It’s easy to rush and label your current situation. But by doing that you define the relationship you will have with the present moment. There is a difference between “I am experiencing negative emotion.” and “My life sucks.”. One is an observation. And the other is a conclusion, a conclusion that really was arrived at with incomplete information. We cannot know the future, so we cannot make any conclusion about the present. We are much better off observing and accepting the current situation than labelling and resisting it.

The state of a situation – bad or good, can really only be determined with perspective and the benefit of hindsight. And even then it’s all relative.
In his book A New Earth: Awakening to Your True Purpose, Eckart Tolle tells the story of a Zen Master:
“The Zen Master Hakuin lived in a town in Japan. He was held in high regard and many people came to him for spiritual teaching. Then it happened that the teenage daughter of his next door neighbor became pregnant. When being questioned by her angry and scolding parents as to the identity of the father, she finally told them that he was Hakuin, the Zen Master. In great anger the parents rushed over to Hakuin and told him with much shouting and accusing that their daughter had confessed that he was the father. All he replied was, “Is that so?”.
News of the scandal spread throughout the town and beyond. The Master lost his reputation. This did not trouble him. Nobody came to see him anymore. He remained unmoved. When the child was born, the parents brought the baby to Hakuin. “You are the father, so you look after him.” The Master took loving care of the child.
A year later, the mother remorsefully confessed to her parents that the real father of the child was the young man who worked at the butcher shop. In great distress they went to see Hakuin to apologize and ask for forgiveness. “We are really sorry. We have come to take the baby back. Our daughter confessed that you are not the father.” “Is that so?” is all he would may as he handed the baby over to them.
The Master responds to falsehood and truth, bad news and good news, in exactly the same way: “Is that so?” He allows the form of the moment, good or bad, to be as it is and so does not become a participant in human drama. To him there is only this moment, and this moment is as it is. Events are not personalized. He is nobody’s victim. He is so completely at one with what happens that what happens has no power over him anymore.
Only if you resist what happens are you at the mercy of what happens, and the world will determine your happiness and unhappiness. The baby is looked after with loving care. Bad turns into good through the power of nonresistance. Always responding to what the present moment requires, he lets go of the baby when it is time to do so.”
It is unavoidable that situations will arise that cause you to feel negative emotion. But the situation, the present moment, doesn’t need to be good or bad, it just is. Once you pass judgement however, you have decided what relationship you want to have with the present moment. You can choose to welcome it or you can choose to resist it, but it will come all the same.
You never know how these moments will fit into the broader context of your life. By moving forward with non-attachment, non-judgment, and most importantly non-resistance, you can navigate these situations with a degree of consciousness. You’ll be able to decide exactly what kind of relationship you have with the present moment. Do you want it to be a friendly relationship or a hostile one?
Given my current situation – unemployed and uncertain about next moves, embracing the principle behind “Is that so?” has certainly helped me go about my life in a less reactive and more concious way. Perhaps it will help you as well.