Participant To Observer: Mindfully Engaging With Emotion

According to Neuroscientist Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor, emotions have a physiological lifespan of 90 seconds. We humans, however, love to prolong our emotions by replaying the event, thus generating new emotions and creating stories that attach blame or shame while dwelling on the negativity of what happened. Mindfulness can interrupt this cycle: we turn toward the emotion and allow ourselves to experience the physiological cues as sensations rather than true interpretations. We turn emotions into information rather than facts.

Transcript

Welcome. This is Allison with Mindful Pause Center, And I'm so glad to bring you this practice today. So we'll just start here at the beginning with noticing the posture that you chose. And I'd like you to think about, Or not with your reasoning mind, But I'd like you to understand what brought you to this posture. So what's here that is supporting you? How is the posture providing some sense of safety? How is this posture providing a sense of stability? Where can you be at rest in this posture? At the same time, As you notice, Experience some safety, Some stability, And a capacity to rest. I also want you to look in this pose for, Where's there a quality of interest? This might be a sense of alertness or uprightness, Which isn't rigid by any means, But maybe it's around the eyes. Maybe it's the way the head is balanced over the spine. Maybe it's the placement of the chin, So that in the posture, You have both ease and alertness. Take a moment as we're here in the physical aspect of posture to see if this is a good home base, A place that feels like your attention could come back, Find itself, Re-stabilize. So you could stay here if that's the case, We'll also explore the felt sense of the body breathing. How do you know that your body is breathing? Is it at the belly? Maybe at the ribs? Maybe it's the way air comes in over the lip through the nose, Hits the back of the throat. How does the breath stabilize the attention? How much support does it provide tonight? And if this feels like a good home base, You can stay here. Also want to allow people to investigate sound as you bring your awareness to sounds that are in the room, Drifting in from elsewhere. This orchestration of life unfolding around us as we take our seat in the midst, Is sound and a place that stabilizes, Steadies your attention. So choosing now doesn't have to be the perfect choice, But just so you have a place to bring your awareness back, If you should need it, Which home base will you use as your anchor tonight? Would it be the body, Breath, Or sound? Could be that felt sensation of the feet walking. Go ahead and let your attention settle on your home base now. You might already notice the way the mind is being distracted, Could be by things that are happening around you, Could be by thoughts of the day. Just noticing this is part of the practice too, Attending to the distraction with a label and coming back to the home base. Working with the direct senses in the body or that sense of sound. So as you're here at your home base, I'd like you to open now to just be curious and are there feelings present, Emotions? Again, They could be pretty quiet if you didn't have something strong coming in with you tonight. They could be pretty neutral, Could feel like ease, Could feel like quiet, Could feel like calm. Just giving yourself a chance to investigate what mood or moods are here. And starting to label ease, Peace, Agitation, Worry. Maybe your emotions are more singular. Maybe they're jumping all over the place. You allow awareness to be interested in emotions. What are you noticing? What's here? Could also be that in practice tonight, There's not much feeling coming forward. There are distractions that make it more difficult to tune into our emotional body. So you could notice that. That's valuable as well. The body might be protecting you in this moment. Perhaps you can just feel some sense of gratitude then. As much as we're able, We want to move at the speed of the body and what it's ready to reveal to us. I'd like you then to bring your awareness back to the home base to re-study yourself. Bring the attention into the hands or the feet or to the breath or sound. This kind of clears that last exercise as well. And if you're ready and you want to investigate a difficult situation, Something that we came up earlier today or earlier this week, Not the most stressful situation, But something that's been challenging. This would be a time when needs were not being met. And so there's going to be some feelings present. It helps to remember the room you were in, Space you were in, Who else was there. If it was virtual or physical, Sounds that are part of the stressor. Maybe there are smells that accompany it. Maybe it happened at a certain time of day. And as you allow your imagination to re-enter the experience to whatever extent you'd like, Let feelings begin to arise. You can notice if they come quickly or slowly. Maybe there's tension, Frustration. Maybe it rises to anger. Maybe anxiety and worry shade into sadness. Maybe it's the exhaustion or the confusion that comes forward. Remembering, You can always titrate back to your home base as needed. It helps to use the image of observation. You can imagine you're at the edge of a river, Watching the feelings as they come into view. You might also want to try an embodied experience where you really notice where sadness shows up in the body. Is it in the belly or at the throat? Sometimes the emotions are spread out and diffuse. Sometimes they're really focused in one part of the body. This is the kind of investigation we want, Just to get familiar with how the body experiences emotion. You can look for a variety of sensations from tingling, Pressure, Tightness, Pulsing. Maybe it feels solid. Maybe it feels brittle or solid. Maybe it feels spiky or smooth. As you maybe choose an emotion to observe, Just seeing if it feels solid under observation. Does it begin to change? Then we're going to let this exercise go. I'd like you to bring your attention back to your home base to restabilize. Study yourself once again on the more neutral sensation of the body under gravity, The breath, Sound. If it feels good, Bring to mind something you enjoyed that happened earlier today or earlier this week. It could be something small. Somebody got you a coffee. It could be something big like finishing a huge project you've really invested yourself in. It could be the relief of being done with exercise. A pleasant situation can also re-enter through the imagination. Where are you? Who else is here? Any sounds, Smells, Tastes? As you experience this pleasant moment again, Noticing the feelings that arise. Maybe there's happiness. Maybe there's ease. Maybe there's joy, Delight. Maybe there's wonder. Maybe there's gratitude, Appreciation. If it feels good to choose one emotion to bring your attention more fully to, Asking where it's located in the body. How do you know you're feeling delight? How does the body let you know? What sensations does it provide? Is it warmth and openness, A spaciousness? Is it the way the face smiles? How does it respond to being observed this emotion? Does it grow louder? Does it grow quieter? Maybe it fades away. Then again, Bringing your awareness back to your home base, Reestablishing your attention there. Just taking a moment to appreciate, Even in this relatively short practice, We have a sense of our capacity and a range of emotions. We also have a sense of our capacity, At least a taste, What it is to observe, To notice and observe. This observer is not caught up in the emotion. They're bearing witness, Providing space, A place from which you can make a choice about how to be with that emotion. What actions to take. A lot of wisdom already here in this capacity of attention, Observation. As we end the practice, Starting to move the body in a way that feels good. If you've been walking, Maybe that actually means coming to stillness. And you can stretch any way that you'd like to come out. As your eyes open, Taking in the space around you. Communicating to our nervous systems that the practice is complete. Thank you for your practice. Did you feel supported by this practice? Leave a short word or phrase in the comments to let me know. I'd love to be connected. Until next time, Take good care.