Have you ever been here?

The local airport is arguably a place with the lowest percentage of people living in the peaceful, calm, centered state of Zen. It seems everyone is suffering from a stress-causing crisis. They are either in a hurry because they are running late, angry about an unexpected schedule change or facing their second greatest fear… flying! (Which ranks only behind the fear of public speaking.) Or maybe they are dealing with some kind of relationship pressure that has emerged as a result of the situational stress. Whatever the cause, the stressful moment has crowded out the Zen moment.

When the gate attendant or electronic message board notifies them that their flight has been delayed, the negative energy raises about two clicks as they begin to internalize and personalize how this unexpected situation will effect their day. The response to such changes can be interesting to witness, as long as you are the one sitting on the sidelines, unaffected by the sudden disruption of plans.

Some people react with anger and immediately begin to take their frustration out on the innocent gate and ticketing agents, who are working very hard to accommodate the unexpected change and who obviously have no ability to influence the weather, mechanical issues, or other global events.

Others react with total panic, stressing about the change of plans, meetings, dinner appointments, rides home, or any number of events on the other end of the travel, which they will now be forced to reschedule. You can almost hear them thinking “Oh my God! What are we going to do now that we won’t make the appointment?” The obvious answer is, you will miss your appointment, you will adjust, and most importantly, you will survive!

Airport Zen Garden

But occasionally there are Zen travelers, those calm people who respond to the situation by accepting there is nothing within their control, nor that of the gate agents, pilots, airline CEO’s, or even the Director of the Airport. They understand that no one can get the schedule back in line with their plans, so they adapt. They breathe deeply. They observe the panicked, frustrated, red-faced angry travelers around them and they find peace in the moment.

Life is constantly throwing curve balls at us. It’s a rare day in our lives when everything goes exactly according to our plan and our schedule. Those are the days when it’s easy to be in a Zen state. But what about the days when our schedule tanks and there is absolutely nothing we can do to change it. What do we do then?

Accept the Moment

Surrender to the reality that things are not going to go as planned, and we are no longer able to influence, manipulate, force, or otherwise cajole our own preferred outcome.

I hate surrender, it’s an uncomfortable feeling, but I’m learning to love it as I realize it’s my natural state of being. And it’s the path to a true wholeness of life.

Embrace the NOW!

There are moments within the unexpected changes that will be missed due to our hyper focus on trying to force our preferred alternative outcome. When plans go sideways we lock in on getting things back into alignment with our expectations and we often miss the opportunity for beauty, love and life, moments that are happening right NOW! We focus on the challenge instead of focusing on the Zen.

So when you find yourself in one of these frustrating situations, pause and realize you are not in the future yet. You are in this moment, right here, right now. Embrace it.

Help Others Step UP to a Better Way

When your plans get interrupted and you react with all the low level emotions of fear, anger, frustration, and overall bad attitude, you contribute to the pain of the moment for others. It’s like a negative emotion dog pile that keeps building with every person who allows his or her moment to be hijacked by a defeatist reaction.

Conversely – when we bring our Zen to the moment we help others experience a sense of Zen in their moment of unexpected change. Your peaceful, calm, smiling Zen face will help others choose an alternative to what their reactionary brains tell them to do!

So make the choice to infect the space with Zen! Smile. Speak kindly. Use your manners. Be grateful. Give love! You might just change the energy of the entire airport!