What we want in our healing process is the ability to face life’s challenges—like a blade of grass thrashed by the California storms, you bend when the storm comes, but when it passes, you rise back up again. This is not a rejection of suffering, but an intimate relationship with it. To end the suffering of trauma, stress, or anxiety requires the same patience and persistence that we bring to our meditation practice. When we are in moment-to-moment relationship with suffering, we learn to let go of clinging and stay open to what is present.
Pawan Bareja
Spirit Rock Residential Teacher
Pawan Bareja, PhD has practiced vipassanā meditation since 2001. She is a Spirit Rock trained teacher with a keen interest in empowering students with practices to resolve their stress and trauma using mindfulness, Buddhist psychology, and neuroscience. She is the author of Reignite Your Power: Resolving Trauma Using Mindfulness.