Mindfulness

Use the energy of mindfulness to recognize the pain inside and hold it tenderly, like a mother holding a baby. Mindfulness is the mother. Your pain, sorrow, despair is your baby. There is no fighting. The energy of mindfulness does the work of recognizing, embracing and bringing relief. When a mother hears her baby crying, she puts aside what she's doing, goes immediately to pick up her baby and hold the baby tenderly. She may not know what is wrong with the baby at first, but the fact that she's holding the baby tenderly like this already brings relief to the baby. You may not know what the causing your pain, despair, depression, fear, but if you know how to hold that pain with the energy of mindfulness, you immediately get relief, because the energy of mindfulness begin to penetrate the energy of pain, of sorrow.

Imagine the flower in the morning. The flower is not yet open. The sunshine embrace the flower, and the energy of the sunshine begins to penetrates the flower, and an hour later the flower has to open itself to the sun. The sun is our mindfulness and the flower is our feelings. - Thich Nhat Hanh

---