“…feelings like disappointment, embarrassment, irritation, resentment, anger, jealousy, and fear, instead of being bad news, are actually very clear moments that teach us where it is that we’re holding back. They teach us to perk up and lean in when we feel we’d rather collapse and back away. They’re like messengers that show us, with terrifying clarity, exactly where we’re stuck. This very moment is the perfect teacher, and, lucky for us, it’s with us wherever we are.”
Pema Chödrön on “Negative” Feelings
I love this quote however, I know lots of people who have built and live in a prison of many of these words,
It’s taken me years to learn to “lean in.”
Hmmm….still kinda scared of the leaning in. Kinda scared not to as well.
“…perk up and lean in…” What does that mean?
I read and listened to a lot of Pema Chodron from about ’01 through ’07. She’s very comforting after my mother died suddenly and the Twin Towers were hit shortly thereafter. But she didn’t make the cut and travel with me into ’08, somehow. In fact, all my Buddhist comforters were lost to me that year and, as deeply as I dwelt with them before, I am bereft of them now. There is Injury (pre-Recession) and then there is Insult (since); in me, they do not respond to the same comforts.