I have had a daily meditation practice for just over six years now. I started with one-minute meditation, which I have taught to many people over the years. I like to think of it as a good way to start. One minute is not very much time, and I have generally found that just about everyone is willing to dedicate a single minute to meditating. It’s really just a minute: you breathe in for 5 seconds, and then breathe out for 5 seconds. That’s your warmup; now do it 5 more times. That’s it. One minute. You’re done.

When I first started meditating, I did not really know the reason or the purpose. I just did it to see what would happen. I only knew that I liked listening to what people who meditated regularly said about their experience. So I thought I’d try it for myself. I don’t know what I expected. Next time I’ll talk more about how those first years went. This week I want to talk about the words of a man named Thich Nhat Hanh.

Thich Nhat Hahn was a wise Buddhist monk with a large devoted following. I’ve read a few of his books in the past, and I have been touched by his observations. One in particular speaks to me now. 

He said that we must recognize our fear, and embrace it. Welcome it in, perhaps like a new friend, and get to know it. Learn about it, be curious, ask it questions, as it were. Maybe you have heard someone say, “That which you resist persists.” The more you push it away, the more powerful it becomes. The more you welcome it, investigate it, seek to understand it, express curiosity about it, the more you make it a part of you, the less painful or scary it becomes. When we are upset or frightened, he counseled to embrace our fear tenderly, as if it were a small child, and to look into it as deeply as we can. 

He talked about using the energy of mindfulness to recognize our fear, suffering, anger, or despair. He wanted people to recognize and embrace our fears. He likened anxiety to the crying of a baby, and guided listeners to comfort their anxiety just as they would comfort an unhappy baby. In this way, he said, we may find our way to relief.

If you’d like to learn more about Thich Nhat Hanh, check out this.

I like to think of this guidance as another way of practicing kindness and self care. I think that there are so many ways for us to learn to be kinder to ourselves, to engage in activities that transport us to our happy place, to spend time with people who make our hearts full, to practice stillness and love. This is just one more.