Originally Posted by mistycshore

Here's a bit from Pema Chodren that helps me:

". . . the analogy is that you're barefooted, it's like being barefooted and walking across blazing-hot sand or across cut glass. Or in a field with thorns. And your feet are bare, and you say, this is just, you know, it's really hurting, it's terrible, it's too sharp, it's too painful, it's too hot. Do I have a great idea! I am just going to cover the whole Earth, everywhere I go, I'm going to cover it with leather. And then it won't hurt my feet anymore . . . But it doesn't make any sense, really . . . "but if you simply wrap the leather around your feet" -- in other words, shoes -- then you could walk across the boiling sand and the cut glass and the thorns, and it wouldn't bother you. So the analogy is, you work with your mind, instead of trying to change everything on the outside . . .