On this episode of the Being Well Podcast, Forrest and I share a great conversation with Kaira Jewel Lingo about how to cultivate trust and equanimity in the face of uncertainty. We discuss the somatic experience of opening to the unknown, taking action as an antidote to anxiety, and how to have equanimity both when things work out, and when they don’t.
Kaira Jewel Lingo is a Buddhist teacher who weaves mindfulness and meditation practice with social justice. At the age of 25, she became a Buddhist nun at the Plum Village community in France under the guidance of Thich Naht Han, where she stayed for 15 years. She became a Zen teacher in 2007, and is also a teacher in the Vipassana/Insight tradition through Spirit Rock Meditation Center. Finally, she is the author of We Were Made for These Times: Ten Lessons for Moving Through Change, Loss, and Disruption.
As a note, this episode was recorded prior to the passing of Thich Nhat Hanh.
- 0:00: Introduction
- 1:45: Kaira Jewel’s background
- 2:35: Trust in times of major change
- 9:10: Two kinds of uncertainty
- 14:10: Store consciousness and trusting the unknown
- 18:50: Somatic contraction and expansion
- 23:05: Responding to the truth of suffering with joyful engagement
- 30:50: Practicing equanimity
- 42:10: Defining equanimity
- 43:30: How to return to center in unstable moments
- 48:20: Body-based equanimity exercise
- 50:50: Recap
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