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7/08 – 7/29 Working with Difficult Emotions

Week 1

Working with Difficult Emotions Week 1 (7/8/25)

The home practice this week is to recognize when a painful emotion is present, whether intense and obvious, or subtle and barely noticeable, and name the emotion as it arises.

Be aware of any resistance to the painful emotion, any aversion and efforts to push it away. Recognizing resistance is important because it’s conditioned and often unconscious. When unnoticed, what we are resistant to is strengthened via the resistance. When we’re able to notice it, we can then practice allowing and resting in the painful emotion until it naturally shifts on its own. It’s important to note that this is quite different from dwelling, which feeds the painful emotion and lengthens its life.

Be aware of the urge to move into action. For example, you may feel anxiety and automatically reach for your phone without even realizing it. In moments like this, name the emotion, pause, and gently shift your attention from the painful feeling to something grounding; the feeling of your feet on the floor, the sensations of your breath, or the sounds around you.

Week 2

Working with Difficult Emotions Week 2 (7/15/25)

Notice when you are having a difficult emotion.  See if it’s possible to drop the “why.” This means interrupting the habitual urge to explain to ourselves why the emotion is happening.  In this pause, allow the feeling to be as it is, feeling it in the body as well as recognizing it as a mental state. As a way to support yourself in experiencing the emotion as it is, name it by saying something like, “Ah, anxiety is happening,” or “Ah, this is what fear feels like,” or whatever the emotion might be. 

The “Ah” creates a moment of pause and allows the feeling to be felt so that understanding its true nature can be known.

Ajahn Maha Boowa: 

“Whatever arises in the mind, if you don’t get caught up with it but just stay with that sense of knowing, with the knowing as separate from the event in your mind, then, no matter what, that experience will pose no danger for you.”

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