Ep 7 The Exploring Difficulty meditation gently invites you to bring situations to your attention that may be unsettling or disturbing and then observe how your body reacts.  At times It can be  more helpful to work with the body because the mind can become too goal oriented  when directly facing a difficulty.  It will want to help by suppressing negativity or by trying  desperately to analyse and solve whatever is troubling you.  Working with the mind in this context is just too difficult.  Focusing on the body, by contrast, creates a little space between you and the problem, so that you don’t immediately become entangled with it.  In a sense, you are using the observing self and your physical self to raise your awareness of bodily associations that are usually connected with any unsettling or disturbing situation .  This approach has two other benefits as well.  First, the body’s reactions to negative thoughts or sensations often provide a clearer, more coherent ‘signal’, on which it’s easier to stay focused.  And second, you’ll come to realise that physical sensations tend to rise and fall in their intensity, and this can help to lead towards a realisation that states of mind also tend to wax and wane from moment to moment.