How can we find a calm harbor within ourselves amid life’s storms?
How can we develop our ability to remain composed and centered when faced with challenges?
The answer lies in the practice of equanimity.
Equanimity is a state of psychological balance and stability. Evenness of mind and temper allows us to navigate the many curveballs that life may throw at us with grace and serenity.
Equanimity is not just an ancient virtue in various spiritual and philosophical traditions, but also a subject of growing interest to modern psychologists. Let’s investigate how we can cultivate it in our own lives.
Before you continue, we thought you might like to download our three Mindfulness Exercises for free. These science-based, comprehensive exercises will help you cultivate a sense of inner peace throughout your daily life and give you the tools to enhance the mindfulness of your clients, students, or employees.
The word “equanimity” comes from the combination of two Latin terms: aequus, meaning “even, level” and animus, meaning “mind” or “spirit.” Equanimity is characterized by the ability to remain calm, composed, open, and non-reactive in the face of challenging or distressing situations.
Luckily, equanimity is not just a psychological trait with which we are born, but also a state of mind that we can actively cultivate. We can seek to enhance our inner sense of peace, our reactivity to external stimuli, and our non-attachment to specific outcomes. And it is well worth our effort, for when we are in a state of equanimity, we can respond to life’s ups and downs with more clarity and wisdom.
Equanimity is an important virtue in ancient wisdom traditions that cherish radical acceptance, non-attachment, and non-reactivity. It is particularly important in Buddhism and Stoicism.
The Stoic philosopher Marcus Aurelius (2003, p. 95), for example, wrote:
If you are distressed by anything external, the pain is not due to the thing itself, but to your estimate of it; and this you have the power to revoke at any moment.
Epictetus (2014, p. 62) wrote:
Man is affected not by events, but by the view he takes of them.
These quotations neatly capture the idea that equanimity results from a carefully cultivated mindset and a calm inner attitude that makes us more resilient to the effects of external events.
Recently, a growing number of Western psychologists have become interested in the concept and have established that equanimity has a measurable positive impact on our mental wellbeing.
Hosemans (2017), for example, created a scale to measure trait equanimity — the degree to which we remain open, receptive, balanced, nonjudgmental, and non-reactive when faced with external stimuli.
But equanimity is also understood as a mindset, even a skill that we can cultivate. The skill of equanimity is linked to notions such as resilience, emotion regulation, emotional reactivity, mindfulness, cognitive flexibility, and perspective taking. Equanimity understood in that way remains closely related to ancient Stoic ideals.
Gross and John (2003) have shown that individuals with greater emotional regulation skills exhibit higher levels of equanimity. Conversely, by developing the ability to effectively understand and manage our emotions, we can cultivate equanimity and experience enhanced wellbeing.
Mindfulness — the practice of nonjudgmental awareness of the present moment — has been closely linked to equanimity. Garland et al. (2010) suggest that engaging in mindfulness-based interventions can lead to increased equanimity and decreased emotional reactivity.
Practicing mindfulness helps us observe our thoughts and emotions without getting entangled in their narratives, thus fostering equanimity in the form of detachment or defusion from our thoughts.
Cognitive flexibility, the capacity to adapt our thoughts and perspectives, also plays a vital role in the cultivation of equanimity. Bonanno and Burton (2013) have shown that individuals with higher levels of cognitive flexibility are more likely to maintain emotional balance during challenging situations. Developing cognitive flexibility enables us to approach difficulties with open mindedness and adaptability.
The Importance of Equanimity
Various researchers have now established what the ancients knew all along: Equanimity is crucial for our psychological wellbeing.
Hölzel et al. (2011) have shown that mindfulness practice leads to increases in regional brain gray matter density. Their study examined the structural changes in the brain associated with mindfulness practice, including areas related to emotional regulation and equanimity.
Desbordes et al. (2015) explored the impact of meditation training on the amygdala’s response to emotional stimuli, suggesting that mindfulness practices can enhance equanimity and reduce emotional reactivity. It is worth looking more closely at the link between mindfulness meditation and equanimity.
