Learn Mindfulness Day 10: Your Emotional Landscape

Today, we’ll expand on yesterday’s meditation practice by exploring how emotions can show up in our bodies. This is a way to take a step back from our emotions to see them more clearly and gain a deeper insight into their true nature. You’ll also learn useful ways to change your relationship with challenging feelings and body sensations using the mindful awareness you’ve been cultivating in this course so far. These practices can also be used to work with pain, tension, and anxiety.

Transcript

Find your comfortable posture, Sitting in any way that feels right for you, And take a nice deep breath in, Breathing out, And gently close your eyes. And as you do this, Feeling those contact points where your body meets the surface you're sitting on, And also gently letting go of all the things I've just said at the beginning of this lesson, Really coming into this moment, And into your felt experience of now. And taking another deep breath in, Breathing out, And letting your body relax into the surface you're sitting on. This is your time now. And begin by noticing how you feel right now, Shifting your attention to your emotions, Just as we did yesterday. What emotions are present for you right now? Tuning in to the emotional tone here, Maybe there's a feeling of emptiness, That you can't pick anything up, Maybe a bit of underlying tension or anxiety, Maybe a sense of frustration or boredom. Being here now, And wanting to be somewhere else, Not wanting to sit here, Feeling the pull of the outside world. And also noticing if these words conjure up any emotions, As words like anxiety can actually trigger us as well. So with a gentle, Curious awareness, Being aware of your moment to moment experience of emotions. And if this is challenging, That's okay, Maybe emotion words don't really fit, Maybe you just feel light, A bit tingly, Fluid, Heavy, Tense. Now letting go of those words, Being with that felt sense. And noticing if you can pick that up in your body. Where does that emotion show up in your body? Just gently being aware, And only moving as close to it as you want to. And does that emotion have a shape? Does it move around in your body at all? Or does it seem very solid? Could you give it a colour? Really bringing this gentle curiosity to that experience, No need to judge. There's no goal here, Nothing to achieve. And using your beginners mind, Imagining that you're experiencing this emotion for the very first time. How does this emotion show up in your body? How does it manifest for you? And now how is it in this moment? Maybe your mind has wandered off, Maybe to something completely unrelated. And if that's happened, Just gently bring yourself back to a sense of that emotion in your body. And now, Gently open your eyes, As we end this meditation.