Positive Emotion

Gratitude, happiness, love, and pride are used to counterbalance the four negative emotional categories. Thoughts and emotions that arise during the practice are not suppressed or judged; they are acknowledged and allowed to drift away like clouds. Peace and joy are framed as natural inner states that require no effortful manufacture; the practice is to relax into them. Happiness without an external cause is described in the practice as bliss, joy, or a state of beingness. A positive emotion is deliberately added to the practice once the breathing rhythm is established, using any personally resonant image or memory. Positive emotions are introduced only after negative material has been acknowledged, wants clarified, and the desired result imagined. After imagining the desired outcome, the method asks how that imagined success feels. Each inhalation is paired with breathing in subtle joy, while each exhalation is paired with releasing tension.