Emotional Release · “Die to Be Reborn”
Welcoming the Panic
Stop fighting a wave of panic or anxiety and instead welcome it and use it as the very object of meditation — letting it be ‘held’ in awareness rather than blocked, so its grip loosens and it passes.
Welcoming the panic: The moment fear rises, don’t fight or flee it. Turn toward it and genuinely welcome it — “Hello, panic. Welcome.” Make it the object of a gentle awareness: feel it in the body, watch it shift, and notice it is arising within awareness, not solid or permanent. Let it pass on its own. Keep a light anchor; stop if it’s too much; get professional help for recurrent panic.
What it is
Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche (b. 1975) suffered intense panic attacks through childhood and into his teens — racing heart, sweating, dread around strangers.
The turning point came from his father’s instruction not to fight the panic but to welcome it and use it as a support for meditation. This practice is the direct application of his shamatha pedagogy (anything can be a support to the hardest possible object: fear itself.
The move is to stop trying to block, get rid of, or fight the panic, and instead let it be the thing you rest awareness on — to greet it, in his now-famous phrasing, with “Hello, panic.
Welcome.” Mingyur describes the felt result: “the panic was suspended in awareness. On the surface level was panic, but beneath it was awareness, holding it.” When the fear is welcomed rather than resisted, its grip loosens — and, in his case, the attacks eventually stopped.
The Method
A faithful outline of his publicly told instruction:
- Catch the wave early and don’t run. The instant anxiety or panic starts to rise, resist the reflex to suppress it, distract from it, or escape. Mingyur’s father: “Don’t try to block it, don’t try to get rid of the panic… Just let your panic be, and connect with your awareness.”
- Welcome it, sincerely. Turn toward the feeling and greet it — “Hello, panic. Welcome.” Mingyur notes the welcome must be genuine, not a trick to make it leave; mechanically “welcoming” while secretly wanting it gone doesn’t work.
- Make the panic the object. Treat the fear exactly as you’d treat a sound or a sensation in meditation — rest a gentle awareness on it. “Just as we need sound to look at sound… we need emotions to look at emotions.” Feel where it sits in the body; watch it as a changing experience.
- Notice the awareness underneath. As you watch, sense that the panic is arising within awareness — “on the surface was panic, but beneath it was awareness, holding it.” You are not the panic; you are the open knowing in which it appears.
- See it isn’t solid. Observed closely, the fear keeps shifting — “there is nothing singular, solid, or permanent about anxiety.” It rises, changes, and passes; you don’t have to make it leave.
- Let it go on its own. Stay with the welcomed feeling, lightly, until the wave subsides. Don’t grade your success by whether it vanished — the practice is the welcoming and awareness, not the disappearance. (Sourcing note: drawn faithfully from Mingyur Rinpoche’s first-person account in Lion’s Roar and his Tergar teachings on anxiety; short attributed quotes only.)
Source & Lineage
The method comes from Mingyur’s own life and his father Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche‘s instruction, set within Kagyu/Nyingma shamatha.
He tells the story in The Joy of Living (2007) and Joyful Wisdom (2009) and teaches it directly through Tergar (e.g. “Transforming Anxiety and Panic Through Meditation”). His documented participation in meditation neuroscience (Waisman Lab; Mind & Life) places the underlying attention training on solid empirical ground. → author node.
The Traditions' versions
“Turn toward the difficult feeling instead of fleeing it” is the shared root of modern acceptance-based work; Mingyur’s distinctive accent is treating panic as a meditation support — continuous with his shamatha — and the explicit “Hello, panic.
Welcome.” greeting plus the awareness-holding-it framing: - RAIN (McDonald / Brach) — Recognize, Allow, Investigate, Nurture; a fuller four-step compassion sequence.
- Welcoming / allowing (Sedona Method) — could you welcome this feeling, and could you let it go?
- Name it to tame it (Siegel) — labelling the emotion to down-regulate it.
- Somatic Experiencing (Levine) — tracking the body’s arousal so it can discharge.
- Mental noting (Goldstein) — softly noting “fear, fear” as it arises.
Common refinements
Fake welcoming. Saying “welcome” while willing the panic to leave is still resistance; Mingyur stresses the welcome must be real. Drop the agenda for it to go.
- Bracing or holding the breath. Tightening against the feeling sustains it; soften the body, let the breath be.
- Grading by disappearance. If you only “succeed” when the panic vanishes, you reinstate the fight. The aim is the welcoming and awareness, not control.
- Going in with no anchor. If turning toward it overwhelms you, keep a light external support (feet on the floor, a sound) so you don’t drown in the sensation.
- Treating it as therapy. For recurrent attacks, pair this with professional help — it complements, doesn’t replace, treatment.