Difficult Emotions: Changing Relation To Step By Step

Inspired by Loch Kelly, this is more of a guided reflection rather than a meditation. A mixture of defusion from emotions and tapping into what Loch Kelly calls "effortless awareness". One of a set of "being with difficult emotions" that I have prepared is inspired by different teachers and traditions. In general practicing with emotions of a 2-6/10 difficulty rather than more intense emotions is recommended.

Transcript

Recorded by Adele Stewart,

MBSR teacher in Winona,

June 2020.

Feel your difficult emotion fully,

Just for a short while,

Whether it be fear,

Anger,

Jealousy,

Or sadness.

I'll use sadness as the example in the following steps.

You can substitute whatever emotion you choose.

Begin by silently saying to yourself,

I am sad.

Fully experience what it is like to say and feel I am sad.

Stay with this experience as best you can until you feel it completely.

Now instead of saying I am sad,

Take a breath and say,

I feel sadness.

Noticing the shift from I am to I feel.

Experiencing this shift and possibly this new feeling of being,

Perhaps feeling your relationship to the sadness as a feeling.

And now the next shift is by saying silently to yourself,

I am aware of feeling sadness.

I am aware of feeling sadness.

Experience awareness of feeling sadness fully.

Perhaps noticing a part of yourself that is an observing witness.

Notice any different emotional quality that comes from this awareness of feeling sadness.

Shifting again,

Silently saying,

Sadness is welcome.

Perhaps noticing any resistance to this,

But trying it out anyway.

Sadness is welcome.

As best you can staying in this sense of awareness and experiencing what welcoming the feeling is like.

Perhaps you might even tap into an awareness that is outside yourself,

Directed in,

That can embody and embrace the feeling.

Noticing any different emotional quality that comes from welcoming and embracing,

Sensing any support that welcoming or embracing brings.

And the final shift is saying silently,

Awareness and sadness are not separate.

Pausing now,

Perhaps noticing awareness around and within you.

Permeating the emotional fully.

But without need to identify with the emotion or reject it.

Feel the awareness of the emotion fully from within.

Perhaps feeling the awareness,

The energetic aliveness,

The deep stillness of presence.

Perhaps sometimes when doing this exercise,

You may even notice a feeling of looking out at others and the world from this embodied,

Connected,

Open hearted awareness.

And noticing with kindness your reactions to this exercise,

Which can be very different on different days,

Different states of mind,

And for different people.

Reviews

Thank you Adelle for these 4 steps in a healthier approach in dealing with emotion, rather than pushing it away. Just changing from “I am” to “I feel” gave me breathing space. 🥰

Hello beautiful 🌼☀️🌼☀️🌼Thank you so much for the wonderful meditation and creating my new sense of sad ☔️☔️☔️with much more possibilities 🗺️have a blessed day 🕉️Namaste