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Breathing Now, Healing the Wounded Child
We re-learn how to walk, how to breathe, and how to eat in such a way that peace, joy, and freedom become possible. The obstacle that prevents us from celebrating life is the past, which is only a ghost or an image stored in the store consciousness. We let ourselves slip into this movie theater to relive the suffering, such as having been mistreated or abused. The proposed method is to anchor ourselves in the present moment with the help of mindful breathing. We must ask ourselves: “Do I really have a problem right now?” If the answer is no, then we do not have a problem at all, because the past and the future are unreal things.
It is necessary to speak to the wounded child within us, who feels vulnerable and unprotected. We must dialogue with him or her, recognize their emotion, and assure them that we have become adults, capable of defending ourselves, thus exposing the original fear to the light of mindfulness. To train ourselves to live in the present moment, we can use poems or gathas. It is proposed to choose three of them, for example for turning on the water tap, and to integrate the practice into daily life, such as when turning on the computer or driving.
When facing another person who has created difficulties for us, fear dissipates thanks to insight. Just as we know how to handle gas or electricity safely despite their capacity to kill us, understanding that the other person suffers and does not know how to handle their suffering protects us. Seeing this, we are armed with understanding and compassion, which allows us to no longer suffer because of that person and to be motivated by the desire to help them.
