Pause for a moment.
You are about to embark on a voyage of discovery to explore your painful emotion and see it with new eyes.
Take a slow deep breath and focus your attention on your body.
Start at the top of your head and scan downwards.
Notice where in your body this feeling is strongest.
Your forehead,
Eyes,
Jaw,
Mouth,
Throat,
Neck,
Shoulders,
Chest,
Abdomen,
Pelvis,
Buttocks,
Arms or legs.
If you have gone numb continue with the exercise but focus on the sensations of numbness.
Once you have located this feeling observe it with wide-eyed curiosity.
As if you are a marine biologist who has encountered some fascinating new denizen of the deep.
See if you can discover something new about it,
About where it is,
What it feels like,
Or how it behaves.
Notice its energy,
Pulsation or vibration.
Notice the different layers within it.
Notice where it starts and where it stops.
Is it deep or shallow,
Moving or still,
Light or heavy?
What is its temperature?
Can you notice hot spots or cold spots within it?
Notice any resistance you may have to it.
Is your body tensing up around it?
Are you breathing more rapidly and shallowly?
Is your mind protesting or fretting?
As you notice your emotion name it.
Silently say to yourself,
Here is fear or here is anger or here is guilt.
If you can't pinpoint the exact name of the emotion then try here is pain or here's stress or here's numbness.
And continue to observe this emotion as if it is some fascinating sea creature.
The big difference is now this creature has a name.
You know what you are dealing with.
Breathe slowly and deeply and imagine your breath flowing into and around the emotion.
And as your breath does this it's as if in some way you expand,
As if a space opens up inside you.
This is the space of awareness and just as the ocean has room for all its inhabitants your own spacious awareness can easily contain all your emotions.
So breathe into the feeling and open around it.
Loosen up around it.
Give it space.
Breathe into any resistance within your body.
The tension,
The knots,
The contraction and make space for all that too.
Breathe into any resistance from your mind.
The smoky haze of no or bad or go away.
And as you release the breath also release your thoughts instead of holding onto them let them come and go like clouds in the sky.
There is no need to like,
Want or approve of this emotion.
Just see if you can allow it.
Allow it to be where it is.
It's already there so why fight it.
Make peace with it.
Let it have its space.
Give it room to move.
Give it permission to do what it's already doing.
To be as it already is.
The marine biologist may concentrate her attention on the octopus but she can also broaden her focus to notice the water around it and the rocks beneath.
And we can all widen our focus in a similar way.
Thus once you've made space for your feelings the aim is to expand your awareness.
Continue to notice your feeling and at the same time recognize it is only one aspect of the here and now.
Around this feeling is your body and with that body you can see,
Hear,
Touch,
Taste and smell.
So take a step back and admire the view.
Do not only notice what you are feeling but also what you are hearing,
Seeing and touching.
Think of your awareness as the beam of a powerful torch revealing what lies hidden in the darkness.
Shine it in all directions to get a clear sense of where you are.
As you do this do not try to distract yourself from this feeling and don't try to ignore it.
Keep it in your awareness while at the same time connecting with the world around you.
Allow the feeling to be there along with everything else that is also present.
Notice what you are feeling and thinking.
Notice what you are doing and how you are breathing.
Notice it all.
Take it all in.
Straddle two worlds with your awareness,
The one within you and the one outside you.
Illuminate both with your consciousness and return to the physical space and engage fully in life as it is in this moment.
