"The more we witness our emotional reactions and understand how they work, the easier it is to refrain." ~ Pema Chodrun
My ‘emotional reactions’ have only one purpose in truth. However, there are two ways of ‘understanding’ my reactions. The first is to believe that I am right: "I am right, I have a reason to react this way", that ‘reason’ always makes perfect sense to the ego. I usually have no trouble getting people to agree that my reaction is justified thereby preventing real resolution and a path to peace. The second way of ‘understanding’ my emotional reactions is to immediately recognize that I must be ‘wrong’. How can I tell that I am wrong? That is so easy: I am upset. The mere fact that I am upset tells me that I believe something about me that could not be true. In our work, then, it is not a matter of ‘refraining’ from being angry but using the anger to allow me to transform the ‘I’ that chose the upset. Piece of Cake...