Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh invites us to connect with our emotions. There is no better time than right now, in the middle of the holiday season, to apply his ideology into our daily lives.
Thich Nhat Hanh writes that a strong emotion is like a storm. What do you think of when you experience a storm and then look at the trees around you? Do the tops of the trees whip around and bend until they look like they are going to break at any moment? Thich Nhat Hanh invites us to instead of looking at the top of the tree and the unstableness to look at the trunk and admire how deeply anchored into the ground the roots are.
This relates to our emotions as you, yourself are a tree and the level of your head or heart is the top of the tree. When you are weathering the storm of emotions, you have to leave the heart, the eye of the storm and come back to the trunk of your tree. Your trunk is one centimeter below your navel. Direct your focus and move your attention to your breath and abdomen. This is how you weather the storm of emotions.
Thich Nhat Hanh believes that if you practice weathering the storm of emotions now, while the emotion is not there. Find a comfortable spot to lie down or sit and practice mindfulness of the breath using the movement of your abdomen as the object of your attention.
Connect with Safe and Sound Therapeutics for more ways to practice mindfulness and weathering the storm of emotions.
shauna paynter
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