If I want to be free from suffering, the most impactful thing I can do is to rest that part of my brain that is incessantly trying to predict what every shift in affect means. Do this and let the equanimity build.
If I want to be happy I need to notice when an unpleasant affect is receiving a habitual prediction of gloom and doom. E.g. when I'm running, I can notice how my mind has shifted to work problems. Take a beat, notice that there are no actual work problem happening, this is my brain noticing the rise in intensity in my body from effort, and coming up with the habitual reason for this: work problems. I did this yesterday and was easily able to shift from anxiety to excitement about the incrementum from returning to my running habit and the increase in healthy energy that this was going to bring me.
Another good example is when I wake up in the morning, cortisol running through my body. Same, my brain starts hunting through the usual negative scenarios, all the things I'm angry or anxious about. But I don't have to continue with those particular simulations. I can immediately ask, "what can I be excited about today?" I can start my day with an entirely different mindset.
And then I can start the day with an hour of meditation that sets the default mode at being, instead of predicting.
Nothing agains prediction. It's very useful. But it's also like trying to live on ground that is always shifting. The body, the brain and the mind needs stillness.
If it's going to maintain balance, it needs to know what balance feels like
