INSTRUCTIONS
Whenever you are feeling exceptionally low and you feel you are on the verge of an outburst, do this.
Visualize that you are carrying a big board hung from your neck, saying, 'Beware! I am in a very bad mood and I may bite you! I have nothing against you personally, but right now I am angry and just want to throw out my negativity somehow!'
Just carry this imaginary board in front of you. Of course, no one else will know about it, but you will know – and that is enough.
Every time you start to blame someone else or some situation for a problem you are facing, you can just picture this big board declaring that it is just your own mood you are expressing!
You just wake up to this truth again and again. After that, how can you take your own anger seriously?
In the same way, when you are in a high mood, you can carry a board saying that, so that you don't get carried away and make any irrational decisions.
Again and again, when you are confronted with the inner reasons rather than their outer expression, you learn how to remain a witness even in your most emotional moments. Naturally, you become more balanced and your mood swings die down.
Give it a day INSTRUCTIONS
Whatever the situation, if you feel an emotion riding high, just wait 24 hours before responding to it.
ABOUT THE TECHNIQUE If someone misbehaves with you, don't react on the spot.
Just bring in your awareness immediately, before your mind takes off on the same track.
Most of the time, we react to any situation straight out of our conditioning. For instance, if someone insults us, we feel it is essential to respond with anger. Our conditioning goes so deep that we don't even realize that this is a conditioned response, and we have a choice to respond in another way. This is a classic technique to handle such situations with awareness. Duration: Not applicable However illogical it may sound at the time, don't break this rule. Promise yourself that you will have plenty of time to react after 24 hours. You will be surprised, after 24 hours you can hardly keep the anger or violence alive! You won't feel like reacting to that person or situation at all. The gap of 24 hours gives you the awareness to see the whole thing in proper perspective. As you work with this technique, you won't need 24 hours to make this shift!
The time will keep on reducing, till gradually you will be able to bring up the same awareness even as you are facing the situation.
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