Practice 4 of 8

PRACTICE 4

Meeting Difficult Feelings With Warmth

You don't have to fix a feeling to be kind to the one feeling it.

7 min · Beginner

There is a strange belief many of us carry: if I'm kind to this feeling, it will stay longer. So we brace against it. We argue with it. We try to think our way out of it.

But feelings work more like weather than problems. They arrive, they move, and they leave — usually faster when we stop trying to push them away.

The practice here is small: when a hard feeling arrives, place a hand somewhere on your body and silently say, “This is a hard moment. May I be gentle with myself right now.” You are not solving anything. You are keeping yourself company inside it.

CLOSING AFFIRMATION

You are keeping yourself company inside it.

REFLECT ON THIS

What feeling have I been treating as a problem instead of as a visitor?

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Practice 5 · The Body As A Place Of Kindness

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