Life - this is what it's like

I'm a great fan of meditation and learning about mind states through the medium of the Buddhist dharma (the teachings of Buddhism). Of all the things I've learned about coping with illness, these dharma teachings provide something useful and positive to try, while at the same time respecting that being ill is an incredibly difficult process. There are lots of sites where you can listen to teachings and build up some knowledge and practices. Anyway, one message that comes up from time to time goes like this:

1. We are experiencing something difficult, like anxiety.

2. It's not very pleasant. We experience a lot of reactivity and difficulty with it.

3. It will not go away. We cast around for some other strategy to deal with it and we remember - it's like this. Anxiety (or whatever) is like this.

4. Now we have a perspective that is outside our difficult state. We are watching it. We observe - this is what anxiety is like. It's like this. When anyone gets anxious, this is what it's like. There is anxiety presenting itself to me, here it is.

You get the idea. I find it very useful when things come up, which is almost everyday. Teenagers are like this, being ill is like this, people are like this, conflict is like this, anger is like this, being wiped out is like this, being happy is like this, and so on. Life - this is what it's like.