3. Tips for Responding to Difficulties Mindfully

Tips for responding to difficulties mindfully: 

• Acknowledge that the difficulty is there. 
   
• Ask yourself how you feel about what you are experiencing. 
   
• Notice how the difficulty is being experienced in the body and any tensing, bracing or resisting around it. 
   

• Can you recognise any aspect of non-acceptance in your experience? 
   
• Can you recognise that this type of suffering is part of the human condition and part of life? 
   
• Can you accept that it is there – even just in this moment? 
   
• Bring a sense of open and warm curiosity to the current experience of the problem and come in close to it with your awareness, if it feels possible: 
   
  a. What is my experience right now? 
   
  b. What is it like? 
   
  c. Let’s see what is here! 
• Breathe with it and bring with this a sense of softening, opening and allowing. 
   

• If possible, breathe into it, exploring its textures, patterns and edges. 
   
• Allow yourself to feel it, just as it is. Allow it to express itself. Remember you are not trying to make it go away (even if you recognise that a part of you wants it to). 
   
• Stay with it as long as seems possible. 
   
• Gradually, broaden your awareness around the difficulty. Recognise that there is more to your current experience in this moment than this. 
   
• Use your breath, other body sensations or sound to anchor you to the present moment or shift your attention to another aspect of your experience.