Use code SUMMERPRACTICE for a 25% discount on all On Demand Courses through August 31.

Working with Stress and Fear

With Lisa Ernst recorded on July 17, 2022.

Found our teachings useful? Help us continue our work and support your teachers with a donation. Here’s how.

Not all stress is bad. In fact, anticipatory stress can be a life saver at times. Yet without mindful awareness, anticipatory stress may spiral into reactivity, paralyzing fear and suffering. How do we meet this stress mindfully, use it skilfully, then let go? We will explore practices and approaches to help us awaken to our patterns around anticipatory stress and meet them with compassion and clarity of action.

Listen to the audio version below, or click here to download the mp3.

Discussion

Leave a Reply

Discover more from the Dharma Library

  • photo of Martin Aylward smiling

    For the love of mindfulness!

    Mindfulness practice has burst out of its Buddhist origins and is hugely impacting the culture at large, particularly in the fields of education, healthcare and business. Some delight in the liberating possibilities of this, and some are concerned about what they see as the ‘dumbing down’ of the practice, or the exclusion of important areas…

    Read More

  • Miles Kessler

    Daily Meditation Recordings, with Miles Kessler – Week of 21 July, 2025

    We’re grateful to have Miles Kessler guiding our Daily Meditation sessions this week. May these sessions support and enrich your practice. This week’s theme is: Dharma Practice in a Polarized World: Moving from Dissonance to Resonance and Coherence. In this week of Daily Meditations, you are invited to join Miles in an exploration into how our inner conflicts mirror our relational conflicts, and how our relational conflicts mirror the conflicts we see in the world. You will learn how your practice evolving on the cushion is the same process for healing conflicts in the world.

    Read More

  • Embracing the Radical Act of Rest

    In times of global challenges and uncertainty, we often respond with fear-driven action, guilt, or survival mode. Yet the simple act of resting offers a powerful path to liberation. By connecting with our bodies and trusting the ground beneath us, we cultivate ease that naturally supports the awakened mind. When we act from deep rest,…

    Read More

  • Ralph Steele

    The noble jewel of Right Effort

    Right Effort is a jewel within a jewel. We investigate the Four Right Exertions that fuel Right Effort and the Hindrances that attempt to derail our intention. You will gain insight into why the Buddha referenced Right Effort as one of his eight precious disciples, which is a daily chant in the monasteries.

    Read More

  • Sitting with Pointlessness – Living with Potentiality

    During a recent retreat, the teachers’ instruction was to hold the question ‘What is this?’ in mind. While sitting on the cushion, the thought struck me that my life is futile! I am genetically programmed for survival and sex; everything else is just distracting window-dressing. This talk will explore the journey from the apparent ‘futility’…

    Read More

  • Kittisaro

    The Two Fundamental Roots

    I reflect this Sunday on the profound Surangama Sutra teaching of the Two Fundamental Roots: The root of “beginningless birth and death,” and the “primal bright essence of consciousness.” The Buddha warns that not knowing these two essential principles renders one’s spiritual efforts into a doomed futility, like “cooking sand in the hope of creating…

    Read More