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Meditation and Equanimity
We can understand mindfulness as “close, clear-minded attention to, or awareness of, what is perceived in the present” (Quaglia et al., 2015, p. 4) and as “the quality of mind that notices what is present without judgment, without interference” (Goldstein, 2002, p. 89).
Mindfulness is also associated with the psychological skill of paying attention to the present moment (including to what is happening in the mind, body, and environment) and remaining nonjudgmental and non-reactive (Cheever et al., 2023).
Many researchers have shown that equanimity is a fundamental component in mindfulness and a highly desired effect of those who meditate (Eberth et al., 2019). Cheever et al. (2023, p. 148) understand equanimity as “an accepting and non-reactive mental state that has gained increased recognition as a key mechanism of mindfulness-based interventions.”
Eastern views – Buddhism
Mindfulness is of course an ancient Buddhist technique, and the valuation of equanimity is central to Buddhist thought. According to Buddhist beliefs, we often relate to our experiences through a lens of craving, attachment, or aversion, all of which increase suffering.
Buddhists understand equanimity as an antidote to all of these – as “a balanced reaction to joy and misery, which protects one from emotional agitation” (Bodhi, 2005, p. 154).
In Buddhism, equanimity refers to a state of mental balance and even mindedness. It is one of the Four Brahma-viharas, which are considered the sublime or divine abodes of the mind. Equanimity involves maintaining an inner calm and steadiness regardless of the external circumstances.
The concept of equanimity holds great significance in Buddhism because of its profound implications for personal wellbeing, ethical conduct, and spiritual development. In Buddhist thought, equanimity also involves treating all beings impartially and without discrimination.
It encourages practitioners to develop a sense of universal compassion and understanding, recognizing the inherent equality of all living beings. By embracing equanimity, we can transcend personal biases, prejudices, and judgments, leading to a more inclusive and harmonious outlook on life.
Equanimity is also deeply connected to the Buddhist understanding of impermanence. It recognizes that everything in life is subject to change and flux, including our own mental and emotional states. By accepting impermanence and not clinging to or resisting its inevitability, we can develop a balanced perspective that avoids excessive elation or despair.
Buddhists also realize that equanimity plays a vital role in fostering healthy and compassionate relationships. By maintaining equanimity, we can relate to others without being swayed by personal preferences, biases, or expectations. It promotes an attitude of acceptance, patience, and understanding, creating a conducive environment for effective communication, conflict resolution, and empathy.
Finally, equanimity is regarded as an essential factor in the path toward spiritual awakening and liberation from the cycle of rebirth in Buddhism. It is considered a higher state of mind that arises through the cultivation of mindfulness, wisdom, and the eradication of ego-centered desires. Equanimity allows practitioners to detach from the illusion of a separate self and experience a deep sense of interconnectedness and peace.
Western views – Stoicism and Buddhism
Western psychological definitions of equanimity are profoundly influenced by both Stoic and Buddhist concepts. For example, Desbordes et al. (2015, p. 357) define equanimity as “an even-minded mental state or dispositional tendency toward all experiences or objects, regardless of their affective valence (pleasant, unpleasant, or neutral) or source.”
Equanimity is also related to stillness, even mindedness, and non-self-referential processing of experience, and is considered an antidote to learned reactivity (Cheever et al., 2023).
Hosemans (2017) created a 20-item Phenomenological Experience of Meditative Equanimity Scale to measure trait equanimity, which is defined as being receptive (open minded to thoughts, emotions, experiences) and centered within oneself.
Juneau et al. (2020) found that equanimity generated by mindfulness practice is related to improved emotional reactivity and reduced stress. Finally, Mann and Walker (2023, p. 371) found that “overall, empirical evidence suggests equanimity is a psychological skill that is related to psychological wellbeing and may offer a protective factor in times of stress.”
How to Cultivate Equanimity
Now that we understand the spiritual and psychological underpinnings of equanimity, let’s explore practical strategies for cultivating this invaluable mindset.
1. Mindfulness meditation
Engage in regular mindfulness meditation practices to develop present-moment awareness, acceptance, and non-reactivity.
