One peace is but a piece

If your first experiences of peace
    do not evaporate all fears
    or heal all aches and pains,
        be not surprised:
    you live as mortal, not as god.

Remember what these are:
    your first experiences.

One meditation or relaxing scene
    is cultivation of a skill,
    not a magic bullet.

You’ve mastered many skills in life,
    skills far more difficult.

This one’s merely newer,
    subtler,
    less clamoring,

    and vastly More.

Choose the largest demon

List the demons of your fears.
Today, slay one.
Not every one: just the worst.
Find the worst of worst, the unrelenting wolf that gnaws voraciously upon your peace. Embrace it:

Catalog his threats.
    List the wounds you could incur.
    Detail the future that he threatens to inflict.
Describe its horror in detail.
    Don’t just ponder — write it.
        Write it fully.
        If you write enough you’ll see he’s lost his fangs.
There’s nothing there that’s not been faced
        and overcome
        — indeed by lesser souls than you.

There, in fact, is nothing there.
    The demons were but possible tomorrows.

Return again to now
    and, one by one,
    slay the dragons of today.