In the book Love, Medicine and Miracles (see right-hand side of this column), Dr. Siegel says figures of speech come from somewhere: one example is that a figurative broken heart can really “break” your physical heart. I am convinced that happened to me; healing the broken heart four decades later improved my heart health.
Another figure of speech, “Blind with rage,” came to mind during a recent conversation. I was blind with rage one day when someone made a request of me that I could easily have met. Perhaps I was deaf with rage as well. A person who was truly interested in spreading loving kindness―who I am now, not who I was then―might have been able to accept the request and act on it, producing unimaginable benefits in two lives.
That’s why meditation is so important. You don’t forget, bury or push aside the emotion, you embrace it and observe it, and then try to move on after saying to yourself, “that’s a strong emotion.” Not something I was capable of as a young man. Something I am more capable of now.
Comments