Equanimity
Steady, even calm regardless of circumstances.
Equanimity is steady, even calm regardless of circumstances. The chest stays open and the breath stays steady through difficulty and ease alike. There is no peak and no collapse. Buddhist and Stoic traditions prize it for unthrown engagement with life.
Equanimity is the goal beneath the goals
Equanimity is the steady internal weather that does not require favourable external weather to exist. It is the highest practical target of most contemplative traditions. It does not mean you feel nothing. It means you are not tossed by every wind. The rain still falls on you. You just stop arguing with the rain. Equanimity is built by thousands of small moments of refusing to make the situation worse with your reaction. Breath. Pause. Not responding immediately. The gap between stimulus and response, practised daily, slowly becomes a wide and steady place you can stand in. The whole of adult life is easier from there.
"You have power over your mind, not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength."
— Marcus Aurelius
Equanimity has a distinctive sustained body signature. The body holds itself in particular steady balance. The chest is open but not vulnerable. The shoulders are settled. The breath is even. The face has a quality of being present and engaged without strain. There is no defensive holding or avoidant softening; just sustained presence. Unlike serenity which often depends on quiet conditions, equanimity persists through difficulty. The body is in a kind of balanced engagement that can hold what comes without losing its centre.
Equanimity has been studied primarily in contemplative traditions and meditation research. Studies of long-term meditators have shown distinct neural patterns associated with sustained equanimity, including reduced amygdala reactivity to negative stimuli while maintaining capacity for positive engagement (Desbordes et al., 2012). The state appears to be genuinely trainable through sustained practice. Modern psychology has increasingly recognised equanimity as a meaningful skill rather than just a temperament trait, with practical applications in stress management, therapy, and well-being.
Equanimity arises through specific conditions, primarily sustained practice. Common patterns include:
Equanimity is one of the more cultivatable positive states, though it typically requires sustained work. The following help.
Develop sustained contemplative practice
Meditation in particular has strong evidence for developing equanimity. Sustained practice over months and years reliably produces measurable increases in the capacity. Brief practice or sporadic attempts rarely produce the same effects. The cultivation is genuine but requires investment.
Notice when you are being thrown
Equanimity develops partly through noticing when you have lost it. When circumstances throw you (anger, anxiety, despair, elation), noticing the loss of steadiness and returning to centre repeatedly builds the capacity over time. The notice-and-return practice is itself the training.
Engage with difficulty rather than avoiding it
Avoiding difficulty prevents the development of equanimity. The capacity grows through bearing difficulty without losing steadiness. This does not require seeking difficulty out, but it does require not running from what arises. The willingness to stay with hard experiences, while maintaining what steadiness you can, develops the capacity over time.
Engage with traditions that explicitly cultivate it
Many religious and philosophical traditions have developed sophisticated approaches to equanimity over centuries. Engaging seriously with Buddhist practice, Stoic philosophy, certain Christian contemplative traditions, or other approaches often produces faster development than working alone. The accumulated wisdom of these traditions is significant.
If equanimity feels permanently inaccessible
Some people find that emotional reactivity remains high regardless of practice. This sometimes signals trauma effects, anxiety disorders, or other conditions that need direct treatment before sustained equanimity becomes possible. The capacity is widely shared but specific underlying conditions can block its development. Professional support is appropriate when sustained practice does not produce expected development.
"Equanimity is not the absence of feeling. It is feeling without being overturned. The presence of what is, met by a self that does not collapse or grasp."
— A common framing in contemplative traditions
What is equanimity?
Equanimity is steady, even calm regardless of circumstances. The body remains settled across difficulty and ease alike. There is no peak when things go well, no collapse when things go badly. The chest stays open. The breath stays steady. It is one of the most valued states in many wisdom traditions, particularly Buddhist and Stoic ones, because it allows engagement with life without being thrown by what life contains. Unlike serenity which often depends on quiet conditions, equanimity persists through difficulty.
Where do people feel equanimity in the body?
Equanimity has a distinctive sustained signature. The body holds itself in particular steady balance. The chest is open but not vulnerable. The shoulders are settled. The breath is even. The face has a quality of being present and engaged without strain. There is no defensive holding or avoidant softening; just sustained presence. Unlike serenity which often depends on quiet conditions, equanimity persists through difficulty. The body is in a kind of balanced engagement that can hold what comes without losing its centre.
Is equanimity the same as not feeling anything?
No, and this distinction matters significantly. Equanimity is not the absence of feeling; it is feeling without being overturned. A person in equanimity can deeply care, feel sadness, feel joy, feel anger, while maintaining inner steadiness across what arises. Indifference, numbness, and dissociation all involve absence of feeling and can look similar from outside but are very different from inside. Equanimity feels alive; numbness feels flat. The distinction matters because they have different causes and warrant different responses.
Can you learn equanimity?
Yes, though it typically requires sustained practice over months and years rather than weeks. The most reliable approaches are sustained contemplative practice (meditation in particular has strong evidence), engaging with traditions that explicitly cultivate it (Buddhism, Stoicism, certain contemplative traditions), and the slower development through repeated cycles of difficulty and ease over a lifetime. Research on long-term meditators has shown distinct neural patterns associated with developed equanimity, suggesting the capacity is genuinely trainable rather than just temperamental.
What's the difference between equanimity and emotional suppression?
Suppression involves pushing away feelings that are present, often with effort. Equanimity allows feelings to be present without being controlled by them. The body experiences differ: suppression has internal effort and often shows in muscular holding; equanimity has ease alongside the feelings. People sometimes mistake suppression for equanimity, particularly in cultures that value emotional restraint. The distinction matters because suppression has measurable costs (psychological, physiological) that equanimity does not have. Real equanimity is sustainable; suppression is exhausting over time.
- Desbordes, G., Negi, L. T., Pace, T. W., Wallace, B. A., Raison, C. L., & Schwartz, E. L. (2012). Effects of mindful-attention and compassion meditation training on amygdala response to emotional stimuli in an ordinary, non-meditative state. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 6, 292. https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnhum.2012.00292/full
- Hadot, P. (1995). Philosophy as a Way of Life: Spiritual Exercises from Socrates to Foucault. Blackwell.
Equanimity sits in the existential family as one of its most valued states. It overlaps with serenity in the calm dimension, with stoicism when emphasis is on enduring without complaint, and with what Buddhist traditions call upekkha, one of the four divine abodes.
See where equanimity sits among the other 402 emotions.
Open Equanimity on the wheel