Citta needs to be trained to rest back from engagement. By not going into the stories, spreading awareness over the entire body, and letting emotions rise and pass. As citta releases from contact, it accesses a finer more lasting and agreeable sense of security and well-being.
Beginning the process of centering, set aside what isn’t relevant right now. Strengthen the bodily reference to help support citta. Acknowledge the sense of I am – what is the I, how is that experienced?
Meet the constant flow of life with the stillness and poise of citta. Relate to it all with respect and mutuality, learning to adapt, flow and listen to life. Practice with cultivation of subtle energies of body and heart and with samādhi. Sutta Reference: SN1:1
A suggestion for walking meditation, to move like a boat down a river, citta open like a sail spread on the mast. Move through the water of thoughts, impressions, memories. Walk with difficult moods that arise, holding lightly, listening and receiving.
Citta is used to feeding on stimulation. Use balance and breathing to settle it, get it interested in that still point. Focus on the stillness of dispassion and cooling.
We bounce off dukkha rather than digesting it, bound to experience the same characteristic of dukkha in another form. The guiding capacity of citta is wise attention. We must learn to widen and lengthen our attention span. In this space we can contemplate dukkha rather than react to it. Dispassion and goodwill, the natural actions of heart, can then arise.