Welcome to day 15.
Today's guided meditation practice will focus on building resilience to your response to anger.
When you're ready,
Please find a comfortable seated posture,
Allowing the eyes to close,
And simply taking some slow,
Long,
Deep breaths in through the nose.
Open the mouth,
Sigh it out.
Anger is an emotion that may consume us completely,
Causing us to act in ways that are harmful or unproductive.
When anger arises,
The mind can fall victim to harsh thoughts,
Judgments,
And obsessions.
By creating space and responding to our anger with compassion and awareness,
We can build resiliency and adjust our anger responses.
This exercise offers a way to deal with anger when we are right in the midst of it.
When we notice anger,
Frustration,
Or irritation arising,
Allow the eyes to close.
Know that you are feeling anger.
Do not try to rid yourself of it,
Talk yourself out of it,
Or pretend it is not there.
Breathe deeply into the abdomen.
Feel the chest and stomach fill with air and exhale slowly.
As you exhale,
Make an effort to empty the lungs.
Feel the stomach muscles engage,
Diaphragm helps to press that last little bit of air out.
And for the next few minutes,
I'm going to allow you to continue breathing deeply here.
Notice any thoughts,
Any feelings that may be arising in the body.
And see if you can simply bring compassionate awareness to those emotions,
To those sensations,
To those feelings.
I'll mind the time for the next two minutes.
Simply breathing in and out.
Let's take one more full deep breath in.
Let it go.
Now I invite you to bring a situation to mind that is causing you anger.
If you are newer to this practice,
It is helpful to work with something that is mildly frustrating.
The feeling of full on rage may be a little too overwhelming to start.
Inside I suggest you're running late for work.
There's traffic.
The person in front of you in line is taking too long to order and you're hungry.
It doesn't have to be something fancy.
It doesn't have to even be a particular situation.
Let's bring something to mind where you feel frustration or anger.
And as you tune into the rising anger,
Allow yourself to feel what is happening in the body.
Notice the sensations that indicate anger.
You may feel tension in the shoulders.
Maybe your breath has shallowed or sped up.
There may be a feeling of a pit in the stomach.
A flushing of the skin on your face.
Or any number of changes within the body.
And each experience in the body with a compassionate awareness.
Recognize the tension by noting tension.
And staying with the experience for a few breaths.
When you open your awareness and see what else is occurring in the body,
You may find other areas that need a little more TLC.
So as you continue to notice,
To recognize,
Simply breathe.
Start the feeling,
The sensation.
And see if you can let it soften and relax.
Imagine this feeling of anger in the body,
In your mind.
Ask yourself what may be underneath the anger or what may be causing it.
There may be feelings of pain,
Betrayal,
Wanting to control something,
Or some perceived lack of safety.
If you cannot find the answer at first,
Patiently wait to see if something comes up.
When you notice something underneath the anger,
Name it.
If you find that you are hurt,
Say internally to yourself,
Hurt.
And with a phrase of compassion,
Such as,
May I learn to care about this pain.
When you are finished with this practice today,
It may be nice to take out a journal to write what you noticed in the body and about what you found underneath the anger,
How it felt to try and respond with compassion.
And as we continue to experience anger,
Because let's face it,
We all do,
Hopefully we'll be able to find ourselves in this moment and see it with wisdom and patience.
If you have some more time to sit here,
Simply breathing into the sensation of anger,
Asking yourself what is the underlying cause,
You may find the answers are different than what you expected.
Knowing you can use this practice at any point throughout your day,
Might I suggest if someone cuts you off in traffic,
Not closing the eyes.
But we still have the opportunity to pause,
To breathe,
To notice when anger is arising.
And instead of falling victim to the harsh thoughts,
Judgments,
And obsessions,
Take a moment to compassionately ask yourself,
What is the feeling underneath anger?
Do not be afraid of what you uncover.
Simply love yourself for being vulnerable enough to show your emotions.
I thank you for taking this time to sit with me today.
If you are finding that you are not able to come up and out of this without carrying some residual stress,
Frustration,
Jump up and down a couple of times,
Maybe shake the arms out wave anything to make yourself laugh,
Giggle,
Call a friend.
This work can be very challenging.
But I promise you,
The rewards far surpass the work we have to put in.
I look forward to sitting with you on day 16.
