Drinking Salt Water…

You’re thirsty. And you’re have a glass of water in front of you. Except it’s salt water. You try it, but it’s too salty to drink. 

What are your options?
(For the sake of the metaphor you can’t just trade it in for a different glass of water) 

Imagine you decided to use some kind of microscopic tweezers in an attempt to pull out every particle of salt… 

We can see the futility and ridiculousness of that notion, right? 

Well, in a sense it’s the same with our thoughts and our emotions. Trying to get rid of problematic thoughts and feelings - not only does it not work - but it would be a colossal waste of your time and energy - and greatly distracts you from what has value and meaning in your life. 

In the analogy, the goal was to quench your thirst - not to spend all your time picking salt out of the water. 

There must be a better way. 

What if instead of trying to subtract what you didn’t want, you instead focused on adding more of what you did want? 

What if you tried adding pure water to the salty water? Eventually, the salt would be diluted enough that the water would be good to drink. The salt is still present, but there's enough pure water that you could quench that thirst. 

Now imagine the same principle goes for our difficult and unwanted thoughts and emotions… 

We might not be able to make them go away entirely. But we can increase our capacity to hold ALL of our thoughts and feelings, the good and the bad… and spend our time pursuing those things that are important to us - no longer waiting for the conditions of our lives to be perfect. 

If this metaphor is helpful - try applying it to the various situations where you get stuck focusing on making the conditions right or getting to the “right emotion” or “right frame of mind”. 

How can you focus on what matters and allow more space for the whole of your experience?