conscious	attention	by	noticing	your	chest	rising	and	falling.	Meet	whatever
emotion	or	feeling	arises	in	your	mind	with	your	inner	observer.
Your	inner	observer	carries	no	judgment.	Your	inner	observer	places	no
pressure	on	you	to	act	on	your	emotions.	It	merely	notes	what	you	are
experiencing.
For	example,	your	inner	observer	might	verbally	label:	“chest	tight,”
“anxious,”	“worried,”	or	“calm,”	and	“at	ease.”	If	your	inner	observer
becomes	aware	of	your	mind	making	judgments,	simply	label	it	“judging”	or
“thinking.”	Notice	how	when	you	observe	and	label,	the	feeling	state	passes
and	then	you	observe	and	label	the	next	feeling	state.
Nothing	you	observe	is	right	or	wrong.	Your	emotional	experience	needs
your	calm,	accepting	awareness,	nothing	more	and	nothing	less.
Turning
	
Toward	Difficult	Emotions
Our	culture	floods	us	with	the	message	that	happiness	and	success	depend	on
never	experiencing	suffering	or	painful	emotions.	Of	course,	we	all	feel
negative	emotions	at	times,	and	when	we	do,	we’re	left	feeling	defeated.
Feeling	that	we	must	have	made	a	terrible	mistake	somewhere	along	the	way
(why	else	would	we	be	feeling	so	bad?),	we	spin	our	wheels	doing	whatever