Difficult Emotions: Body As Foundation

This meditation is one of a set on being with difficult emotions. Our body is the foundation for our emotional life — the living ground that holds and allows the flow of feeling. In this practice, inspired by Judith Blackstone we’ll explore how awareness can settle into the pelvic bowl, the diaphragm, the throat, and even the the lower eye sockets — regions that gently contain and express our emotions. As we attune to these foundations, the body becomes both a safe but responsive container for emotional life — steady, spacious, and alive. Rather than “managing” emotion, we’ll learn to inhabit the body so fully that emotion can move through us with wisdom and ease.

Transcript

This practice is a guided body scan with a focus on feeling tone and our body as foundations to contain our emotional life.

Just come into a comfortable seated position,

Sitting on a dining room type chair with feet flat on the floor,

Pelvis and hips slightly higher than knees is ideal.

You could also sit on a meditation cushion or meditation stool or stand.

This one's probably best not done lying down.

And noticing the whole body,

The whole body on the earth,

Perhaps having a sense of the earth holding you,

Supporting you.

And bringing the attention now down to our feet.

Our feet literally connect us to the earth,

Our point of contact with support,

With gravity,

With ground.

So right now,

Inhabiting and knowing sensations throughout your feet.

Notice the contact,

Perhaps temperature,

Pressure,

Dampness,

Dryness,

Anything else,

Pleasant,

Unpleasant,

And neutral.

And you might like to gently press down through your heels,

Not too tense,

But just feel the earth gently push back.

Maybe even noticing your feet as foundations,

Just in this moment.

Moving the attention up now to our legs.

So our legs carry our weight,

Both physically and emotionally.

They express our ability to take a stand,

To move away,

To step into life.

So inhabiting your legs,

Not just noticing them,

But inhabiting your thighs,

Your knees,

Your calves.

Perhaps noticing,

Are they soft,

Braced,

Tense?

Perhaps the sensations are really difficult to feel.

Can you feel any sensations in the skin,

In the muscles,

In the joints of the legs?

Pleasant,

Unpleasant,

Or neutral?

As you breathe,

See if you can resist the tendency for the in-breath to take you away from your legs,

And let your breath travel downwards into the legs,

As if you could breathe into your legs and feet.

Noticing our legs and feet as foundations can be particularly helpful if we spend a lot of time in our head.

Moving your attention now up to inhabit your pelvic bowl and pelvic floor as a foundation.

So the pelvic bowl holds the pelvic organs,

The base of the spine,

And also connects us to gravity and the earth through our legs and feet.

This pelvic bowl serves as a strong,

Stable container.

You may even use your hands here to identify your pubic bone at the front,

Your tailbone at the back,

And maybe putting your hands under your buttocks to feel the sit bones on either side.

And knowing that the pelvic floor connects to these four points,

You might even try a little gentle pulling up of the pelvic floor to know it.

And I like to call this pelvic floor a pelvic hammock,

Because the floor sounds kind of hard,

While the hammock is beautifully supportive,

And it stabilizes and holds important organs.

And the pelvic bowl and hammock can also cradle our emotional life.

And it yields,

It releases,

It responds to changes,

To breath,

Tension,

Threat,

Fear,

And excitement,

Often before we're consciously aware.

Emotions can still move and breathe and be processed while they're held safely and with dignity.

Spending some time now inhabiting our pelvis,

Our pelvic bowl and hammock,

And noticing any sensations there in the skin,

Bones,

Pelvic hammock,

Or pelvic organs.

Pleasant,

Unpleasant,

Neutral.

Or perhaps there's a real blanking or a numbness there,

And that's okay.

No need to force,

Just noticing.

Moving higher up now,

And Roshi Joan Halifax has coined the beautiful phrase,

Strong back,

Soft belly.

So bringing awareness to your spine and back now.

Feel it rising,

Perhaps like a strong mountain behind you.

Not rigid,

But strong.

A kind of scaffolding perhaps along with our back ribs that allow us to be with emotions without falling apart.

And this strong back has qualities of inner stability,

Of dignity,

Clarity,

Boundaries,

Even courage.

It's also a very common human experience to have intense,

Unpleasant sensations in the back.

Perhaps just pausing for a moment and appreciating that your back is actually doing as well as it can.

And in the vast majority of cases,

It still is keeping you upright.

And moving now to the front of your torso,

To your belly.

The belly is the area we instinctively protect when we feel threatened.

We tighten,

Brace,

Curl.

Can you inhabit your belly and give it permission to soften?

Not collapse,

Just release a little.

It's not always as easy as it sounds.

No forcing,

Just permission to soften.

And noticing any sensations in the belly,

In the skin,

In the muscles,

In the organs.

Noticing pleasant,

Unpleasant,

Neutral.

And allowing,

Recognising what's there.

Perhaps you might even try breathing gently into the belly and down into the pelvic bowl.

So as the breath comes in,

The belly expands and there's a sense of the air entering the pelvic bowl with the pelvic hammock at its base.

No need to suck breath in or force it out,

Just allowing that belly to expand on the in-breath and deflate on the out-breath.

Belly breathing can be so helpful to be with big emotions.

So the soft belly is the home of our gut feeling.

That's where we digest not just food,

But experiences and emotions.

