Life is a journey fraught with pain, yet many of us are ill-prepared to confront it head-on. A typical reaction is resistance. We feign normalcy, pretending all is okay while drowning in despair. This resistance amplifies the pain–it makes the pain feel bigger, stronger, and less in our control. All the while, narratives about ourselves and the world also grow, trapping in emotions like anger, shame, and unhappiness. What is the antidote to this?

When you find yourself in a tense situation, its adrenaline effect creates a gap between your action and reaction. A minuscule second that’s barely noticeable, yet large enough to cause either an impulsive reaction or a pensive action. In that second, how can we gain freedom?