Written by David Nichtern

Sometimes our “negative” habits — like anger, pride, jealousy, and craving — seem to come up like a cyclone out of nowhere. Often we might feel powerless to change them, let alone even notice we are in the grip of what the Buddhists would call a “klesha” attack. “Klesha” is Sanskrit for an obscuration, or perhaps, in a more contemporary sense, a neurotic upheaval. Below are five steps toward recognizing and cutting the momentum of these negative habitual patterns.

1) Recognition: When a negative habit takes hold of our mind, we often aren’t aware of the process. It sweeps in with its entourage of storyline, emotional charge, justification and ignorance of other behavior options that might be available to us. The key is to be able to wake up and notice that a klesha attack has seized control of our state of mind. It’s like waking up in the middle of a bad dream: we still feel the mood and tone of the dream, but we recognize that we were dreaming and now we are awake. Our perspective has shifted.

2) Interrupting: With this clarity, we have the option of either going back into the grip of our habitual pattern or interrupting it. We need to create some kind of antidote to the energy and strength of the habit. This can come from stabilizing our mind through meditation practice, having insight arising from seeing the situation more clearly, or simply longing for more freedom and openness. In Tibetan, the word for renunciation is the same as the word for nausea; we are simply sick and tired of being in the grips of familiar “negative” emotions.

3) Changing Habits: At this point, we really do have a choice. We can resume and continue to dwell in our habitual pattern, or we can actually change that pattern for a more “positive” one — for example, we can substitute patience for aggression — or we can just stay in the space of present awareness.

4) Dissolving: If we stay in the space of present awareness, the habitual pattern will simply dissolve into that space until additional causes and conditions make it surface again. Resting our mind in this way can provide a needed break from the melodrama and depletion that comes from riding the waves of our kleshas.

5) Transforming: Recognizing that the pattern is basically counterproductive and destructive, we can also recognize that within the experience there is a certain quality of wisdom shining through, like a jewel glistening in the middle of a cow patty. Perhaps we are angry and resentful, but within that we might have a certain insight about something that isn't working, and realize we can address it without the thick, swirling fog of anger. Transforming is perhaps the most advanced approach; in it there is nothing discarded, nothing rejected. We are able to see the natural wisdom shining through the filter of our confusion.

When working with the more difficult tenants in our inner landscape, some form of meditative or contemplative practice can be very helpful in just introducing that little extra space into our overcrowded mind, therefore allowing us to shift our direction and energy.