How can a person who is extremely impulsive learn to be more even keel and calm?
The trick is to develop an unchanging reference point for your own mind, so that you can learn to just experience those impulses instead of acting on them every time. It’s sort of like standing in a fixed location and watching the traffic flow by — the traffic being your thoughts and feelings. If you can get your attention to remain fixed and unwavering, then you can observe those impulses instead of letting them take control of you. This is the basis of awareness meditation practices. Typically you would be instructed to sit in a particular position, upright and attentive, and above all DON’T move… just breathe naturally and pay attention to your breath coming and going. As thoughts arise, just notice them and then return to your breathing. This takes time and effort, but is wonderfully powerful once you develop skill. Any thought which you can’t observe will run your life. If you want to run your own life, you have to learn to observe thoughts. It’s simple, but not easy.
