Welcome to the Rebel Buddhist™ Podcast, where I help you free your mind so you can free your life. This podcast is for the rebellious ones. The wild people. I share my stories and what I’ve learned about being a rebel soul who wants to tame her mind…but not her life. It’s led to plenty of adventures and misadventures. I’ve learned tons of tools that combine Buddhist psychology, real-world mindfulness, cognitive coaching, and modern brain science – sort of like if Buddhism and science had a love child. I want to share them with you as we walk this path together. I’m not sharing this as a dharma teacher, but as a fellow practitioner with some street cred. Welcome to my world.
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This episode is all about the most common ways I see people misuse thought work and mindfulness.
When I coach people on how to self-coach, I get so many clients who are confused about the difference between a) changing your life, b) changing your feelings about your life, c) truly processing your emotions from those original circumstances, even if you’ve already changed them.
Circumstances are neutral.
Another way of saying this? Things are empty of inherent qualities.
Today, we’re digging into what a practical application of emptiness looks like in our everyday lives.
I’m going to let you in on a golden nugget of truth that maybe you’ve never heard before: feelings are optional.
Yup, you read that right.
The ability to feel a full spectrum of contrasted, complex emotions are an inherent and integral part of the human experience – it’s what makes our species who (and what) we are.
Humans go through life thinking that feelings happen TO us. We think, “Ugh I am so stressed out, I wish it would stop!” Oftentimes, we act so confused about where it is coming from.
In case nobody ever told you: life is about making choices.
The ability to choose is an incredible power that we humans have, but it takes some serious skill to be able to use it wisely.
The Buddha taught that, to be free, we need to investigate every part of our human experience with an intimate and mindful attention. This includes emotions.
Emotions aren’t “bad” in and of themselves.
It’s what we do when we feel them – the thoughts that ensue, the actions we take as a result – not the emotion itself, that often causes our suffering.
