Mindfulness is the Way Out

Last week I wrote about the times when mindfulness isn’t all love and lightness. Sometimes, being in the moment is ugly and painful.

To be mindful you have to sit with whatever it is. Even when it’s hard. Acknowledge.Keep breathing.Feel.Accept.

Don’t fight the moment. Move through it.

This is not to say I am particularly good at this. I prefer to rage against it. Or ignore it. Or distract myself.

Anything but be still and be here.

This is why I am practicing. And, I actually I learned something. (That’s the point after all!)

I learned something!

The quickest way through.

Once you let it wash over you, once you let it be, you can see it for what it is. You can move beyond resistance.

You are there with it. You stop resisting it.

Maybe you gain insight that lets you change it. (hooray!)

Maybe you see it a different way. (okay)

Maybe there is nothing that can be done. (well that stinks)

But you no longer suffer because of it. Pain is unavoidable. Suffering is not. Suffering is raging against the pain.

An example

You don’t suffer because you know the pain is the way forward. You know the consequences of ignoring the splinter is worse than the pain of the moment.

If you ignore it, the splinter will fester and that infection will last longer and bring more pain and you eventually still have to get the splinter out.

Mindfulness is not letting the painful ugly things in life fester. It is accepting them and moving forward.

Wisdom of a Dog