Disappointment Meditation

08:04

Disappointment Meditation

by Liesl Drought

Type

guided

Activity

Meditation

Suitable for

Everyone

Plays

2

Disappointment is one of the hardest emotions for me. So I created this practice so we could walk through it together. Whether the thing you're disappointed about is big or small, we'll walk through what's under your disappointment and the story behind it. Sometimes it's frustration, anger, or sadness. All of it's valid and welcome here. Let's dive in.

Emotional Processing Emotional Awareness Grounding Emotional Expression Self Compassion Grounding Technique

Meet your Teacher

Columbus, OH, USA

Meet your Teacher

Columbus, OH, USA

Transcript

Hey friends, Welcome to today's disappointment meditation. I find that as someone who's gone through quite a lot of grief in my life and a lot of disappointment. It feels like sometimes we don't know how to handle it. And so I was sitting with some disappointment today and I was like, You know what? Let's go through this together. Because I find that when we don't allow the disappointment, When we aren't able to really feel it, It stays so much longer and it has such a deeper lasting impact than if I just like let myself sit and be disappointed. And I think this is like a skill that we can learn and work on together. So let's dive into it. All right, So before we get going, We're gonna move the body before we try and quiet the mind. So roll your shoulders back maybe or stretch. Crack your neck if that feels good, Move your hips. And then let's just find where you are. Let's connect to whatever part of your body is connecting to what is holding you up. Whether that's the floor, The chair, The bed, The sofa, Whatever. Connect to those connection points. Let's just ground ourselves in here for just a second with our bodies. Breathing in and out. And I want you to just bring up the disappointment. What are you disappointed about? If you're in a place that feels good to talk out loud, Tell me everything about it. Talk out loud. And if not, Talk to me in your head. What's going on? Oh, Ouch. That's hard. That's hard. That makes sense. That makes sense to be disappointed about that. Yeah. Yeah. That makes sense. I wonder what flavor of disappointment is it for you? Are you angry about it? Are you sad? Do you feel defeated? What is the feeling underneath the disappointment? Good. Yeah. What's the story underneath the disappointment? I find oftentimes disappointment comes in when we're like extrapolating a story. So, You know, I'll give you a couple of examples. So for me today, I had something I was really looking forward to on my calendar and then it got canceled and I was just like, Oh man, I like got so excited for this. I was prepped. I was ready. So we're ready to go. I moved everything around so that this would work, You know, Etc, Etc. Like, Bummer. That sucks, Right? I've also lived a lot of disappointment around fertility and hoping and praying that this month would be different, Right? And then that disappointment of realizing it's not and that I'm not pregnant and all of that and that like soul crushing like, Oh, I thought I gave everything I thought I did everything right. Right. And why is it not happening? And not like, It almost comes with a layer of frustration, Right? And I think the most important piece is to realize. Disappointment. Is just the flavor, Right? That other emotion. And that's a safe thing. That's a human thing to experience. And we don't have to like push through it or push it away. Growing up, I was always encouraged to look at the bright side or move through it. My mom's favorite phrase was, Cheer up and have an onion, Which apparently no one else has ever heard. But my husband still makes fun of me for it. But I think it's so important to be able to sit with disappointment and to sit with, Yeah, That sucks. Right? Makes sense that. We're grieving that, We're frustrated by that, We're angry about that. Makes sense. Letting ourselves throw that kind of little fit about it, I think is so important. And so I want to invite you to do that. Do you want to stomp your feet? Do you want to Clap your hands really loud. Do you want to punch a pillow? What feels good to you? What does that disappointment need? Maybe you want to cry. Maybe it's compelling you to do something totally different. What do you want to do with your disappointment today? Beautiful. The last thing I'll say is that I wonder sometimes if disappointment not only needs an outlet to get out, Right? Like crying or hitting a pillow or whatever. I also wonder if it's calling for something else, Like maybe you need a little extra love. If you're feeling the sadness, The grief kind of disappointment. Or maybe you were really excited to do whatever it was for you today. Like, How can you still do that in a way that feels good to you? Or how can you find some sort of outlet that feels similar? Or like what's the next best thing for you now? Giving yourself permission to do whatever that is, Even if it's small, Even if it's big, Maybe you have to plan for it. But I think just like sitting with the disappointment is so important and is something that I know for my brain, I always want to just kind of like brush through and get over. And get to the other side, But I think. There's so much. Dare I say, Like beauty and disappointment and letting ourselves really feel that. I have a toddler right now and learning that as they are able to access bigger and deeper, What we would call like tough emotions, Like disappointment, Frustration, Anger, All of those things, They actually get access to more and higher, Higher emotions, Like excitement and joy and all of those things. And it's so fun to see that, Like, The more that my child grows in their spectrum of feeling, It's like both sides of the spectrum. Get to grow, Right? And so It's so powerful when we think about that for our own emotions, Too. The more we're willing to sit with what we typically call hard stuff, The more access we have to the easy stuff, Too, And to the joy. And so this feels really disappointing. This feels really frustrating. This feels really sad. I've always just found so much peace in knowing like the more I grow my ability to be sad, The more I grow my ability to feel joy too. So I'm sending you a hug. I'm sorry. What happened today was disappointing. And I'll be here next time so we can go through it again together too. Talk to you soon.