Mindfulness With Difficult Emotions

Hello,

I'd like you to take a comfortable,

Alert posture.

Take some deep conscious breaths in and out.

And before we settle into our meditation,

I'd like to ask you a few questions.

I'd like you to be aware of how you're feeling right now and what emotions are present.

How are you feeling?

Are you sad?

Happy?

Are you curious or bored?

Are you full of worry?

Sometimes we feel dull or very clear.

Sometimes impatient and angry.

And of course,

We could be feeling all of these just in one day.

More importantly,

What's your attitude towards this?

What do you think about when this emotion pops up?

How does this express itself in your body?

What parts hold these emotions?

These are just some questions to reflect on maybe after your meditation or for the rest of your day.

You know the body lets you know your emotional state.

So when we're mindful of our body,

That's when we can really become aware of what's really going on within us.

So take another long few deep breaths in and let's settle in now,

Whether you're seated in a chair or on your cushion.

I'd like you to scan your body just noticing pockets of tension.

And as you scan the body just breathing into these parts,

Taking a deep breath in and then maybe exhaling,

Softening,

Maybe muscularly softening too and relaxing these parts.

Breathing down into the lower torso,

The spaces between the ribs.

Softening here.

Softening behind the abdomen.

Feel your body overall,

So just become aware globally of your body from head all the way down towards your feet.

Become aware of your breathing now.

Where is the breathing prominent in your body?

Just noticing the difference between the in-breath and the out-breath.

And of course some images or stories or thoughts will pop up,

So just allow them to dissolve,

Just let go of them from time to time.

Not going into the story or the inner dialogue.

And let the foreground be your breathing.

Now often when we feel a very strong emotional response in our body,

We also have a very strong reaction towards that emotion.

So what's your present emotional state and how are you feeling?

Can you just allow it to be here?

Not far or against it.

Just sitting with it as if it was a friend just next to you.

Is there emotion behind this emotion?

What's behind this emotion that you're feeling?

Just recognise,

That's all I ask of you today,

Just recognise how are you feeling and maybe what's behind this layer of emotion?

And how does it manifest in your body?

Do you feel it in your chest?

When you breathe in does your breathing feel constricted,

Stuck,

Heavy?

Does the chest and the heart feel tight?

Or is it down in the abdomen?

Do you feel a sense of gripping and holding?

This mood,

This feeling.

Now I want you to give your full attention over to feeling the physical sensation now.

Allow yourself to feel the full expression of this emotional state.

Remember now I'm not saying the story.

We're not going into the story or the images.

We're just going into the full physical expression of this emotional state.

How does it feel in your body?

Does it feel like a strong weight down on the shoulders?

Or is there pain in the front of the head,

In the front of the brain?

Is there a retracted quality in your posture?

Does your abdomen feel tight?

Or your legs or your thighs?

Now I'd like you to return to your breathing.

Just take a few rounds of breathing in and out.

Keep returning to the breath even after feeling that emotional state in the body.

Come back to being mindful of the breath now.

You know there's a really strong tendency to always get involved with the story and the ideas around that emotion.

This is kind of like fuel to the fire.

So we're trying to just let that go into the background and just work with the physical sensation.

And it's very subtle work.

Feel the contact with the floor or your seat.

Notice your body breathing here.

Just notice the body breathing in and out.

Notice the contact again with your seat,

Maybe your feet against the floor.

Notice we're not interfering with our breath.

Our body is just breathing by itself.

Bring your attention to your arms and your hands today.

And how are they today?

How are the arms and the hands?

Notice don't add anything to it.

Just allow yourself just to let the arms and the hands just be as they are today.

Allow a sense of allowing to come in.

How are the legs and the feet?

How are they today?

And again,

Let's not add anything to it.

Any story or label about our legs.

Just let the legs be as they are in this present moment today.

Just like your breath.

Let's not add anything to it.

Just let the breath be as it is.

And this goes for our emotional state too.

Even though we might feel anger down in our abdomen,

Or we might feel worry up in our heart,

And it might feel heavy and tight.

Can we just be present with it?

Just recognize it and bring a sense of allowing to it.

Allow yourself just to experience it and feel it.

No expectations.

Just allowing the full physical expression of this emotional state.

And allow the nourishing quality of your breath to come into the foreground.

The smooth nourishing quality of the in-breath.

The smooth nourishing quality of the exhale.

We can only connect with our emotional state through the body's expression.

If we didn't have our body,

We wouldn't know how we were feeling.

So we somatically feel the expression of emotion.

When we experience this and just tease it apart a little bit,

It has less power over us.

It comes up and it's able to release with each exhale.

It might be painful sometimes,

But this experiencing and feeling the emotion will allow it to just run its course through you.

Let's come back to the heart and that place,

Not just the organ,

The physiological heart,

But the center of the heart where we feel joy,

Happiness sometimes,

Contentment.

And yet we feel emotions that can come from stories we tell ourselves too,

Like anger,

Confusion,

Grief.

But deeper inside ourselves,

There is a place that's feeling content and just happy in this moment.

And it's very hard sometimes when we can't touch this,

But know that in each moment,

In present moment,

There's a stillness and quietness to it.

And when we bring our full attention to the heart center,

Bring a warming quality there,

A warming,

Nurturing quality towards yourself,

A soothing quality,

Just like your breath.

And allow the wisdom of your heart to start to stream out.

Allow a sense of spaciousness to come in your in-breath,

Around your chest,

In your heart,

And feel a dropping and a softening on each exhale.

Allow this present moment to nurture you and nourish you with your breath.

May you be happy.

May you be peaceful.

May you be healthy.

May you take care of yourselves happily.

Amen.