to the emergency room instead of at the bottom of a Grand Canyon in the middle of the night. So I simultaneously feel frustrated with audio recording software, and yet pleased at the final quality of the audiobook.
I trust that my bones will heal, and I have faith that if one chapter from the audiobook touches one person somewhere in the world at the right time, then all the hard work that went into recording and producing it would be worthwhile. So, yeah, there are a bunch of feelings going on at the same time. Nobody and nothing is ever just one thing. Here's what I mean: my very first car was salvaged from the junkyard.
The driver door was stuck, so I needed to unlock the passenger side to crawl over, there were other unconventional workarounds to pop the hood, to turn on the headlights, or to listen to the radio. The roof was a different color than the rest of the vehicle, and the rear bumper was attached with duct tape. But, the heater worked, the transmission was fine, and the tires were brand new.
The car looked a little rough, but it ran okay. And I often feel like that car: pieced together, lots of mileage, and difficult to start on cold mornings. I'm not complaining, I'm just grateful for all the workarounds to get through the day. That's how I feel about Buddhism and mindfulness: they don't offer us cures or solutions to life's challenges, but there are plenty of workarounds, coping skills, or life hacks, as the kids today would call them.
When I feel like the weight of the world is on my shoulders, the following mantra is my workaround to lighten the load. Whenever I am overcome by a strong emotion, whether I'm drowning in sorrow, floating on cloud nine, or consumed with despair, a single feeling can overshadow everything else that's going on. We can all be green with envy, or gutted by disappointment, or blinded with rage. That's when I ask myself: what else are you feeling? A simple question brings everything
into perspective. The sadness is still there, for example, but what else is going on? I take a step back, not to numb, nullify, or deny the overpowering feeling, but to bring into focus everything else I am overlooking. At the risk of sounding like a boring PowerPoint presentation, I want you to imagine a pie chart. When someone says they are angry, for example, I envision the entire circle is red with anger. That's when I ask them, what else are you feeling?
I sometimes even hand them a list of dozens of feelings if they need help figuring it out. The anger's still there but it's not all there is. The longer we look at the pie chart, the smaller the overpowering feeling gets, and the more manageable life becomes.
When we discussed this topic at our monthly Buddhist Boot Camp Zoom meeting, someone mentioned this pause between impulse and response reminded him of a phrase his dad used to say: If you don't need to hit the panic button, don't hit the panic button! It beautifully encapsulated exactly what I meant when I wrote this episode. Asking "What else?" reminds us that nothing is ever just one thing. This perspective doesn't shut anything off, it just turns down the volume.
When I hurt my foot, I knew it was broken because I heard it break. Everyone did. But I didn't scream, yell, or cuss. I just hopped away on one leg and drove myself to the emergency room. My friend said he couldn't believe I was so stoic, but if it's not necessary to hit the panic button, don't hit the panic button, right? This is not a cure or a solution to life's overwhelming roller coaster of feelings and
emotions, but it is a fantastic workaround; a coping skill. Call it duct tape or a life hack, Either way, I'm just grateful to have a functioning car. Thank you for trusting me to share the many ways in which the ancient teachings, coupled with modern psychology, have the ability to enrich our lives every day. Remember to get the audiobook from BuddhistBootCamp.com Enjoy, and share it with others. I appreciate you.
Timber Hawkeye is the bestselling author of Buddhist Boot Camp, Faithfully Religionless, and The Opposite of Namaste. For additional information, please visit BuddhistBootCamp.com, where you can order autographed books to support the Prison Library Project, watch Timber's inspiring TED Talk, and join our monthly mailing list. We hope you have enjoyed this episode and invite you to subscribe for more thought-provoking discussions. Thank you for being a Soldier of Peace in the Army of Love 🙏