Finding Peace With Your Feelings & Emotions

Having a healthy relationship with your feelings & emotions gives you inner strength, confidence & freedom. This talk and meditation guides you to become connected to your inner life vitality & the energy connected to feelings and emotions. Allowing space within will change your relationship to feelings & emotions & they will no longer have power over you, giving you a sense of freedom and calm when you need it

Transcript

As meditators, Embarking on our journey of self-discovery, If we find we are able to be grounded, Embodied and open to the spacious awareness of our energy body or subtle body, We can then start to become vividly aware of and present with the movement of energy that comes with feelings and emotions. If you're someone that is not yet comfortable sitting and opening into the presence of our subtle body, You can check out my course Journey of Self-Discovery and Self-Healing, Where I guide you step by step in this process. Otherwise, You're welcome to give this meditation a try and see how it feels for you. In this session, I'm going to be talking specifically about the movement of our energy, Of our feelings and emotions within our body and in our life. So all feelings and emotions have an energetic component to them. As we know, Everything in life is made up of energy. We know this as a fact from science. We know this from ancient wisdoms like Tibetan Buddhism or Ayurvedic medicine. We get a sense of it in practices like yoga or Qigong. But for me, Most importantly, We can learn to directly experience and feel this firsthand through meditation with a real sense of present awareness. In my experience, I felt a strong connection to the movement of the energy of my feelings, Emotions and experiences within my life. Feeling these from a grounded place allows the energy of them to go where they need to go, To liberate. They don't get stuck or pushed down and build up over time. This has left me feeling lighter, Freer, More joyful and inspired. Having a good relationship with our feelings and emotions is important because whether we like it or not, They are there with us every day and color our perspective on life. Our energy within directly affects our physical well-being too. We know this from healing practices like acupuncture or sound therapy and they also affect how we function in the world in relation to others. Founder of analytical psychology, Carl Jung, Said that without the feeling function, We would have no discernment of an ethical or moral gauge. My Buddhist teacher, Rob Priest, And psychotherapist, Said in his book Feeling Wisdom, For many of us, Feelings and emotions are the root of so much of our suffering, But equally they can be the ground of our awakening. Feeling is the source of so much wisdom if we know how to live with it. Feeling is so fundamental to our existence that we cannot avoid the fact that to cope with our life, We must learn to relate to it in a meaningful and healthy way. So if you've ever had feelings of really strong emotions like anger or maybe falling in love, You get a real sense of the power and the movement of the energy in your body that comes along with an emotion. So what we really want to do is to be able to be grounded and present with the energy of feelings and emotions as they arise so that they can be liberated and not have power over us. We don't want to push them away. We're really being with them, But from a grounded sense of present awareness. This isn't always easy to begin with, But we can gradually feel a steadiness with it. Over time you will feel that you can be present and grounded no matter what your situation. Also, We are disembodied for a reason. It may take a while to connect to our bodies to trust it. Let's try a little meditation where we can start to be in touch with the experience within our body of the energy of the feelings and emotions. Just to note, During this meditation, Instead of continuously talking, I'd like to give you space to feel into your own experience. Space to really relax and let go. So when there's spaces of silence, Please enjoy those and allow yourself to really be with your own experience. I haven't left you. I'm right here to guide you and support you. So let's begin by finding a comfortable position where your body can feel awake but really relaxed. Try to sit with your back nice and tall, But don't be too rigid. Allow a sense of movement into it. Once you're comfortable, Bring your awareness to the breath within your body, The awareness of the feelings and sensations of your ribs, Lungs and belly, Expanding and contracting with each in-breath and each out-breath. At any point, If you get distracted, Don't worry, Just notice that you're distracted. Let go of the story and then gently bring your awareness back to the breath within your body. Feel your body let go and melt down as you do that. Keep doing that over and over and hold it with a sense of compassion. Make a subtle shift by putting your awareness on your out-breath as a resting and settling breath. Allow yourself to follow the out-breath down into the relaxation within your body. If you notice any holding or contraction anywhere in your body, Just notice it and allow it to let go and relax. Then gently come back to your out-breath and relax into feelings and sensations within your body again. Now take your awareness to the ground of your being, To the sensations and feelings of the ground or the chair supporting you, Of