A more constructive approach to negative emotions, similar to working with negative thoughts, is simply to rest your attention on the emotion itself rather than on its object. Just look at the emotion without analyzing it intellectually. Don’t try to hold on to it and don’t try to block it. Just observe it. When you do this, the emotion won’t seem as big or powerful as it initially did.
Mingyur Rinpoche
from the book The Joy of Living: Unlocking the Secret and Science of Happiness
Read a random quote or see all quotes by Mingyur Rinpoche.
Further quotes from the book The Joy of Living:
- What Buddhists mean by happiness
- Thinking of yourself as limited
- The best part of all
- Oh, this is how my mind works
- Neither rejecting nor accepting
- Importance of the motivation
- Recognizing the inherent potential of your mind
- Nothing more than the natural function of the mind
- Just observe it
- Trying to do your best
- Meditation on compassion
- Setting the tone for your entire day
- Being diligent
- Your mind just as it is
- Essentially good
- An experience of absolute well-being
- The need to look at the mind
- Never disturbed
- Becoming aware
- Experiencing the unlimited nature of the mind