Difficult Emotions Meditation

In this meditation, you will practice allowing yourself to feel your emotions, from the inside out. You will begin to notice any feelings and sensations in your body that you are trying to push away, judge or resist. Beginning now, to cultivate awareness around your thoughts and the emotional tones of your body, whilst coming back home and letting the breath anchor you. This meditation is based on the work of Kristen Neff, Tara Brach and Thich Nhat Hanh. Background music by John Shanagher.

Transcript

So beginning by cultivating awareness and gently resting your awareness on your breath and feeling what it is like to breathe in this moment noticing the gentle waves of your breathing coming home to your breath and noticing if your mind moves to a thought and you can label that thinking and gently come back to noticing your breath letting your breath anchor you in this moment and now bringing your awareness to your body and noticing any feeling or sensations in the body starting with the head and noticing any feelings or sensations there noticing any emotional tone in the head particularly noticing any sensations or feelings that you may be trying to resist or push away noticing the neck and troth now again scanning for physical sensations and any emotional tone and bringing awareness to the chest and to the heart feeling this area from the inside out and bringing awareness to any sensation we may be judging or resisting and coming down to the belly now bringing your awareness to your belly and noticing any feelings and sensations there is there an emotional tone in the belly are you judging or resisting any sensations there and feeling the whole body now as a play of moving sensations as an ocean of sensation what else can you feel in the body and are you judging or being critical of any feeling or sensation and if you notice yourself caught in thinking again we can label that thinking and bringing your awareness back to the body now and particularly noticing if we are judging any feeling tone we might be experiencing or any physical sensations what are your thoughts about the feeling or emotion that you are experiencing in this moment are you battling against it or trying to push it away do you wish it will be different do you hate your feeling and now putting a hand gently on your heart and belly and asking yourself the question how am i when i no longer believe there is anything wrong with this feeling who am i without the thought that there is something wrong with how my heart feels in this moment what does it feel like when i suspend any judgments about any feeling or emotion which i'm experiencing in this moment and can i open up the space to allow my emotion to be exactly as it is to allow my heart to be exactly as it is trusting and knowing there is nothing wrong with how i am feeling that it really is okay to feel the way i do trusting and knowing that my feeling is just as it needs to be this is what it feels like to have a human heart at times i'm not the only one who feels the way that i do i am not alone in my suffering there are so many people in the world who are feeling just like me in this moment this belongs to this belongs to so really allowing whatever emotion is there to be allowing whatever sensations are there to be allowing any discomfort to be it is okay to feel the way that i do and now can you bring some kindness care and compassion to your emotion now can you imagine your emotion is a little baby who you love a little baby who is suffering and who just needs your attention and your love can you hold your emotion with care kindness and compassion compassion speaking kindly to your emotion it is okay that you're here i have space for you i will take care of you and breathing in kindness and care now to the part of you that feels the worst i may be asking your emotion what is it that it needs it may be acceptance gentleness non-judgment or something else maybe making an intention to give your emotion what it is that it needs and connecting with yourself as the experiencer of this emotion affirming that it is difficult for you to experience this emotion that it is painful and uncomfortable that it hurts what is it that you need now what could you do to support yourself right now and maybe making an intention to give this to yourself whatever it is that would most support you in this moment and coming back to the breath now and noticing how you feel how does your body feel and your mind feel and your heart feel and knowing that whatever way you feel is absolutely okay and absolutely belongs