“The Yogic sages say that all the pain of a human life is caused by words, as is all the joy. We create words to define our experience and those words bring attendant emotions that jerk us around like dogs on a leash. We get seduced by our own mantras (I’m a failure… I’m lonely… I’m a failure… I’m lonely…) and we become monuments to them. To stop talking for a while, then, is to attempt to strip away the power of words, to stop choking ourselves with words, to liberate ourselves from our suffocating mantras.”
― Elizabeth Gilbert

When I was a little girl, I remember visiting Niagra Falls with my parents.

At just barely 7-years-old, and not quite tall enough to see over those wrought iron safety rails – my father raised me high up over his shoulders so that I might get a better look.

And, I couldn’t have been more terrified. There was just something about those violently churning waters that made me feel so dreadfully small inside.

I think, in a sense, our emotions can be much this way – something trips our switch and suddenly we’re pulled back in again.

Pema Chodron refers to this as, “getting caught up in the momentum of our emotions.” Whether we like it or not, we are often at the mercy of our emotions – caught up in that ‘minefield’ of expectations and attachments.

Many will ask, “How do I free myself from such negative thinking?”

But, perhaps, the better question to be asked is, “How do I experience this life without falling head first into my fears.”

My darlings, maybe it’s not so much about getting rid of our thoughts, but rather…learning to stay present when the churning begins.