MEDITATION & MINDFULNESS


Keeping your cool when the sh*t hits the fan


We all face difficulty and loss. How we cope with it comes down to our attitude to the situation more than the situation itself. Here’s how meditation saved my life, even when all seemed lost.


by Boris von Rechenberg


M


y accountant looks at me. He’d make a good doctor, telling people they have three months


to live. “I’m sorry. I have to advise you to go bankrupt”. My heart races and my head feels cloudy. My fears have become real. Waves of anxiety and nausea are coursing through me.


ACCEPT THE UNACCEPTABLE You’re alive. Even if you feel hopeless and there’s not much to live for, stick around. Life rewards hope. Only five years earlier, things


were amazing. My main business – a warehouse events venue and a boutique catering company had transformed from a cheeky ugly duckling to a respected golden goose. It was run by an extremely capable and talented team of wonderful people. My pay was good, the long hours were behind me, and I was beginning to enjoy some quality of life after years of over-work. It was harvest time – reaping the crop I’d spent more than a decade growing.


Now, things looked vastly different. A string of investments had turned either stale or gone sour. I was one partner in a four-partner cabaret club, and working long days and nights for no pay. My inner alarm was screaming so loud that making the decision to get out was the only option – with nothing, except a mountain of debt. And no assets.


BREATHE. JUST BREATHE! It will get better. Maybe not straight away, and yes, it may get worse before it gets better, but if you keep breathing it will get better. “I’m not going bankrupt,’’ I hear


myself say firmly. My accountant looks at me for a while, the way you look at some adorable, naïve and delusional child. He sees my stubbornness, shrugs his shoulders and decides to not push the point any further for now. How do you pay back debt with no money and no assets? And how do you simultaneously provide for a family of five? With difficulty, I found out.


MARCH | APRIL 2018 89


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