We can see the mind as like a room. The things and people in the room are like the thoughts, the mental objects. We can think, ‘I like this one, and I don’t like this one, and this one’s okay.’ We can be very busy sorting out which thoughts we like and which thoughts we don’t like, but have you noticed something else about the room? What else is in it? Space… So instead of focusing on the objects, we can focus on the space around them. Sometimes when there is a lot of thinking, all we can see is the thinking; it is as though it occupies the whole mind. But there is a way of recognising that the mind is much bigger than the thinking. Instead of focusing on the thought, we can focus on the space around the thought. If we have a very strong emotion like anger or grief, we can start thinking about it and wondering what to do about it, thinking that something is wrong because we have it and wondering how to get rid of it. But this tends to make the emotion bigger and stronger. Sometimes it is helpful instead just to focus on the body. With emotions like anger, anxiety, fear or grief, there is always an accompanying physical sensation. So rather than being caught up in the story, the event, or whatever it was that triggered the emotional reaction, we can just bring the awareness into the body and observe the changes as they happen in the body.

Ajahn Candasiri, Simple Kindness