It doesn’t take much to spot them these days. We all have them now, looking like an overhead view of a volcano’s crater, filled with fiery lava, ready to blow. Spend fifteen minutes talking with anybody. Take a peek at social media. Turn on the news and watch your own start glowing.

 I’m talking about our hot spots, those seething pools of negativity–fear, anger, outrage, anguish, and all-around general ill-will.   And to tell you the truth, I don’t know anybody who has gone unscathed. BUT I do happen to have a handy-dandy tube of salve you can borrow that instantly soothes the sting and let’s you get back to seeing the world’s beauty.

 It has a three main ingredients. The first one is Presence, an almost magical healer that pulls you into your immediate here and now, where none of your imagined horrific scenarios are actually manifesting themselves. (And even if they were, a good squirt of Presence delivers the clarity you need to deal with them.)

 Presence offers a whole list of benefits. But the one that activates the instant you apply it is its story-destroying capability. It freezes your stories right in their tracks–all your thoughts and judgments, your supposes and imaginings and dreams. Suddenly, all you have is the data your senses are bringing you–the light, color, and shape of everything that surrounds you, the textures and fragrances and sounds. Here: Try a squirt. Stop reading for a second, take a deep breath, look up, and step into your immediate world.

 See? It’s downright refreshing, isn’t it?

 The next ingredient that activates when you apply this fascinating salve is Smile-Maker. It subtly, but unavoidably, requires your lips to curl into an evolving little smile. Its effects vary from person to person For some it produce a smile that quickly expands into a grin and may even erupt into laughter. For others, only a tiny little smile may occur. But even the smallest one is capable of growing if the wearer focuses on it for a bit It’s an automatic reaction, hard-wired into your physiology.

 You can experiment with this right now. Imagine that you just placed a potent little drop of Smile-Maker on your tongue and let your lips respond. Pay attention to whatever smile happens. Feel for yourself its built-in tendency to grow.

 The third main ingredient of this soothing slave is Compassion. You may know it by the name Loving-Kindness. It targets the heart, dissolving any hardness it finds there, clearing the way for you to forgive, accept, and embrace all the beings and events that come to your attention. It imparts a sense of relatedness toward other people, a recognition that we’re all human—complex, fallible beings, just walking each other home. A true pain-killer, Compassion melts away every shred of fear or anger it touches, replacing them with a willingness to wish well-being for all others everywhere.

 Blended together in a light base of hope and liberally applied, this wondrous salve cools, relieves, and refreshes. Once more, its user is free to perceive the world’s goodness and beauty unmarred.

 Tuck a few tubes in your pocket. Hand them out whenever you see a hot spot erupting on somebody’s reality bubble. And be sure to smooth some on your own. It’s the loving thing to do.