How We Overcome Cabin Fever, Below Freezing Nights and Despair During Endless Snow and Rain Storms
How we consciously use counting our blessings and always looking for the good to keep the wolves of worry, fear and negative thoughts at bay.
Photo Credit: Chinmayan
How we consciously use counting our blessings, being grateful and always looking for the good in every situation to keep the wolves of worry, fear and negative thoughts at bay.
I am at the little desk aboard my tiny house on another morning of grey swirling clouds and cold rain. During the night another major storm swept in from the Gulf of Alaska, bringing very cold winds, ice and snow with it.
It snowed all night, so once again it’s a world of white and slush outside with no respite of sunny days between the storms.
We watch the weather reports very closely now, as storm after storm is stacked up to come our way in the coming days and weeks.
I am not complaining because all this wet and every drop of rain is one more towards the end of the drought we have suffered through for years.
But it has been so cold and grey for so long now that we are feeling the effects on us mentally, physically and emotionally.
Ani had another close call with hypothermia yesterday morning, from simply sitting while having her morning coffee as the cold gradually seeped into her body unnoticed until she was suddenly trembling and chilled to the bone.
We climbed into my big bed together under a huge pile of quilts and sheepskins as we held each other close to share our body heat as she shivered and gradually warmed up. It was another scary episode and another wake up call.
We are now both living in this tiny house as our last refuge from the cold and storms.
I am grateful for the furnace which, even if it is finicky, does work most of the time, pouring its warm air into this tiny living space.
Though we put this ship in the shop for three weeks this summer to have its furnaces completely overhauled so we would be secure this winter, the “master gas appliance repair man” there didn’t do the work needed after telling us he had and giving us a huge bill.
We believed him and didn’t discover until later and far too late that the furnaces were both in the the same condition with the same malfunctions as before the weeks in his shop.
By finicky I mean that it takes great skill to even get the main furnace to start and keep it going. The controls have to be very slowly moved into “on” position until a certain, almost inaudible click is heard, before the furnace will start.
It may run perfectly for a while and then, on a whim, start shutting off the heat and blowing cold air into the cabin.
This adds to the stress of our situation because of the threat of having no heat at all, which we have avoided so far by sweet talking and babying the furnace controls.
Photo Credit: Chinmayan
I will admit that we have had our share of struggles and low states this winter, far more than any before during our years together.
This morning we realized that we have been suffering from “cabin fever” from having to stay together in this tiny house while we have taken shelter for weeks from the very unusual long series of nearly back to back storms.
Though our main building here on Still Mountain is more than 4,000 square feet, it was built without insulation and is too cold to stay in because even having a raging fire in the belly of our giant wood stove won’t keep it warm.
We were using electric heaters in Ani’s room, which did keep it reasonably warm, after she worked diligently to insulate by climbing into the huge attic and laying thick bats all across it’s ceiling from above, until we discovered that even using them for limited heat was costing an unsustainable $20 to $30 day.
I am not complaining here, simply explaining what’s been happening for us.
Photo Credit: Chinmayan
I have cured myself of complaining because it only makes the complainer and whoever we are expressing our complaints to, feel worse.
I’ve learned that when I have complained out loud, I have seen more and more things to complain about until getting buried in an avalanche of complaints.
Once we verbalize a negative thought like “O its so terrible” or “I can’t stand the situation” it gives greater and greater reality to it…and our minds become focused on the complaint and dwell on it.
Negative thoughts are like poisonous weeds…the more you water them through expressing or giving them attention, the faster they grow and the bigger they get.
I understand this principle very well because I was a victim of my own dark thoughts, a prisoner in the dungeon of my own negative mind for many years of young manhood.
Fortunately, I met and became a heart son disciple of Kalu Rinpoche, one of the greatest meditation masters of our time.
Through doing the intense daily mediation practices I had learned from him, listening to his teachings and following his example, I was able to come to see how our minds operate and gradually free myself from its old habitual negative patterns and become free of the dungeon, from self inflicted suffering and the sources of suffering.
“The mind can either be a wonderful servant or a terrible master…” as Rinpoche often said.
Photo Credit: Chinmayan
One very powerful trick that I use all the time is to constantly count our blessings and express thankfulness for them.
The masters say that because our mundane mind has had sway over us for countless life times, we have a very strong habitual tendency to believe and buy into every negative thought as it arises…which only pulls in more negative thoughts which quickly grows into a hurricane of negativity and invariably leads to suffering.
In this case, with cabin fever and the threats of the cold all around us, I know those negative thoughts and feelings are like circling, snarling, snapping wolves that can cause great injury if I am not aware of them and do not counter them.
So I constantly remind myself of all the good things, the grace and blessings of our situation: we do have a warm cozy refuge in this tiny house…
we do have the love and care and good company of each other…
we do have enough money to cover bills and expenses and get by without stress, struggle and strain…
we do have a stash of propane for the furnace, a frig stuffed with good food, and meaningful work to do in working on “The Dawning Light”…
we do have warm safe beds covered in fluffy sheepskins…
We do have Still Mountain itself, which is paid for, as our home, retreat and sanctuary…
we do have our teachers and the Dharma teachings and practices we received from them, which are so powerful for healing and personal transformation and freedom from suffering as well giving us a field of service for humanity and lives of meaning and purpose.
It is amazing how much of a difference it makes to constantly count our blessings and practice gratitude and giving thanks for all the good in our lives.
The negative closes our hearts, darkens our minds and constricts our view of reality down to mere a mere shadow off a shadow of the truth.
Instead, we choose to celebrate and always look for the good and great things about our situation.
Photo Credit: Chinmayan
“If you want to live in the light of love and ever rising goodness, you must learn how to free yourself from being influenced or seduced by your own dark mind.
This is not only possible, but absolutely necessary.
I have escaped forever from the prison of my negative mind…and so can you.
Everything in your life looks much better, brighter and more blessed when you do…” —Chinmayan
Image Credit: Still Mountain Meditation Center innerresourceinstitute@gmail.com
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May today be one of the best of your life so far! Remember…you are just one decision and one shift away from an entirely new powerfully positive perspective on life!