And so we're going to see if we can tune into how emotions show up in our bodies.
So just settling into your body right now,
Whether it's allowing it to be more still after some activity,
Some rushing around,
Allowing it to show up as it is.
Just noticing what is there in the felt sense of the body,
Without searching too much for anything,
Allowing whatever feelings or sensations that are arising to exist.
And if we offer ourselves this question of,
What am I feeling in this moment?
What is,
What is your body's response?
Perhaps leaning into how the body feels before answering and putting a label on.
For instance,
Right now,
I could say my body is feeling quite relaxed and spacious.
And so it lends me to believe that my feeling is content.
And there could definitely be more than one felt sense and more than one emotion.
Most of the time things are not black and white,
They are many things at once.
Let's see if we can work from the other direction,
Meaning how about we explore emotion and try and observe how that feels in our bodies.
So this is going to be a little bit more of a imagining practice.
Let's work with a more difficult emotion like anger.
And let's imagine a time when you're angry,
If you're not feeling angry right now,
That is.
Perhaps not a time when you were the most angry,
But had some anger.
And if you can recall your body's pattern of anger,
Meaning how does your body feel when it's holding anger?
Is there some feeling in the stomach,
Or the jaw,
Or the fists,
Or the shoulders?
Maybe you can't remember,
But we'll keep this inquiry for the next time you feel anger,
Just pay attention to how it shows up in the body.
Let's explore happiness.
How does happiness feel in your body?
If you don't feel happy in this moment,
Bring to mind a moment in time where you did feel happy,
And see if you can remember how it shows up in your body.
It might be a feeling of lightness or an effervescence like champagne bubbles,
Or just a relaxation throughout all the body,
Tingling maybe,
Just connecting to the felt sense of happiness in your body.
If we can notice how a feeling is felt in the body,
It helps us to actually observe it,
Make its cycle,
Beginning,
Middle,
And completion.
Emotions don't last for very long,
Actually.
It's more stories about it that keep them living in our thoughts,
But from a biological standpoint.
It's like a pulse through our body.
It probably lasts for maybe a minute or so.
We can notice the body sensation of emotions.
We can more readily realize that we are feeling that emotion.
We're not actually meant to hold on to anything for a long period of time,
But often we do.
So I encourage you going forward to keep noticing what it feels like in your body to be experiencing an emotion.
