☀️ Micro Morning Meditation: It Might Have Been Otherwise

One day it will.

1. Morning Contemplation

🎧 You can find the audio version of this morning’s contemplation below.

Good morning.

A simple but useful mental device for the quelling of anxiety is the careful consideration of the things we get to do each day.

We may be tense about ongoing troubles or worried that we may never have all the things we desire, but there will always be ways in which it could be worse.

That may seem like a fairly flimsy hook to hang one’s hat on. Surely we should demand more than the satisfaction that our situation isn’t as bad as it could be.

We’re not talking about resignation, however. There’s more to be gained than that.

As the Stoic writer William B. Irvine puts it, noting what’s at our disposal—and how it won’t be forever—can awaken a whole new love of life for us:

By consciously thinking about the loss of what we have, we can regain our appreciation of it, and with this regained appreciation we can revitalize our capacity for joy.

Amid the busyness of daily business, however, it’s not always easy to notice what we’re doing.

One suggestion is to deliberately write everything down for a day. You might even use the format of the following poem by Jane Kenyon, noting something you got to do followed by the refrain “It might have been otherwise.”

It’s the perfect example of the exercise we’ve just been considering.

Otherwise by Jane Kenyon

I got out of bed
on two strong legs.
It might have been
otherwise. I ate
cereal, sweet
milk, ripe, flawless
peach. It might
have been otherwise.
I took the dog uphill
to the birch wood.
All morning I did
the work I love.
At noon I lay down
with my mate. It might
have been otherwise.
We ate dinner together
at a table with silver
candlesticks. It might
have been otherwise.
I slept in a bed
in a room with paintings
on the walls, and
planned another day
just like this day.
But one day, I know,
it will be otherwise.

2. Morning Meditation

Sit down in a safe, comfortable spot, close your eyes, and take a few minutes to meditate on this morning's theme.