Cultivating serenity and surrender

The hot blue sky here looks gorgeous and relentless these days, and my brain is molten because of summer headaches and low blood pressure. And yet there is a serenity to hot days, I remember it from childhood too - afternoons during summer holidays in India where the roads were empty, the birds and children were silent, and the whole world seemed to be in a peaceful sleep. The only time when an Indian city might be quiet :D.

Interestingly, the word serenity might be related to hot days and the weather, because its roots lie in the proto Indo-European root ‘ksero’ meaning “dry” and later it came to mean arid, unclouded, calm, and clear in other languages.

A big part of serenity is surrender, where we admit that we are powerless over a circumstance and surrender to whatever higher power or self we believe in, instead of fighting with what is true.

When I stop fighting with reality and remember that certain things are beyond my control, I can better focus on the things that I change.

So today I am surrendering to the heat and headache, instead of fighting it and worrying about my productivity. I leave you with this serenity prayer which is super helpful for all sorts of situations, including hot days :D

Dear [Universe/Higher power/God/Life/Soul…],

please grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,

the courage to change the things I can,

and the wisdom to know the difference.

What brings you serenity in life?

Thank you and till later!

Beant