Allocate a dedicated time each day to sit quietly, observing your breath and bodily sensations. Over time, this practice can foster equanimity by training the mind to remain calm amid the fluctuations of experience.
These techniques can help you regulate intense emotions, prevent impulsive reactions, and cultivate equanimity during challenging situations.
3. Cognitive restructuring
Develop cognitive flexibility by challenging rigid thought patterns and embracing alternative perspectives.
Engage in activities that encourage creative problem-solving, explore different viewpoints, and cultivate a growth mindset. The flexible thinking of cognitive restructuring will support the development of equanimity.
4. Practice cognitive defusion
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy offers a range of excellent tools for practicing the art of defusing from our emotions and cognitions. We can practice observing rather than becoming entangled in our thoughts on a daily basis.
3 Examples From Real Life
Sarah walked into the interview room, her heart pounding. She had prepared extensively for this job opportunity and desperately wanted to impress the interviewers. As the questions began, Sarah noticed her mind racing with self-doubt and anxiety. However, she took a deep breath and consciously activated a more equanimous state of mind.
Sarah’s equanimity practice helped her to remain composed, and she was able to answer each question thoughtfully and calmly. Despite the pressure, her equanimous mindset allowed her to stay focused and present. As a result, she conveyed her qualifications with confidence, making a positive impression on the interviewers.
David and Emily had been together for years, but lately, their relationship hit a rough patch. Arguments became frequent, and emotions ran high. One evening, during a heated disagreement, David decided to practice equanimity. Instead of reacting impulsively or getting caught up in anger, he paused and took a step back. He consciously forced himself to adopt a more balanced perspective, considering both his and Emily’s viewpoints.
By maintaining his equanimity, David approached the situation with more clarity and empathy. His calm demeanor diffused tension, allowing for a more productive and compassionate conversation. Through the practice of equanimity, David transformed a potentially destructive moment into an opportunity for growth and understanding within their relationship.
Maria found herself in a high-stakes tennis match. The crowd’s cheers and her opponent’s intensity added to the pressure she felt. However, Maria had been honing her equanimity through mindfulness practice. With each point, she focused on her breath, grounding herself in the present moment.
Rather than becoming overwhelmed by the circumstances, Maria remained composed and focused on her game. Her equanimity allowed her to make calculated decisions, react to unexpected challenges with grace, and maintain a steady performance. In the end, Maria’s equanimity became a significant advantage, helping her secure victory and achieve her athletic goals.
These anecdotes highlight how cultivating equanimity can bring numerous advantages in different aspects of life, such as job interviews, relationships, and competitive situations. By remaining calm, centered, and non-reactive, we can learn to navigate our challenges with more clarity, resilience, and an increased likelihood of positive outcomes.
Videos Worth Watching
Stoicism's simple secret to being happier - Daily Stoic
Ryan Holiday, the author of The Obstacle Is the Way and Ego Is the Enemy, provides a great introduction to Stoic thought.
Holiday explains the principle of the circle of control in some detail, as well as other important strategies the Stoics deployed for cultivating equanimity.
The life changing power of equanimity - Being integrated
If you are interested in mindfulness meditation, you will find this teaching video useful. It explains some basic mindfulness meditation principles, includes guided meditations, and focuses explicitly on equanimity.
Equanimity: wisdom of non-discrimination
The inspirational Buddhist teacher Thich Nhat Hanh provides a profoundly moving explanation of the spiritual dimension of equanimity in this short talk on Buddhism.
Helpful Resources From PositivePsychology.com
We have an excellent selection of resources with which to grow your experience of equanimity and mindfulness.
Recommended articles
If you would like to find out more about the theories and techniques mentioned in this article, you may enjoy this blog post on Stoic Mindfulness and Meditation. It outlines practical exercises that will help you foster your equanimity.
Are you curious about how best to practice mindfulness? This article on practicing mindfulness is also full of helpful tips for cultivating your equanimity.
Finally, you may enjoy this article, which includes three powerful scripts for visualization meditation and contains one script that focuses specifically on equanimity.
