This meditation is called Bringing S-Self to Difficult Emotions,
IFS style.
Starting with your eyes closed or a soft gaze cast down,
Taking your time to settle in your chosen posture,
Arriving there,
Maybe you might like to take three breaths in through the nostrils and out with a sigh through the mouth,
Perhaps noticing if there's any unnecessary tension in the body that you could perhaps breathe into and soften a little on the breath out,
So bringing to mind a difficult situation now,
And if this is something you're summoning up for the exercise,
Go for something very low level,
Maybe a three or four out of ten in terms of difficulty,
If it's something that's already present and you're willing to give this a try,
Go for it,
But if it does bring anything too difficult up for you,
It might be best to just let go of the practice and perhaps consider getting one-on-one help with it,
Seeing if you can notice how this situation feels in your body as you think about it,
Once you can notice the feelings in the body,
Do your best to let the story go,
You can always come back to it later,
But just for now,
Ask the story,
Will it give you a little bit of space and allow you to stay with the feelings in your body,
As you notice this difficult feeling in the body,
Notice that it is not you,
Then notice the difficult experience,
Then notice the you that is noticing it,
And again,
Notice the difficult experience,
Then notice the you that is noticing it,
Keep doing this until you can see the difficult experience as somewhat separate from you,
It may help to hold your hands out in front of you,
With just your fingertips and thumbs touching,
As though you're holding the difficult experience gently,
And play with moving the hands a little closer or a little further away from you,
Keeping the fingers and thumbs open,
So it's not like we're clutching the emotion,
But we're also not pushing it away,
Those of you who are familiar with Qi Gong might like to hold it as though it was the ball of Qi,
With the hands gently moving around it,
Then asking yourself the question,
How do you feel towards this difficult emotion,
If the answer is compassion or curiosity,
Then just staying with that,
If how you feel towards this difficult emotion is anything other than compassion or curiosity or something in that vein,
Then naming that,
Ask the part feeling this other feeling,
Perhaps frustration or disappointment or anger,
Irritation,
Sadness,
Ask it to soften a little,
Ask it to give you some space,
Turning back to the difficult emotion and asking the same question,
How do you feel towards this difficult emotion now,
If the answer is compassion or curiosity or something like this,
Then just staying with that,
If how you feel towards this difficult emotion is anything other than compassion or curiosity or something like that,
Then naming that feeling,
Perhaps it's the same as it was before,
Perhaps it's a different feeling towards the difficult emotion,
Asking the part feeling this to soften a little bit,
To give you space,
You can let these parts know that they can come back,
You're not getting rid of them,
Just getting them to give you a bit of space,
Turning back to the difficult emotion,
Asking the question again,
How do you feel towards this difficult emotion,
If the answer is something like compassion or curiosity,
Then just staying with that,
If how you feel towards this difficult emotion is anything other than something like compassion or curiosity,
Then naming that,
Ask the part feeling this,
Would it soften a little,
Would it give you a bit of space,
Would it step aside,
Perhaps even relax a little,
Turning back to the difficult emotion and asking again,
How do you feel towards this difficult emotion,
You can keep going with this question or this time you might like to see if you can find a sense of compassion or curiosity,
Cultivate that and bring this to the difficult emotion,
You don't need to do anything,
Just allowing the difficult emotion to feel this compassion or curiosity,
Notice what happens when you do this,
Notice what happens to the difficult emotion,
Are there any shifts or changes in any small or big ways,
Does it feel different at all,
Taking a moment to notice any changes and perhaps savour any feelings of compassion or curiosity or similar,
When you feel ready,
Taking your time,
Letting the emotion go and you're sitting,
Your eyes closed for a little bit of time,
Perhaps thanking all the parts that showed up just now,
Thank you.
