Thursday, December 22, 2011

Via Tricycle Daily Dharma:

Tricycle Daily Dharma December 22, 2011

Staying Present with Fear

Let’s say you begin to feel afraid, and out of habit you begin to speed up and get panicked. This thereby strengthens further habits that keep you stuck in a rut. What you find is if you just train in simply staying present even a few seconds with those uncomfortable feelings, like fear, that you can then develop the strength to stay present for a few minutes, and then 10 minutes, then more, and so on. If you can stay present with your own emotional distress in an open space that’s not clouded and keep letting the thoughts about it go, then you always know what will deescalate the heat of the situation.
- Pema Chödrön, "Stepping into Groundlessness"
Read the entire article in the Tricycle Wisdom Collection