Negative experiences create vicious cycles by making you pessimistic, overreactive, and inclined to go negative yourself.

Meditation had taught them how to not jump straight from pain to freak-out but to find another path—not by ignoring or forcing, but by accepting and working their way through it.

EMDR therapy often requires that clients sit for long periods with substantial distress. Most clients process this distress somatically by slowing down, being present with it, and noticing it deeply. This is a difficult task for people who may have survived their trauma by staying ahead of it, not slowing down, avoiding, and not noticing.