So mindfulness meditation on labeling emotions.
So in a comfortable,
Quiet place,
Coming into a seated,
Dignified posture,
Relaxed,
Upright.
Quickly closing your eyes,
Taking a few deeper breaths to relax your body.
Just bringing your awareness to your body,
Noticing your posture and any sensations occurring in the body.
And then gently placing one or two hands on your heart's region.
We just gently begin mindful awareness of our breathing.
Breathing through our heart.
We're going to do this for the next few minutes.
Whenever you wish,
You can gently let your hands fall down into your lap.
And then at some point,
Gently place them on the heart region anew.
Breathing in through the heart region.
Breathing out.
No expectation.
Just gently cultivating awareness of what there is.
Breathing in through the heart region.
Breathing out,
Down into the body.
Now releasing the breath,
Keeping your attention in the heart region and ask yourself,
What am I feeling?
What am I feeling?
And just gently allow your attention to be drawn to the strongest emotion in your body.
Even if it's only a whisper of a feeling.
Use your body like an antenna.
Leave your strongest feeling a name.
If you're without any strong emotions,
You might be feeling content.
Perhaps just curious.
Eventually you'll probably find another emotion,
Such as longing,
Sadness,
Maybe worry,
Loneliness.
Maybe pride.
Or joy.
So repeat the label two or three times in a kind,
Gentle voice.
And then return to your breath.
Go back and forth between your breath and your emotions in a relaxed way.
Let your attention be drawn from your breath by an emotion.
Label it.
And then return to your breath.
There is no need to find an emotion if there isn't one.
Then just be open to the possibility of emotions as you breathe.
If you find yourself feeling overwhelmed by an emotion,
Then stay with your breath until you feel better.
So this practice helps us to just see emotions as just emotions,
Rather than getting caught up in them.
Just noting.
Then maybe labeling.
Just a word.
Repeat the label two or three times in a kind,
Gentle voice.
And then return to your breath.
If you ever become bored during this exercise,
Label it bored.
Boredom can always change to something else when we linger with it long enough,
Without prejudice.
Or just see if there's anything unpleasant or unfamiliar lurking in the shadows just behind boredom.
And in this way,
We practice.
We go back and forth between our breath and our emotions in a relaxed way.
The practice of labeling emotions can transform us into poets,
Searching for subtle nuances in emotional experience,
Unflinching in the face of discomfort.
Really coming back to the breath at any point when we feel distracted.
Breathing in.
Breathing out.
Finding our awareness out.
Looking for echoes of the emotion in the body.
And if and when we find an emotion,
We just give it a label.
Repeat the label two or three times in a kind,
Gentle voice,
And then return to your breath.
The more accurately we label an emotion,
The more effectively we become free from it.
But don't think too much about it.
Choose a good enough label and return to the breath.
It may be interesting to find words for how you are with the meditation process itself.
Your task is simply to recognize the strongest feelings happening in the present moment.
Just allowing things to be.
Breathing and breathing.
To finish off,
Just gently coming back onto your breathing.
Breathing in.
Breathing out,
Down into the body,
Down into the ground.
Feeling the earth beneath.
Bringing our awareness into the room.
The space around us.
The sounds.
And in our own time,
Just gently bringing the meditation to a close.
