Depression and Pain Aversion

[nenkohai]

I've been doing a lot of reading lately (look out, world!).

A concept I've hit into that's resonating with me - our aversion to pain (in our case, I think we're talking emotional pain) actually gives harbor to the pain. We end up storing the pain.

We keep adding water/pain, the dam will over flow or break.

The solution (and it seems to work for me!): approach your pain with compassion and mercy. Acknowledge the pain with compassion towards yourself. Without self-hatred (that is a topic also covered in this book).

We can be emotionally fragile. But with practice, we can identify our pain and literally greet it within ourselves with calm and with tenderness toward ourselves.

The book is (I save this info for last for a reason) "The Heart of the Revolution: Buddha's Radical Teachings of Forgiveness, Compassion, and Kindness" by Noah Levine. Its worth noting that Levine is NOT your typical Buddhist. Also, this book is NOT a religious tome of any sort. In fact, Levine, himself, is an atheist. For me, this stuff is working.

Yours....

NK

[nenkohai]

Hi, I'm adding a "nothing" reply as to not allow the spam to get top billing in the "What's Current" section.

:)

[nenkohai]

Though, I must admit, that while meditating this afternoon, I fell asleep. When I woke up, I chuckled at myself! :)