Turn Crisis into Calm: A Buddhist Nun’s Guide to Experiencing Clarity and Confidence

In today’s episode, Gen Chogma shares her personal journey of working with anxiety and panic attacks, explaining how meditation transformed her relationship with her mind. Drawing on her lived experience and the teachings of Geshe Kelsang Gyatso, she explains how intense feelings can seem overwhelmingly real, even when nothing is actually wrong externally, and why it is so important to control our mind—otherwise, it can easily deceive us.

Through clear, honest examples from everyday life, she explores how learning to watch the mind helps us recognize the early stages of anxiety, create inner space, and gradually regain a sense of control. Rather than suppressing difficult emotions, this episode shows how gently pacifying the mind allows thoughts and feelings to settle naturally, like waves calming on an ocean.

This conversation highlights a deeply practical approach to meditation and mental training that many people will find beneficial.

Chapters

00:00 Panic, Anxiety, and First Meditation

05:30 Learning to Watch the Mind

11:00 Feelings, Fear, and Deceptive Appearances

16:30 Acceptance, Impermanence, and Loss

22:00 Using Suffering to Grow Compassion

27:30 Anxiety, Modern Life, and Mental Tools

32:30 Watching the Mind in Daily Life

37:45 Shifting from Self to Others

Book References



In this episode Gen Kelsang Chogma references :



How to Understand the Mind https://kadampa.org/books/how-to-understand-the-mind

Modern Buddhism 
https://kadampa.org/book/modern-buddhism

How to Transform Your Life
 https://howtotyl.com/

Gen Chogma is a senior teacher within the New Kadampa Tradition, an international Buddhist tradition with over a thousand meditation centers worldwide.



Want More?

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https://kadampa.org/nkt-center-search/?lang=en

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https://open.spotify.com/show/5QPCFEyZz74nOHZbQr1B4z

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