Strong emotional reactions are an unavoidable part of life. From time to time, we will experience strong emotions due to stressful situations in our life. It could be anything from getting bad news to having an argument with a loved one. Strong emotional reactions are normal but most of us don’t know how to cope…
Compassion for Difficult People: A Mindfulness Meditation
In an earlier post, I wrote about a mindfulness meditation called, “The Pebble” by my favorite author, Thich Nhat Hanh, an elderly Vietnamese Monk. Hanh is a practical Zen teacher who has written many books on how to apply mindfulness to daily life. If I had to recommend one of his books to you right now,…
The Pebble: A Mindfulness Meditation
One of my favorite authors of all time is Thich Nhat Hanh, an elderly Vietnamese Monk. He is a practical Zen teacher who has written many books on how to apply mindfulness to our daily life. Two of his books that are always on my night stand are called, “Anger” and “Fear.” But if I…
Soothing Emotions with the Five Senses
One of the most effective ways to manage our emotions is to soothe each of the five senses: vision, hearing, touch, smell, and taste. Self-soothing is a powerful strategy for helping us feel calm and grounded. Unfortunately, most of us forget to self-soothe or never learned to self-soothe as children. The good news is that…
6 Ways to Reduce Vulnerability to Emotions
When we are vulnerable to our emotions, overreacting to small triggers and to life challenges is very common. Research shows that our health habits are strongly connected to our emotional vulnerability. For example, if I only sleep 5 hours, drink two cups of coffee, forget to eat during the day, and procrastinate at work, I…
How to Let Go of Emotional Suffering
Intense emotions such as anxiety, sadness, anger, shame, embarrassment, or guilt can quickly take us over and create emotional suffering. Right now, you might be experiencing an intense emotion but don’t know how to deal with it. Maybe you are using distraction to cope but the moment you stop the distraction the intense emotion floods…
8 Ways to Stop Obsessive Thinking
You cannot control what comes into your mind, but you can control how long you dwell on it.” Obsessive thinking is like a negative spiral. The longer you spend time with it, the deeper into it you get. It may also be viewed as a type of trance. The more you induce it by repetition,…
