Respond to an imagined dilemma with body meditation Recall a dilemma (an event that made you unhappy). Take a moment to experience the physical sensations that result from the dilemma. Intentionally place your attention on the part of the body that feels the most intense and spend time with it. No matter how unpleasant the sensation you experience, say to yourself, “It’s okay. It doesn’t matter what it is, it’s already there, and I’m going to look away.” (Not to lie to yourself that everything is fine.) Allow your body sensations and your relationship with your body, breathe with them, and let everything be. When the physical sensations stop drawing attention, return to the breath completely. If no very strong physical sensations arise next, feel free to choose another physical sensation to practice. This is a way to learn to make peace with your worries and not be bound by them. Thoughts and emotions are like bubbles rising from a boiling kettle, we just have to watch them burst on the surface of the water on their own. Example: Meg woke up smoldering with anger, remembering an argument she had with her mentor the day before. After lying down in anger for five minutes, she remembered positive thinking therapy and began to pay attention to her body, feeling the tension in her chest and stomach. Practicing bringing the feelings into awareness, the physical sensations then disappeared and the anger dissipated. She got up and started revising her paper, no longer taking the fight with her tutor to heart. Seeing thoughts as the brain’s work Example: Imagine you are only 12 years old as a child and remember that it’s Wednesday and your dad promised to pick you up after school and will take you to buy shoes, which is a good mood. After walking to the school gate and waiting for half an hour, your dad didn’t come, you worry if something happened to your dad or he forgot about you, at this time you start to get depressed and feel that everything is bad and you don’t have any friends to discuss with. Suddenly it occurs to you that today is not Wednesday but Tuesday, so you are happy again. This story tells us that we have created a story – a “drama about me” – that takes us further and further away from the here and now, from the way things really are. Ideas are not facts, and this realization is crucial for all.