Bolster: Practice, Practice, Practice

It is truly remarkable what a difference it makes when one simply sits with whatever is present and faces it, with an attitude of kindly interest.

For example, yesterday, in my meditation, I had a direct encounter with panic and the anguish associated with it. When I suffer from such intense feelings, I sometimes think I can’t possibly stand it, and feel as if it will never go away. This time, perhaps because it happened during my meditation, I noticed how quickly it actually disappeared when I just sat with it and left it alone.

A similar thing happened today. As there is a major snowstorm coming, there has been a radical shift in the weather, from high to low pressure, and cold to warm, I have developed a severe migraine headache. (This too probably accounts for the panic yesterday, as I often experience intense feelings of all sorts prior to one of these migraine attacks.)

From past experience, I have learned that the best thing for me to do is to relax right into the headache instead of resisting it. Then I do loving-kindness practice towards the headache. The effect is amazing. When I do these two things, a major easing of the pain occurs, making it much less unpleasant. I’m not sure I got the idea; I just tried it one day and it worked, and it still does.

Closely observing what is happening but not getting involved in it provides an opportunity to determine what can be tried to make a positive difference. Of course this takes practice and trial-and-error. I still get caught up in what’s happening quite often and suffer the consequences. At the same time, however, this reminds me of the benefits of practicing the opposite.