the sensations and feelings of the weight of your legs. Feel that support and really allow your whole body to relax deeply into that supportive sense of ground. If you get distracted, Try not to judge yourself. Don't push the thoughts away. Give them space, Allow them to go where they need to go and then gently come back to the breath within your body, Feeling your body relax deeply into the ground again. Move your awareness up into feelings and sensations within the trunk of your body. Notice anything that is there and give it space to be as it is. Let go and relax. Hold a sense of compassion for yourself and really let go of any judgments or any pushing away or holding. Just give everything space to be as it is and relax your body down into the ground. Allow everything freedom to move as it needs to move. Allow your awareness now to expand to the rest of your body, Opening your awareness out to your arms, Your neck, Your head. Until you become aware of feelings and sensations within your whole body as you relax and breathe. Now allow yourself to open to a more spacious sense of awareness. You may get a sense of the aliveness within your body, The vitality within. You may get a sense that this vitality has different tones, Feelings and nuances to it. Allow everything to be as it is and hold it with a sense of love. Quiet, Present, Open awareness. If you notice yourself trying too hard or distracted, You'll probably notice some sort of holding or contraction within your body. So again, Gently let go, Bring your awareness back to your breath, Allow yourself to relax into your body and allow yourself to open to spacious awareness itself, To the vitality and vibrancy within. Now while you relax in the space of open awareness, Gently bring up a situation for yourself where you feel a strong emotion, Maybe something like anger. It could be a situation where another person causes you to feel angry. It could be a situation where you feel outraged at something, Anything really where you feel a strong emotion like anger or outrage. Now as you relax, Gently drop the story of it and just feel into your body. Notice how it feels within. For example, With myself, If I bring up a situation like that, I notice there's a lot of contraction within my body and a very upward moving feeling of energy. Almost like it's pulling me out of the ground. Whatever you feel, It's okay, Just allow it to be as it is. The essence is in the noticing and allowing. Hold it with a sense of love and compassion and really allow your whole body to relax, Let go and allow the movement of that energy you feel, The freedom to just go where it needs to go. You may feel that somehow as you give it space, It seems to liberate itself, To move out and dissolve away. As this happens, Feel your body really relax back down into the ground, Free. Now as you relax, Bring up a different situation for yourself, Where you feel an emotion like care or compassion. It could be something like the feeling when you hug your dog or cat, Maybe the feeling of being out in nature, Somewhere where you feel really open and peaceful. Really feel like you're there, Let the feelings and emotions grow. Now drop the story and notice how it feels for you in your body, To feel those subtle feelings of care and compassion. With myself for example, If I think of how I feel when I hug my cat that I love so much, The energy within my body feels really soft, Really open, Really grounded. Whatever is there for you, Hold it with a sense of open-heartedness and as you deeply relax into the ground, Give space for that energy to move where it needs to move. There's nothing that needs to happen or should happen, Just notice whatever is there and keep allowing yourself to relax and allowing the space of open awareness. Now let all that go and bring your awareness back to feelings and sensations of open spacious awareness, To the vitality of your body. Feel the ground supporting you and relax down into that ground. As we bring this meditation to a close, Allow yourself to just feel what is happening for you, Without creating too many stories around it, Just allow it to be as it is. You may have noticed the difference in the tones and nuances within your body, Connected to those two different emotions. Please don't worry if you don't get a vivid sense of this, You are exactly where you need to be, Just allow it to be and try to enjoy where you are. You are on a journey of becoming your truest self, So just allow everything's space to be as it is. If we repress our emotions, They will not simply disappear but will become embedded in our body. They may then gradually manifest through illnesses. Having a healthy relationship with our feelings and emotions is really beneficial to us in our daily lives. It really gives us a sense of grounding and a sense of space in our lives, No matter what the situation. Once you have a healthy relationship with your feelings and emotions, You'll find that you'll be able to deal with stress more easily, You will sleep better, Have more self compassion and your relationships will improve. A healthier, Happier you.

Reviews

This lesson was just what I needed for a better understanding of the ‘movement of energy’ associated with different feelings and emotions. The exercise near the end on feelings/sensations brought on by extreme emotionse like anger vs joy was especially helpful. The lesson also deepened my understanding of of what you mean by open awareness. Thank you Olivia.