When circumstances are not in your favor, the best state to be in is mind and body unified

I just spent 20 days tethered to a hospital bed with oxygen and IV lines as I recovered from pneumonia. I felt so powerless. There were a lot of things I didn't like about about my circumstances. but the worst was feeling like I couldn't do anything about changing them. At night when the lights went out I would play out the next day's unpleasant and sometimes painful scenes, over and over again.

I did practice breathing and meditation, which certainly broke those negative cycles of thought as long as I was focused on the practice. But sometimes I just felt too tired. Then I remembered Ohara-sensei teaching us how to keep mind and body unified when lying down. He showed us how to practice keeping weight underside when lying down and helped us experience the light, comfortable feeling of our bodies when we did so. This really helped me in the hospital. I realized that if I had to be there in those unpleasant circumstances - and I did - then THIS was the best state to be in.