Yoga of Action

The source of suffering is thoughts of events - real or imagined from the past or future. Things that bother us are the unpleasant thoughts that have a real intensity and linger on. The unpleasant event which is already over continues in the mind or the anticipated future event of anxiety which has not yet happened, has already started to happen in the mind. Unpleasant thoughts feed on to the body and generate unpleasant sensations & emotions. The event that has triggered the thought in itself may not be very significant but it is when you identify yourself with the thought (Asmita). The mind then exaggerates the impact of the event causing enormous and continuous distress (Dwesha and Abhinivesha). The key is to be a witness to this phenomenon. Without awareness you identify with these thoughts and strengthen them with your attention. When aware, you witness these thoughts like a blue sky witnessing the clouds and let it pass. You realise that they are not yours. What you identify as yours affects you.When you witness you dis-identify with the thought, and the intense sensation of unpleasantness starts melting away instead of building up. If there has been an event that challenged your identity or ego - such as family, career, finances or even nationalism such as the result of a sporting event - the impact of the event is exaggerated by the mind and relived again & again. You are unable to focus, do anything creative, are totally lost and exhausted. You can only cut this with the sword of awareness. Disengage the emotions from the event, engage the emotion with the sensations and deal with the sensation. There are very powerful meditations in the Art of Living Silence program which does exactly this thereby relieving long standing pain and suffering.
When in spite of awareness the pain is intense, surrender. Surrender is dropping your resistance to the situation and allowing the existence to take over. Take a step back and let life live through you.

Moving through the unpleasantness with awareness is Tapas. Becoming aware of how the mind is sabotaging your life is Self study. Dropping the effort to manage the situation (emotion) is Surrender. These three constitute Kriya Yoga or Yoga of Action.