I hadn't written here for a long time until I decided today to use this blog to host some of my reflections for an on-line course I'm taking.  I'd like to start writing more again.  So I'll add a thought that excited me this morning.

Why should mindfulness-type meditation practices help a person better control their emotional reactivity?  Help a person be more compassionate and patient?

Reading a book of dialogs between Paul Ekman and the Dalai Lama, I came across an answer that seems obvious to me now, but I'd never recognized.  Most mindfulness meditation practices are about becoming consciously aware of a largely automatic process (breathing, walking, etc).  Emotional reactions are another similarly automatic process, and one that can be interrupted when it is recognized.

I would argue further that compassion and patience are innate qualities, but often derailed by emotional reaction or excessive mental activity, either of which can be attenuated by the light of mindfulness.