Accept and Detach

Another strange and wonderful thing happened to me last Wednesday night when I was leaving class. I was walking in the bitter cold, trying to make it back to my car so I could drive home. It was so cold that I was wearing four layers: my long-sleeved shirt, a thin jacket, a furry jacket, and an overcoat. My scarf was wound all the way around my neck and covered my mouth and nose. I walked with my shoulders hunched and my head bent down against the wind. Then I suddenly remembered something. A few days ago, I read this book where a man said that whenever he felt pain, he would open himself up to the pain and fully accept it; this, strangely enough, allowed him to detach from it. He said that if an emotion is fully accepted, even if it is pain and suffering, can one detach from the feeling. So I thought to myself, I'm feeling cold and miserable right now, but if I can accept it, then maybe I can detach from it. Besides, hunching my shoulders for so long is killing my back. So I straightened up, opened myself to the cold, and my scarf fell away from my face and neck. Suddenly, I didn't feel cold anymore. I stood there for a minute, in the back alley of some parking lot overgrown with weeds, unprotected by walls and warmth, and...I didn't feel cold anymore. I mean, sure I could still feel the wind swirling around my ankles, but it's like the cold couldn't touch me anymore, not any deeper than just the barest surface of my skin. In other words, the cold didn't bother me. Huh, I thought. Maybe there is something to this after all. Or maybe it's just the placebo effect. In either case, I walked back to my car in total comfort, no longer cold and hunched, no longer defeated by cold and wind and snow. Call it what you will. Mind over matter. Catch and release. Accept and detach. The point is, it worked.

"Is any of this real or is it all in my head?" ~Harry Potter
"Of course it's all in your head, Harry, but why does that mean it's not real?" ~Albus Dumbledore