So welcome to the Caring for Strong Emotions meditation from Cara Jewell-Lingo's book We Were Made for These Times.
In this meditation on embracing strong emotions,
I will invite you to bring to mind a slightly difficult or challenging moment that you experienced recently,
But not a major or particularly traumatic one.
It is best to begin with what is easier.
Or you could bring to mind a situation that happened some time ago,
But that involves a sticky or difficult emotion you often encounter in your life and are curious about.
Please note,
If at any point you feel overwhelmed,
Pause the meditation,
Open your eyes,
Connect with the places your body is making contact with,
Or bring awareness to the colours and shapes in your environment.
You can change your bodily position and stretch.
If after this you feel more settled,
You can resume the practice or shift instead to mindfulness of the body or the breath.
So let's begin.
Find a comfortable position,
Letting the body open and settle.
Feel the solidity and stability of the earth and let it hold you.
Allow your body to rest within the support of the earth.
Connect with the experience of breathing in and breathing out.
You may like to place a hand on your heart and feel the body moving as you breathe.
Enjoy the natural flow of the breath,
How it knows just what to do.
There's no need to manage or control the breath.
It takes care of itself.
Let your attention sweep through your body now,
Releasing places of holding or tension.
Your face,
Jaw,
Shoulders,
Belly,
Any other places that might need your attention.
Notice if there are places in the body that feel good,
Pleasant or neutral,
Where things are just okay.
It can be helpful to first resource yourself,
So bring to mind a place,
Person or animal that helps you feel safe and connected.
Visualize the characteristics of this being or place.
Connect with the positive feelings you have when you are close to this being or in this place.
Breathe these feelings into your body and mind and allow them to nourish you.
Take in the good of it.
Now that you have resourced yourself,
You can allow the difficult emotion to be here.
Imagine yourself back in that situation and notice what emotion or emotions arose.
Was it anger,
Worry,
Fear,
Sadness,
Doubt,
Shame,
Disappointment,
Something else?
Whatever it was,
Notice how it feels in you now.
What are its qualities?
Is it heavy,
Sticky,
Sharp,
Dull,
Aching,
Hot or cold?
Allow mindfulness to also come up now and be with your emotion.
With mindfulness,
You breathe in and out,
Recognizing the emotion,
Calling it by name,
Becoming familiar with it,
Stay present with it.
Breathe in and out,
Staying focused on what you experience in your body.
Mindful awareness offers acceptance to this painful emotion.
While part of you may want to run away from the pain,
Mindfulness is here and is helping you to give it space,
To offer it friendship.
Feel yourself opening to accept and befriend this painful emotion to whatever extent you can.
Now with this gentle opening toward your experience,
You can embrace this part of you,
Accepting it even more deeply.
Open your arms to it and offer love and care,
Like you would hold a crying baby who just needs compassion and care.
Release any judgment toward your emotion and see if you can bring in the energy of tenderness.
My dear emotion,
I am here for you,
Holding you.
I will take good care of you.
I won't leave you or abandon you.
Let yourself express whatever wants to come to this part of yourself that has been rejected so many times.
Now it is finally getting the care it needs.
Take several deep breaths as you bring an attitude of embracing to this part of yourself and notice how this feels in your body.
Now turn with interest to explore what this emotion has come to teach you.
What wisdom does it hold?
What has brought it about?
Maybe some part of it reveals itself to you that you hadn't seen or understood before.
Look deeply into it to see it more clearly.
What might this emotion need or want from you right now?
Wonderful,
Wonderful work,
Really good.
Now let yourself settle back and rest,
Opening to whatever is here in your body,
In your awareness from doing this exercise.
Allow the insight or transformation you experience some space and time to integrate.
Breathe.
Hello weeds,
Hello garbage,
Hello future compost.
Thank you for this chance for transformation.
I'm so happy that you're here.
If I hide away,
You'll just come back bigger anyway.
So I'll take care of you and soon you'll be beautiful flowers.
That's from the Hello Weeds song,
Plum Village song.
We actually don't need to get rid of the weeds in us.
In fact they are essential.
They become fertile compost for the garden of our mind.
With mindfulness,
Anger can turn into compassion,
Greed into generosity and ignorance into wisdom.
These difficult emotions in us are like mud that is helping the lotus of awakening to grow.
They have a fundamental place and as we learn to work skillfully with them,
They transform into exquisite flowers.
And as you continue to breathe,
I'll just read the extract for dealing with strong emotions in daily life.
Whenever a strong emotion arises in daily life,
See if you can remember the first step,
Which is to recognize it.
Bring mindfulness up from store consciousness to accompany the strong emotion.
Feel where it is in your body.
Notice what sensations it has.
Practice saying hello to your strong emotion and calling it by name,
Saying I see you,
Worry,
Sadness,
Irritation.
I know you're here.
As soon as possible,
Once you're aware it has arisen in your mind,
If you can identify it,
That's okay.
You can just say suffering or discomfort is here.
This way you have a choice about how to respond to the strong emotion rather than being taken over by it.
To summarize,
There are five steps of caring for strong emotions.
Number one is to recognize the strong emotion.
Number two is to accept it.
Number three,
Embrace it.
Number four,
Look deeply into it.
Number five,
Allow insight to arise.
I will bring this practice of caring for our strong emotions to an end by inviting three signs of the bell.
Listen,
Listen.
This wonderful sign is bringing me back to my true home.