Worksheets
In addition to these great articles, the following free worksheets can help your clients develop their equanimity.
These tools center on the principle of radical acceptance. They help develop acceptance of what cannot be changed and how to face such circumstances with calmness and grace.
The mountain meditation exercise is a powerful classic that will help you foster equanimity. In this meditation exercise, you are invited to imagine you are a mountain, which will allow you to extend your perspective beyond your body and to cultivate a broader sense of time and space.
The mountain meditation enables you to view your internal experiences and life challenges as temporary, impersonal events, similar to changing weather patterns.
5-4-3-2-1 stress reduction technique
This technique is another highly effective awareness exercise that will help you cultivate more calm in your life. It invites you to orient your attention to the present by focusing on your five senses.
The premise of this exercise is simple yet powerful. In stressful situations, look for five things you can see, four things you can hear, three things you can touch, two things you can smell, and one thing you can taste.
Your senses will act as an anchor, grounding you in the present moment. Your attention will be focused on your surroundings, rather than on the internal thoughts and feelings that aggravate your stress response.
17 Mindfulness exercises
If you’re looking for more science-based ways to help others enjoy the benefits of mindfulness, check out this collection of 17 validated mindfulness tools for practitioners. Use them to help others reduce stress and create positive shifts in their mental, physical, and emotional health.
A Take-Home Message
Greeting whatever life throws at us with unshakeable calmness and grace is an age-old fantasy.
Would it not be wonderful to know that nothing that fortune hurls our way could truly rattle or derail us?
In uncertain times like ours, the desire for inner balance and resilience has grown even stronger. The more we feel out of control in the external world, it seems, the more we long to control at least our inner responses to outer circumstances.
Luckily, we can draw on powerful ancient Buddhist and Stoic techniques for cultivating our equanimity.
Paired with insights from modern psychology, these can help us meet adversity with more serenity. Equanimity empowers us to cultivate an emotional stability that allows us to respond to experiences with clarity, composure, and resilience.
It enables us to not be swept away by powerful emotions such as desire, aversion, or attachment, and instead to observe them with a balanced and non-reactive mind.
We can also think of equanimity as calmness, composure, even mindedness, serenity, tranquility, resilience, poise, or inner balance.
What is an equanimous person?
An equanimous person remains calm in the face of challenges and adversity. They are not easily shaken by external stressors. They do not panic or react hastily or angrily, but instead assess situations with poise and grace. They are cognitively flexible and remain unattached to specific outcomes and can shift their perspective if required.
How should I use the word equanimity in a sentence?
Equanimity is a noun. So: “Equanimity is a beautiful quality to which many of us aspire.”
Is equanimity a skill?
There is trait equanimity (i.e., the degree of temperamental equanimity with which we are born), but luckily, equanimity is also a skill and a mindset that we can practice and cultivate. Think of it as a muscle that can be strengthened.
Is there a symbol for equanimity?
Upekṣā (Sanskrit: उपेक्षा; Pali: Upekkhā) is the Buddhist concept of equanimity. It is one of the virtues of the Brahma realm (a Brahma-vihara). There is no clear agreement on symbols.
References
Bodhi, B. (2005). In the Buddha’s words: An anthology of discourses from the Pali Canon. Wisdom.
Bonanno, G. A., & Burton, C. L. (2013). Regulatory flexibility: An individual differences perspective on coping and emotion regulation. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 8(6), 591–612.
Cheever, J., Cayoun, B. A., Elphinstone, B., & Shires, A. G. (2023). Confirmation and validation of the Equanimity Scale-16 (ES-16). Mindfulness, 14, 148–158.
Desbordes, G., Gard, T., Hoge, E. A., Hölzel, B. K., Kerr, C., Lazar, S. W., Olendzki, A., & Vago, D. R. (2015). Moving beyond mindfulness: Defining equanimity as an outcome measure in meditation and contemplative research. Mindfulness, 6, 356–372.
Eberth, J., Sedlmeier, P., & Schafer, T. (2019). PROMISE: A model of insight and equanimity as the key effects of mindfulness meditation. Frontiers in Psychology, 10.
