We should be on guard when told we are too sentimental or too sensitive to challenges others are facing. Purported “objectivity” often masks a sort of callousness. Our emotions can indeed be misleading at times, but they can also be good guides to ethical behavior. Mindfulness teaches us how to sort the unhelpful emotions (which are often self-centered) from the helpful ones (which are other-directed and caring).

Try this meditation for one minute every day, or longer if you want to:

TOMORROW MORNING, pay attention to your emotions. Are you feeling grateful? Resentful? Bored or stressed? See if you can find the precise adjective. Then sit with that emotion for a bit, as though it is a welcome guest. Notice that you’re separate from your emotions, and see how they can be helpful signposts throughout your day.

The ability to objectify feelings, so they are placed outside the political realm, is another reason people have not cared. Submission to authority requires such objectification — indeed, rewards it. Not only do people learn that feelings do not matter, but even the awareness of feelings is lost within the objectifying mind-set. —Carol J. Adams, American writer

How did this meditation go for you? Share your experience at shorelines@northshorebank.com and you’ll be entered to win a copy of A Mindful Day: 365 Ways to Live Life With Peace, Clarity, and an Open Heart, by David Dillard-Wright.

If you’d like a daily email reminder to practice one minute of mindfulness, email us with the subject “Mindfulness reminder.”