Sometimes, no matter how aware we may like to think we are, we get the hurty-poos. 

What are the hurty-poos? I suppose it's a bit of a pejorative term indicating feelings that are somewhat less than dignified, i.e. self-pity. The feeling of being a victim. What's a word for that? The 'woe is me's'. These would be hurty-poos.

When we have life, interact with others, interact with family, visit our past, let go of expectations, plans, dreams, hopes, ideas of perfection that never will be fulfilled, naturally we have an emotional response. Naturally we experience a sense of loss. And as meditators, this experience of loss and sadness actually is an indication that something really good and positive is happening: that we are letting go of stresses that have kept us locked in a more narrow experience of life, a more constrained experience of life that, as soon as the stresses are released, will expand into something more in the direction of the full experience of life that is our birthright. So these feelings actually are something to be celebrated. Right?

Well, yes. This is true. However, it also is true that the message inherent in the feelings, the thoughts that come along with them, especially when we are tired, when we've been adapting and adapting to a foreign space, to the lifestyle of others, to family--these thoughts tell us something different. These thoughts tell us things like: nobody loves me. I've always been alone, I'll always be alone. Life is a tragedy. No one cares. This world is a vale of tears. I am not worthy of life, of love, of happiness. Etc.

So. We use terms like "hurty-poos" in order to wake ourselves up and to remind ourselves that:

1) These are just uncomfortable body sensations. They mean nothing that bears investigation;

2) These feelings--and these thoughts--are evidence of stresses being released. We need recognize them as such, let them go and come to present moment awareness (and if present moment awareness involves a sudden need for a hot fudge sundae, then so be it);

3) We must, must stay out of speculation and the suffering that it will bring. There is nothing to figure out. There is nothing to fix. As meditators, there is only the need to let them go, let go, let  go;

4) We should try to mind our manners and not act our discomfort out on the people around us, the spouses that may be riding long distances in cars with us; and

5) When we find we have been unable fully to mind our manners, we should make amends with as much grace and alacrity as is possible, perhaps buying said spouse a set of jade earrings in some beautiful, romantic, out of the way artist's studio along the side of the road; and, finally,

6) We can remind ourselves that this, too, shall pass: the hurty-poos, the seeming lack of grace, the minor bruises we inflict on each other, the exhaustion, the unstressing. All of this is ephemeral, momentary, gone almost before we know it.

Today I will notice when my thoughts and feelings are telling me that I am a bust, that the world is a bust, and I will remind myself this is evidence of stresses being released. This is not a report on any truth of my life. And I will get present.