Escape or experience difficulty?

"What we oppose will continue in his opposition"

'Our encounter with life is in the present moment. If we do not have peace and joy now, when will we have it? tomorrow? after tomorrow?"

In the last article we took a look from above at the world of mindfulness,

We learned that this is a world where there is no right or wrong.

It is a world that is all built from observation and curiosity. Our into ourselves, to what is happening to us in the present, in the here and now. The exact definition of mindfulness is "giving attention to what is happening now, intentionally and non-judgmentally" and this can be developed through practice.

Now we will learn about what happens when we meet difficulty. our human tendency is to run away from what is unpleasant and seek what is pleasant. Of course it's good in a sense, we all want to have a good time and that's how it should stay. The problem here is the escape from the difficulty, reality tells us that we will experience difficulties. And what happens to us when there is escape or avoidance?

We will first judge ourselves on what we are experiencing and look at the experience or the difficulty in critique. One of the most powerful human tendencies is to look critically at what we experience or feel. This leads to thoughts of guilt, we will not understand what is wrong with us, why things do not happen as they were supposed to happen. Chances are it will lead us to old and unhelpful thought patterns.

There is therefore value in experiencing difficulty, as well as learning to stick with something that is less pleasant. Again, the goal is not to suffer, but to learn to develop an awareness of what is happening in the here and now. If it's a difficulty or a challenge then recognize it, instead of automatically judging and running away from it, just notice it and let it be. Then what will happen?

We will understand that what is happening here and now is okay, without immediately trying to change it or to run away or even to want to fix it, first we will bring awareness, we will understand that it is okay because that is what is happening right now, and from there we will have the freedom to choose how to act. Apparently we would like to choose to get to the pleasant place, and the beauty is that we did it with awareness and not from an automatic place of judgment and escape.

So the next time you experience a difficulty or a challenge, try to bring your awareness and even give it a place. Tell yourself that's what's going on right now and that's fine. You will not try to escape from it immediately and automatically, but from a conscious place you will choose how to proceed. In the previous article we talked about a practice called "body scan" and it fits here as well, to learn to recognize and look at difficulty. The mind takes us on to future journeys or memories from the past while the body is always in the present.