During a meditation recently, I was following my inhale in my exhale. Many upsetting thoughts were swirling in my head, mostly worries and fears about the current political situation and warming temperatures, sadness about my beloved estranged child, fear about potential cancer recurrence, and other random scary thoughts. 

The basic practice of samatha (stopping) is learning to come back to the breath and the body, noticing when our minds get spinning and finding our way back over and over again to this moment. Thich Nhat Hanh’s poem Froglessness describes this practice beautifully:

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Dear Friends,

A big part of my mindfulness practice is taking care of my strong emotions. This practice, which I learned from Thich Nhat Hanh, has been integral to healing a lot of my internal and external (usually interrelated) struggles. Thich Nhat Hanh’s basic teaching on strong emotions is that we embrace them with our mindfulness, the kind of mindfulness that is filled with friendliness, compassion, joy, and is welcoming of all. 

I have found that personal growth always begins with this process of welcoming bodily sensations, feelings and habitual thought patterns. When I’m able to practice with what arises, eventually there is much less grappling and much more ease and joy. 

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