Leaning Down the Mountain

Most of us really don’t like being uncomfortable. We’ll find all sorts of ways to avoid it. But this habit of avoiding short-term discomfort causes even greater long-term discomfort. It’s a habit we often learn in childhood from lots of well-intended people. We’d cry while watching a balloon float away and someone would say, “Don’t be sad.” We’d recoil when encountering a big dog and someone would say, “Don’t be afraid.”  What if someone had said to us, from the very start, “I see that you’re afraid. What does that feel like?”

A funny thing happens when we acknowledge our emotions, without stuffing them down somewhere in the body.  When we turn toward them, we begin to see how they flow through us. We realize they are briefer than we think they will be, and that we can hold several very different emotions in a short period of time:  the grief of losing a beloved pet can be held at the same time that we feel joy in hearing geese flying north signaling an end to winter.

It’s a leap of faith to turn toward our discomfort, and it takes undoing all sorts of conditioning. When people are taught to ski, they are told that facing down the mountain, rather than leaning back into it, actually keeps you from falling. It works, but it takes courage!  

Inviting you to join us this week as we practice pointing our skis down the mountain:  recognizing the emotions that flow through us, practicing turning toward them even if they feel uncomfortable, and observing what happens when we take this leap of faith.  

May all beings everywhere without exception experience the freedom that comes from letting our emotions flow freely through us,

Guided Meditation Recordings:
Click here for a discussion on Mindfulness of Emotions, or see our Resources page.
Click here for a Mindfulness of Emotions Guided Meditation, or see our Resources page.