As I was searching my bookshelf for something inspirational to read during these continuing times of change and uncertainty, my eyes fell on a book I purchased several years ago and—as several other of my books—had remained on my shelf untouched. The title of the book, Living Beautifully with Uncertainty and Change, by Pema Chodron, is what caught my eye. When I peeked inside to find the date of publication, I found 2012. So long ago when things seemed different. And yet…

I began exploring the ideas within. Early in her book, Chodron reconnects us to the work of Jill Bolte Taylor, who wrote My Stroke of Insight about her recovery from a massive stroke. Taylor explored the physiological mechanism behind emotion. Her findings indicate that an emotional automatic response lasts just ninety seconds before it runs its course. If it lasts longer, it’s because we’ve chosen to rekindle it. The good news is that we can train ourselves to be present.

“Acknowledge the feeling, give it your full, compassionate, even welcoming attention, and even if it’s only for a few seconds, drop the story line about the feeling. This allows you to have a direct experience of it, free of interpretation. Don’t fuel it with concepts or opinions about whether it’s good or bad. Just be present with the sensation. Where is it located in your body? Does it remain the same for very long? Does it shift and change?”

If we can think of feelings as road signs or barometers, then we would see the feelings for the gateway to liberation, the path to our deepest well-being and joy. We have a choice. We can spend our life suffering, or we can relax and embrace the open-endedness of our humanness, which is fresh and unbiased.