11 Jun Madam Queen

Carefully, I laid a straight line on the floor with a cord. The participants are sitting in a circle around the line. As I explain that this line represents time, the eyes of a few participants turn upwards. I continue speaking and explain that the end of the line represents a deadline. Now even more eyes turn upwards. We hear a rumbling, heavy sound moving back and forth. By now, I look as well. A black shadow makes a sharp landing on the ceiling. It is an impressive sight. I estimate her length from head to tail to be about 4 cm.

The queen pays a visit
Now, I am not easily scared, operating on the principle: if you do nothing, she won’t do anything to you either. ‘Let’s just ignore her,’ I suggest. The participants are willing to do so, but it doesn’t work out very well. Time and again, this queen hornet—as we have by now identified her—decides to explore a different part of the ceiling. And although the distance is great in this high garden hall of the former Samaya monastery, the insect’s proportions cancel out the spatial advantage. I decide to call a break.

The slipper thrower
Once the participants have left the room, I go looking for help. It is the weekend, and there is activity only in the kitchen. I knock on the door. ‘Oh,’ says the cook, ‘then we’ll come take a look.’ He pushes a plastic container into his assistant’s hand, grabs a pair of slippers from the rack next to the entrance of the hall, and walks into the room.

I know this chef is an excellent cook, but it turns out he also has a remarkable throwing technique. ‘Paf’, there the slipper lands just 10 cm from the hornet: no reaction. ‘Slap’, now at a distance of 5 cm: no reaction. On attempt 6 or 7, he hits the mark. The queen deigns to investigate the cause of the attack and helicopters loudly through the hall. The window across the room stands beckoningly open. She could go straight out, but decides to make a stopover on the carpet.

Applause
‘Calm down,’ the cook says to the assistant, ‘slowly.’ With a sure gesture, the assistant guides the plastic tray over Madame Queen. She carefully slides a piece of cardboard under the tray, and in procession, we take the hornet outside, where she can look for a spot elsewhere for her yet-to-be-built nest. I spontaneously applaud the cook and the assistant.

In the evening, there is meditation. And although nothing is as good for concentration as a hornet on the ceiling, I am still glad that peace has returned.

Let go of the tension
Later, I will use the incident to talk about tension. Of course, you need to pay close attention to an insect like that, but you don’t have to tense up. In fact, tensing up makes you react nervously and you might just do the wrong thing. The chef and the assistant demonstrated the right attitude: attentive and calm.

The good advice is to remain calm and attentive under turbulent circumstances. This applies not only to removing insects, but to all dangers in our lives. We practice this ‘giving up of resistance’ in the workshop ‘De Innerlijke Metamorfose’. You realize that restlessness in the mind triggers tension in the body. We train, with simple, effective exercises, how to release this tension and restore calm.

You can apply this process to many circumstances in life. Resistance causes more tension than the danger itself! The result of releasing the tension is not only less stress, but also a clear head that will make the right decisions.

*This post has been automatically translated from Dutch