Anxiety & Suffering

Heavy emotions, that can completely mess up our minds & lives, feel truly threatening - like huge rocks that can roll on top of us at any time. EVERYONE has anxiety. Not being anxious, at least at times, in today's world, suggests a serious lack of awareness - some form of avoidance, denial, delusion (eg "Mr. Foggy" or "Happy, Happy") etc. Also, regardless of how equanimous one might be regarding one's own circumstances, compassion for the many, many people who are suffering around the world, will inevitably cause us to literally "feel their pain" to varying degrees. This type of suffering is not avoidable via mindfulness practice, nor is it healthy to try to completely avoid.

But me having anxiety, is very different from anxiety having me, or anxiety being me. Anxiety, like other unpleasant emotions, can be compared to a stone in one's pocket. The more aversion - emotional energy - we generate towards the stone, the larger, heavier & more objectionable it very realistically seems to become - this is how we magnify our own suffering.

HOWEVER, to the degree that we:

1) accept the stone's presence,

2) let it be, AND

3) deal with whatever or whomever we're now engaged, with an open heart-mind,

awareness - our wise energy of loving-kindness - is with "just this" activity / person.

To the degree that we embody loving-kindness,

fear, anxiety, anger & other afflictive emotions are absent.

The physical / emotional impact of the anxiety stone shrinks or disappears while deprived of our attentional energy. There's no need or benefit to worry about it - leave the stone alone - we're not pretending it's not there, not trying to make it go away. It's precisely a matter of how much or how little kindness we wish to provide whomever or whatever we're engaging with right now, AND how much or how little we wish to empower and reify (permanently solidify) anxiety.

Of course "stone" is a metaphor. Anxiety, like other emotions & thoughts are TRANSIENT energies. And with growing mindfulness, we learn to exercise surprising control over the quality, direction & intensity of these energies as they pass through.