The key—the how of Buddhist practice—lies in learning to simply rest in a bare awareness of thoughts, feelings, and perceptions as they occur. In the Buddhist tradition, this gentle awareness is known as mindfulness, which, in turn, is simply resting in the mind’s natural clarity. Just as in the example of the dog, if I were to become aware of my h

Among spiritual traditions, Buddhism is uniquely insightful when it comes to this specific form of suffering – how we make ourselves more miserable than necessary, not just by railing against negative experiences we’re having, or craving experiences we aren’t having, but by trying too hard to hold on to good things that are happening exactly as we

Buddhist teacher and psychotherapist Mark Epstein writes that freedom from anxiety requires learning how to navigate inevitable cycles of integration, un-integration, and reintegration—what he calls going to pieces without falling apart.