Epictetus. (2014). Enchiridion, Chapter 5. In E. Hadot (Ed. & Trans.), The inner citadel: The meditations of Marcus Aurelius (p. 62). Harvard University Press.
Garland, E. L., Fredrickson, B., Kring, A. M., Johnson, D. P., Meyer, P. S., & Penn, D. L. (2010). Upward spirals of positive emotions counter downward spirals of negativity: Insights from the broaden-and-build theory and affective neuroscience on the treatment of emotion dysfunctions and deficits in psychopathology. Clinical Psychology Review, 30(7), 849–864.
Goldstein, J. (2002). One dharma: The emerging western Buddhism. Rider.
Gross, J. J., & John, O. P. (2003). Individual differences in two emotion regulation processes: Implications for affect, relationships, and well-being. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 85(2), 348–362.
Hölzel, B. K., Carmody, J., Vangel, M., Congleton, C., Yerramsetti, S. M., Gard, T., & Lazar, S. W. (2011). Mindfulness practice leads to increases in regional brain gray matter density. Psychiatry Research: Neuroimaging, 191(1), 36–43.
Hosemans, D. J. F. (2017). Equanimity and the attenuation of psychological distress. (Doctoral dissertation, Monash University).
Juneau, C., Shankland, R., & Dambrun, M. (2020). Trait and state equanimity: The effect of mindfulness-based meditation practice. Mindfulness, 11, 1802–1812.
Mann, L. M., & Walker, B. R. (2022). The role of equanimity in mediating the relationship between psychological distress and social isolation during COVID-19. Journal of Affective Disorders, 296, 370–379.
Marcus Aurelius. (2003). Meditations. G. Hays (Trans.) Modern Library.
Quaglia, J. T., Brown, K. W., Lindsay, E. K., Creswell, J. D., & Goodman, R. J. (2015). From conceptualization to operationalization of mindfulness. In K. W. Brown, D. J. Creswell, & R. M. Ryan (Eds.), Handbook of mindfulness: Theory, research, and practice (pp. 151–170). Guilford Press.
About the author
Dr. Anna K. Schaffner is a coach, writer and Professor of Cultural History at the University of Kent. Her latest non-fiction book explores the long history of the idea of self-improvement. It traces formulas for self-improvement in philosophical, religious, psychological and self-help texts from ancient China to the present day. She is also a qualified coach and has a deep interest in positive psychology and the art of self-improvement.
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What our readers think
Susan Sullivan
on October 20, 2023 at 07:59
Going through a very rough patch with colleagues at my non-profit arts organization. I am in despair about the future & also feel angry & hurt. Currently feels like no positive way out (:-(
I’m sorry to hear about the difficulties you’re experiencing. The concept of equanimity emphasizes the importance of maintaining a balanced perspective, especially in challenging situations. While it’s natural to feel hurt and frustrated, equanimity encourages us to approach such challenges with a clear mind, focusing on what we can control. By developing this mindset, it might help you navigate the current situation more effectively and find potential solutions. Remember, challenges are temporary, and with a balanced approach, they can be managed.
How can we find a calm harbor within ourselves amid life’s storms?
Various researchers have now established what the ancients knew all along: Equanimity is crucial for our psychological wellbeing.
Now that we understand the spiritual and psychological underpinnings of equanimity, let’s explore practical strategies for cultivating this invaluable mindset.
What our readers think
Going through a very rough patch with colleagues at my non-profit arts organization. I am in despair about the future & also feel angry & hurt. Currently feels like no positive way out (:-(
Hi Susan,
I’m sorry to hear about the difficulties you’re experiencing. The concept of equanimity emphasizes the importance of maintaining a balanced perspective, especially in challenging situations. While it’s natural to feel hurt and frustrated, equanimity encourages us to approach such challenges with a clear mind, focusing on what we can control. By developing this mindset, it might help you navigate the current situation more effectively and find potential solutions. Remember, challenges are temporary, and with a balanced approach, they can be managed.
I hope this helps and I wish you all the best!
Warm regards,
Julia | Community Manager