Everyone gets hooked in life. You get cut off on the road and instantly fire up with anger. Or maybe someone walks by you and just says something insulting. Or maybe it’s the man or woman you live with who simply doesn’t put things away the way you’d like them to be.

There are lots of troublemakers in this world that really rile us up. What would you say if I told you the moment you noticed tension rising in your shoulders and your face becoming pursed is a moment of opportunity?

Here is a video by a wonderful teacher named Pema Chodron:

We can allow ourselves to be a victim to our automatic reactions or we can learn to become aware of them so that we don’t become so hooked.

When thoughts come up, we don’t have to rise to the bait!

“I’m a failure,” “I’ll never get things right,” “Today is going to be awful” need only be mental events that have an emotional charge. They don’t need to determine our fate, but instead can teach us about how to gain freedom from the automatic aversions we have in life.

As always, please share your thoughts, stories and questions below. Your interactions provide a living wisdom for us all to benefit from.

Elisha Goldstein, Ph.D. is a clinical psychologist in private practice in West Los Angeles and is author of The Now Effect, co-author of A Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Workbook, Foreword by Jon Kabat-Zinn, author of the Mindful Solutions at Work App, the Mindful Solutions audio series, and the Mindfulness at Work™ program currently being adopted in multiple multinational corporations. Join The Now Effect Community for free Daily Now Moments, Weekly Updates and tips and free access to a Live Monthly Online Event with Elisha Goldstein, PhD.

Like this author?
Catch up on other posts by Elisha Goldstein, Ph.D. (or subscribe to their feed).

Comments

This post currently has 5 comments/trackbacks.
You can read the comments or leave your own thoughts.

Trackbacks

From Psych Central's website:
PsychCentral (August 27, 2010)

From Psych Central's website:
PsychCentral (August 27, 2010)

    Last reviewed: 27 Aug 2010