like a mother tends to a child

i was reading the teachings of thich nhat hanh, and the section on "caring for our pain" made an impact on me in particular. as you will hopefully see, these thoughts apply to varied states of mind, varied negative energies. here, i share it with you:

So every time you have an energy that needs to be transformed, like jealousy or fear, do something to care for this energy, for this negative energy, if you do not want this energy to destroy you. Touch the seed of mindfulness, and then all of its energy will be able to establish itself in your "living room", like a mother tenderly embracing your pain. ...

When the mother hears her baby crying, she puts down whatever she has in her hands, she goes into its room, and takes the baby in her arms. The moment the baby is lifted into the mother's arms, the energy of wisdom already begins to penetrate into the baby's body. The mother does not know yet what is the matter with the baby, but the fact that she has it in her arms already gives her child some relief. The baby stops crying. Then the mother continues to offer it the energy of tenderness, and during this time the mother practices deep looking [explained earlier in the book: looking with care, attention, mindfulness]. A mother is a very talented person. She only needs two or three minutes to figure out what is the matter with her baby. Maybe its diapers are a little bit too tight; maybe the baby has a touch of fever; maybe it needs a bottle? Then when the understanding comes, the mother can transform the situation immediately.

It is the same thing with meditation. When you have pain within you, the first thing to do is to bring the energy of mindfulness to embrace the pain. "I know that you are there, little anger, my old friend. Breathe - I am taking care of you now."

even the mother that he speaks of - although she may be talented - has only learned through training. would she have known these things before she was a mother? so perhaps this is a habit that - with some effort - we could inculcate in our daily lives? what is important is to be mindful and caring towards ourselves (and this ties in with the patience-towards-the-self that i discussed earlier today).

think, for instance, of checking mail. when a mail comes in, unless i am absolutely occupied, i know i will check to see whose mail it is and what it says. if it requires an urgent response, i will also respond right away. if that mindfulness, the desire and ability to attend to a cause is present, is there any reason that we should not be able to lovingly deal with our inner weaknesses? they are our weaknesses after all - and have likely been as long a part of us as we have the memory to know. perhaps if we do inculcate the habit of lovingly tending to them, our energies will be focused positively and 'good' will win over 'evil'? it's something to think about, and not that difficult, nor abstract, to practise. no?