What comes to mind when you see AAA? Maybe it’s the grades you wish you had in school, The American Automobile Association or possibly a way to claim one of the first listings in the phone book. I’m not referring to any of these, but rather an acronym for an approach to life that makes a great deal of sense. It is how we foster consciousness within ourselves.
AAA stands for
Awareness
Acceptance
Adjustment
I recently had an experience that helped me understand AAA in a very real sense. I was scheduled to depart for a 4 day conference in Toronto to present a workshop. Preparing for this conference required plenty of planning: getting my car serviced, completing my PowerPoint presentation, making copies of handouts, completing a book I planned to sell at the conference, packing seminar materials and getting my house in order for my time away. In addition, I was scheduled to facilitate two other seminars the day before I was to leave. My plate could not have been much fuller.
As I prepared for bed the night before my trip I felt exhausted. Being a morning person, I decided to leave the packing for early the next day when I had more energy. I went to bed.
AWARENESS
At about 5 AM I suddenly woke up, AWARE that my nose was stopped up and congested. My head felt like it was in a vice. I got up, grabbed some tissues to clear my nose and took an Advil for the headache. I tried getting back to sleep, but the headache was unbearable and now my neck was hurting too. I decided to get up and do my regular morning “5 Tibetan Exercises” routine and found it to be harder than usual. I was chilled and achy. Maybe a soak in the hot tub would help get me in a better state? After 5 minutes in the hot water, I found myself feeling worse as each moment passed! I found myself dizzy and nauseated too. Was I experiencing the flu? I was AWARE of that possibility.
ACCEPTANCE
I decided to go online and check the symptoms of H1N1, only to learn that I had all of them. I also learned that I would probably be contagious for a few days if this was really the flu. I accepted the information as the likely truth, then also ACCEPTED that fact that I was very sick and in no shape to travel 5-6 hours by car to Toronto, even if someone else was driving.
ADJUSTMENT
The Toronto trip was decidedly off. My schedule for the next 4 days was adjusted and going to be something completely different. After sending an email to notify the conference organizer of my illness and calling to cancel my hotel registration, I was back to bed. Rest was my best adjustment option for now.
The neat thing about the AAA approach is its cyclical nature. After adjusting, soon a new awareness develops. The good news is that in just 12 short hours I was feeling almost 100% again. My acceptance and adjustment had brought my body back into better alignment. Now that I noticed it – I could appreciate and ACCEPT the change, and choose to ADJUST, now that I was feeling better again.
The weekend turned out to be very pleasant, as I had all this unscheduled time to read, spend time with my family, shop and pursue some creative projects for pure fun. Having my health back certainly made this all the more enjoyable.
Stay well and enjoy the contagious nature of the AAA cycle as you experience the challenges and joys life offers. You never know what will happen, but you’ll have an effective way to transform any situation into something more comfortable.
