Monday, November 9, 2026
When anxiety bubbles, there is no alternative to it. We try denying it, pushing it away, trying to keep the feeling from being there, but that seems to accentuate its acuteness. Same with not-so-hot situations. They seem to be with us as long as they are going to be with us. Adversity does its thing.
There seems to be so much about which I can do nothing, especially adversity.
When I find myself wanting to crawl out of my skin, I recoil. When I find myself wanting a different situation and wishing to wiggle out of it, I stiffen. What do we do about an emotion?
We notice, and shed light upon it. We accept it as nothing to push away nor embrace, but to hold lightly in awareness. The space and warmth of lightly noticing, cools it.
The next time you want to jump out of your skin, when you feel so anxious you could crawl under a rock, or scared because a situation won’t resolve itself, shed light, space, silence, and warmth upon it. Sit quietly in and with the anxiety. Console with non-reactivity, no stimulant of any kind. Compulsive thinking, binge eating, scrolling, renouncing – none of that does anything for anxiety nor does it clear adversity. Just be clear.
The key is to live comfortably in it and with it. It’s not confronting adversity, it’s convective-the mere movement of heat and energy through awareness. Recognize that what seems to be bothering you is passing; flowing. Not wanting some situation doesn’t end it. Pushing away and denying an emotion doesn’t “make” it go away. Hold lightly. Cures are possible by shedding light. Curses are possible by meddling, fleeing from, and denying light.
The internal condition may not be “causing” what’s happening. It must be recognized as a pass-through.
Solving (a problem) is dissolving by shedding Light, which passes through all adversity and becomes sharper, saturative, and more concentrated.