As soon as you try to eliminate a thought or emotion, you make it stronger.
Interpretation
Attempting to suppress thoughts or emotions only intensifies them.
This quote emphasizes the psychological principle that resisting or trying to reject certain thoughts or emotions can lead to their increased presence in our minds. Instead of fighting against these natural feelings, acknowledging and accepting them can lead to healthier emotional processing and ultimately greater mental clarity.
In practice
In a mental health seminar discussing coping strategies, you could share this quote to highlight the importance of acceptance.
Whereas a lot of Buddhism concerns itself with stages of enlightenment, various precepts and moral codes, and even power structures and hierarchies, Zen is just like, 'Shut up, sit down, and observe your thoughts - oh, and by the way, what you perceive as you' doesn't actually exist.' I loved the minimalist approach of it.
I think people who become compulsive about fitness or eating right, a lot of the time it's out of fear that they're going to lose control or that they're not good enough, so I think anything done out of fear or motivated by fear is often unhealthy.
Many people come to self-help material because they feel like something is wrong with them or the way they are. The problem is that anything that tells you how to improve your life is also implying that there is something inherently wrong with you the way you are.
The first and perhaps most important thing to realize about being happier in life is to stop trying to be so happy in life.
Writing/reading is like visiting another person's brain. And a short book or article is like a short stay. You come in, have a coffee, talk about the weather or sports, and then move on.
I think humility - which I think is a very good value to adopt - is basically an extension of understanding your own ignorance.
The greatest force of personal liberation is the decision to widen our circle of compassion, moving from focus on self to focus on service.
If two men on the same job agree all the time, then one is useless. If they disagree all the time, both are useless.
Shall a man go and hang himself because he belongs to the race of pygmies, and not be the biggest pygmie that he can? Let everyone mind his own business, and endeavor to be what he was made
Admitting one's ignorance is the first step in acquiring knowledge.
Passion is born deaf and dumb.
All you have to do, I tell myself, is keep your mouth shut and look stupid. It shouldn't be that hard.
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