Using mindfulness, or conscious awareness, to deal with anger works through an important mechanism: it directly changes the state of mind rather than suppressing anger or trying to reason it away.<\/p>\n
When anger arises, if mindfulness or conscious awareness is present, that awareness can immediately transform anger into non-anger and suffering into non-suffering. The practitioner does not need to endure or suppress the emotion, deliberately cultivate loving-kindness, or force oneself to exercise restraint. Conscious awareness itself recognizes the emotion and allows the mind to return naturally to its normal state.<\/p>\n
One way to understand this is through the analogy of a homeowner and a thief. Thoughts that develop and eventually become anger are like a thief, while mindfulness is like the homeowner. If a thief enters a house unnoticed, the thief is free to do whatever he wants. But the moment the homeowner sees him, the thief can no longer act freely and has to leave. In the same way, when mindfulness sees anger clearly, anger begins to dissolve and loses its power to dominate the mind.<\/p>\n
Before anger can arise, there is first a state of delusion or unawareness. This delusion allows the mind to fabricate thoughts that develop into defilements, craving, and eventually anger. When conscious awareness has been cultivated until mindfulness becomes alert and responsive, it can recognize this state of delusion as soon as it appears. When the cause is seen early enough, anger has little opportunity to develop.<\/p>\n
Mindfulness also helps us recognize that anger is merely a mental phenomenon, not who we are. Instead of becoming identified with the thought that I am angry, we begin to see that anger is simply a condition arising in the mind. It is like seeing rubbish lying in front of the house. Once we recognize it as rubbish, there is no reason to pick it up and bring it inside. In the same way, when anger is seen simply as a mental condition, we do not have to carry it into the heart.<\/p>\n
Physical movement can also be used as a practical aid. When anger or restless thinking arises, we can immediately return our attention to rhythmic movement or to the sensations of the moving body. Bringing awareness back to the body helps us step out of the stream of angry thoughts and return more quickly to a balanced state of mind.<\/p>\n
Most importantly, mindfulness needs to be practiced repeatedly until it becomes natural. With continuous cultivation of conscious awareness, even over a period of one to ten days as described in this approach, awareness can gradually become part of ordinary life. When anger flashes into the mind, we begin to recognize it more quickly. With repeated practice, this recognition becomes increasingly skillful and natural.<\/p>\n
The deeper point, therefore, is not to become a person who never encounters anger. It is to develop such clear awareness that anger is seen before it can take possession of the mind. When mindfulness becomes natural, anger may arise, but there is no longer anyone unconsciously holding on to it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Using mindfulness, or conscious awareness, to deal with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[525],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7250","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-kid-mai-by-dr-veeranut"],"zion_builder_status":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/kid-mai.com\/kidmai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7250","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/kid-mai.com\/kidmai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/kid-mai.com\/kidmai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/kid-mai.com\/kidmai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/kid-mai.com\/kidmai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7250"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/kid-mai.com\/kidmai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7250\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7251,"href":"http:\/\/kid-mai.com\/kidmai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7250\/revisions\/7251"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/kid-mai.com\/kidmai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7250"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/kid-mai.com\/kidmai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7250"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/kid-mai.com\/kidmai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7250"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}