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Many emotions have a flip side—fear and courage, excitement and apathy, pride and humility.

To tap into all our emotions, we can be fluid and less rigid thinkers.

Fluid thinkers tend to reason quickly; they avoid churning in catastrophe and disaster.

Like everyone, I have had my moments of great joy—marriage, the birth of babies, a child’s college graduation, the last tuition payment (hurray), and a child’s wedding. I knew I would come down from these temporary highs, yet I still feel melancholy when the high moods sink. Following the Buddhist way is hard.

I’ve also had cry-my-eyes-out moments—the deaths of loved ones, divorce, and serious illness. The suffering has been so great that, at times, I did not feel I would ever be right again. I felt an emotional pain that deadened my senses. Nothing tasted right, flowers smelled like cardboard, and the sun would never shine.

Fortunately, time does heal the pain. With every passing day, our numbed senses start to notice the little things—the smell of tea brewing or the sound of an infant crying. And finally, when time passes, the sun does poke through the dark........

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