When you touch a hot stove, as soon as you become aware of the pain, you immediately pull your hand away. You don’t let it rest on the burner in order to explore the pain. In the same way, we stay present with strong emotion only very briefly at first. The instruction is: short moments again and again. Rather than trying to endure prolonged exposure to intense feeling, we touch in for only two or three seconds, then pause and breathe gently before touching in again. Or we might simply stay with the troubling feeling for five or six minutes and then go on with our day, more in touch with our emotions and, therefore, less likely to be dragged around by them.

Pema Chödron

from the book Living Beautifully with Uncertainty and Change

Read a random quote or see all quotes by Pema Chödron.

Further quotes from the book Living Beautifully with Uncertainty and Change:

• Beyond our comfort zone
• The mandala of our life
• Just our personal viewpoint
• We Have a Choice
• Difficult relationships
• Groundlessness
• Holding a diversity party in our living room
• Building Inner Strength
• A Wall of Truth
• Unfettered mind
• Stepping-stones for awakening our compassion
• What are you doing when you are unhappy
• The real cause of our suffering
• Everything and everyone is in process
• Forever in flux
• Embracing the groundlessness of our situation
• The knack of refraining
• The detox period
• Renouncing one thing