So feeling the firm container of strong back and the responsive openness of soft belly.

Can we allow breath,

Tears,

Laughter and grief?

So moving the attention up now to the bottom of our ribs,

To the amazing flat horizontal muscle connected to our lower ribs.

That is the breathing diaphragm that presses down when we breathe in and rises up when we breathe out and empty the lungs.

It's flexible,

Alive,

Rhythmic.

It's between our chest and belly.

It's between inhale and exhale.

Perhaps even between our outer world and inner experience.

You might even like to use your hands in front of you to notice the pressing down of the diaphragm on the breath in and the rise up of the diaphragm as we breathe out.

Like the pelvic bowl and hammock,

The ribs and diaphragm are a container.

I like to think of them like a basket,

The ribs being the sides of the basket,

With a flexible base of the diaphragm.

This wonderful foundation acting almost like an emotional shock absorber.

Responding to changes,

To breath,

Tension,

Grief,

Joy,

Often before we know consciously that something's going on.

Breathing fully into the belly,

Allowing the belly to expand,

Sensing the diaphragm gently pressing down.

And allowing the breath to leave,

Feeling the belly deflate and the diaphragm gently rising.

Spending a little time inhabiting the breathing diaphragm,

Noticing sensations of the breath and the diaphragm.

Is this pleasant?

Perhaps your diaphragm moves beautifully,

Freely.

Or is it unpleasant?

Maybe a restriction or a bracing.

Or maybe neutral,

Neither pleasant nor unpleasant,

Or a little numb or blank or disconnected.

Can you allow the basket of the ribs with this flexible yet strong base,

The diaphragm,

To be another foundation of emotions?

Including emotions of the heart.

So moving up to the heart,

Yes,

Truly the centre of it all.

The heart is held but not trapped by this wonderful container.

Emotions can be intense but don't have to spill out uncontrollably when the container holds them with kindness.

Noticing sensations in the heart now,

Pleasant or unpleasant.

Perhaps placing a hand on the heart for a bit of support.

And if it feels okay,

Placing the hands back perhaps on the lap.

And inhabiting the arms and hands now,

Noticing any sensations in the arms,

Hands and fingers.

Pleasant,

Unpleasant,

Neutral,

Allowing,

Recognising.

And perhaps you might even send some appreciation to these amazing appendages.

And just for a few minutes,

Few moments even,

And just for a few moments,

What is it like to rest your hands in receiving?

In being held by the world rather than doing or fixing.

Moving up now to the neck and throat area.

The throat is where expression,

Inhibiting and the ability to contain or release emotion all intersect.

It's where the voice lives,

Where we swallow words.

Swallow emotions or choke things down.

Letting your emotional life rest in the foundation of the throat.

And as you rest here,

Inhabiting the whole of the throat and neck.

Noticing sensations both deep inside and the surfaces.

Pleasant,

Unpleasant,

Neutral.

Perhaps sensing your inner voice resting there in that foundation.

Not necessarily speaking yet,

Just being known.

And perhaps noticing how the neck is positioned on your shoulders.

Check out,

Is there any subtle bracing with the inspiration perhaps?

Maybe a little bit of softening on the expiration.

Maybe the image of the string pulling gently from the top of the head might help the head and neck sit with real balance on the shoulders.

And as you do so,

You might even notice that vertical integration of the pelvic bowl,

The breathing diaphragm.

The throat and neck,

All there as beautiful foundations for our emotional life.

And moving up to the face now.

And the face and facial muscles play a central role in expressing and sensing emotion.

A place of tears,

Tension or collapse,

Or softness and opening.

Inhabiting the face now and noticing sensations pleasant,

Unpleasant and neutral in the face.

Including the muscles of the jaw,

The cheekbones,

The forehead.

Our eyes in particular are so active in seeing what's going on in the outside world.

When danger might be present,

Often our eyes will widen and our gaze will narrow.

Or our eyes and eyelids may tense with the hard work our thoughts are doing,

Trying to problem solve our world.

Bringing attention to the lower eye sockets as another foundation for our emotions.

Especially the thinking,

Vigilant,

Striving parts.

This area can become a tender,

Stable base.

Not to brace against emotion but to gently hold it,

Witness it and let it flow.

Can you invite the eyes to soften and relax into the sockets?

No need for them to go out on stalks.

And just noticing any sensations in the eye area.

Inhabiting the eyes and lower eye sockets.

Letting go of noticing anything in particular now and widening your attention to inhabit your whole body.

Your whole body.

And starting to move gently,

Keeping a soft gaze and letting a little light into the eyes.

And as you go about your day,

Perhaps noticing these foundations.

How is it to go about your day knowing that you have these beautiful foundations or containers to support,

Gently hold,

Allow to flow the emotion?

Thank you.

Reviews

Thank you Adele, your calm voice allowed the journey through the body to flow seemingly effortless. Interesting to me that I’ve not visited IT for probably 12 months and recently started reading Thich Ngat Hanh’s No Mud No Lotus. Seems a little serendipitous to have chosen your meditation on the body today💖

An enjoyable opportunity to have awareness of the body and how emotions affect it. I liked that there was no music to distract me.
🌿🌷🌿

This was a wonderful body scan - slow & intentional. Thank you. 🙏