You are not your emotions
A fire reflected in a lake cannot burn the water. Neither can emotions
disturb the mind when you don't get involved in them. Don't identify
an emotion as your self. The fear or anger is not you, only and
impersonal phenomenon.
Mentally pull back from the emotion and turn
your awareness around to observe it. When in the grip of negative
emotion we tend to believe it will never end. But emotions are no more
permanent than thoughts.
With continued practice you'll find that you
only have to wait and any emotion, whether pleasant or unpleasant, is
bound to change.
–Cynthia Thatcher, from Just Seeing: Insight Mediation and Sense-
Perception (Buddhist Publication Society)
