The mind is a matrix saturated with potential. The self-same matrix can arrange its character into an inconceivable array of emotional nuance in the same manner as a cloud. Now it's a dragon. Now it's a lamb. But the nature of the cloud remains the un-configured vapour from which figure is contrived. That vapour is Awareness.
Anyone beginning to become truly aware will find great value in taking notice of negative emotional states. As the practice of meditation enters into our normal waking existence we develop the ability to be aware in the moment of cloud formation inside the mind. It is always some perceived symbolic arrangement of reality that triggers such states, and this instinctual response is one that is coeval with the existence of the dinosaurs. These un-willed prods to behavior have great value in a pure Darwinian world, but they are right up there with vestigial tails when it comes to wagging the primordial dog. When the perceived shape of reality provides a catalyst the shape in the mist assumes its requisite form. If Awareness is the seat of identity this does not, and can not, go un-noticed. One can just say know.
Becoming aware of, and declining the formation of, archetype driven emotional states is the signature characteristic of a real evolution of being. It is as different from successful repression as life is from death. This is how Awareness becomes the falconer of mind.
The reason negative states are of particular value is that they are unpleasant and therefore easier to focus upon.
The difficulty of pleasant states is a subject for another post.
