This is a guided meditation on welcoming and listening to your anger.
If you haven't yet,
Head to my profile and listen to my short teaching to learn more
about the gifts that anger brings.
In the contemplative Christian tradition,
We have a prayer that's called the welcoming
prayer.
It starts out by saying,
I welcome everything that comes to me today because I know it's
for my healing.
I welcome all thoughts,
Feelings,
Emotions,
Persons,
Situations,
And conditions.
As we begin this practice of welcoming our anger,
I invite you to find a comfortable
position for your body,
Either sitting or lying down,
And take a moment to settle in
to a relaxed state.
Allow your breath to become steady and calm as we begin.
You can always use your breath as an anchor,
Without needing to change it in any way.
You can always come back to focusing on the sensation of air entering and leaving your
body.
You can always come back to the connection between your body and the ground beneath you.
If at any point during meditation you become overwhelmed by your emotion,
Please do what
you need to do to center yourself and remind yourself that you are safe in this space.
As we dive into this exploration of our own anger,
Let's set our intention together.
Ask your heart to be open to the idea that anger is a natural and valid emotion,
A guidepost
for understanding what needs to be protected and what needs to be restored.
Even just for these few moments,
Give yourself permission to explore it without judgment
in our time together.
Now,
Bring to mind a recent situation in which you felt anger.
If you're able to,
Try to think of a lower stakes situation where you felt anger but
maybe not to an extreme degree or maybe not in a situation that's repetitive.
Once you've landed on the situation that you're going to think about right now,
I want
you to picture the details,
The environment where you were,
Who was involved,
And how
you were feeling.
As much as you're able,
Let the scene unfold in your imagination.
Now that you're somewhat immersed in this moment from the past,
I want you to pay attention
to your body in this memory and maybe even in this moment as you kind of relive this
situation.
Where do you feel your anger in your body?
What sensations arise?
See if you can notice any muscle tension,
Heat,
Or discomfort.
Is there a specific area where you feel the intensity of your anger?
Take a moment to simply observe.
If at any point the energy of your anger feels uncomfortably strong,
You can try to move
your body to work with that energy.
You can intentionally try clenching your fists very tightly and then releasing.
If you are in a situation where you can yell or growl,
That's another great way to release
some of the energy if you need to.
Remember that anger is there to help us restore our boundary.
You can imagine your boundary as an actual bubble around your body and experiment with
imagining that you're letting your anger out of your body into this space between your
body and your boundary.
And it's kind of waiting there charging you up until you decide with intention how you're
going to channel your energy through anger.
So as you're in this moment in the past,
You're experiencing your anger through emotion,
Through bodily sensation.
Now allow space for any thoughts.
So in that moment,
What thoughts accompanied your anger?
Now I want you to allow any thoughts around the situation to surface.
So we have our feelings,
We have our bodily sensation,
And now we have our thoughts.
So in that moment,
Or maybe even now,
What thoughts accompanied your anger?
Were there any specific phrases or pieces of your internal dialogue that kept repeating
themselves?
Did it remind you of something from the past?
As you do this work,
Remember that we are trying to observe with curiosity and with
compassion rather than placing judgment or beating ourselves up for thinking a certain
way or feeling a certain way.
In this safe space,
We are just working with what is there and allowing it,
Or we're welcoming
it into this time.
Remember that you can use your breath as a centering point as needed.
Inhale compassion,
Exhale judgment.
Feel the rhythm of your breath as a constant anchor grounding you in your exploration.
Okay,
So now we have our emotion,
We have our bodily sensations and our feelings,
And
we have our thoughts.
I want you to try something that maybe you've never done before.
What you're going to do is try to talk directly to your anger.
Ask your anger what boundary was broken,
What needs to be protected,
And also ask your
anger what action you could take to bring restoration.
Maybe your anger suggests that you should repress it,
Or maybe on the other side,
Your
anger suggests that you should express it in some violent way.
Remember that your anger is not in charge here,
You are in charge,
So you can thank
your anger for the suggestion,
Even if it's not particularly helpful.
You can thank your anger for working hard to protect you and let it know that you're
listening and that you are capable of using the information you've received from your
anger to protect yourself,
To do that vital work of restoration.
As we come to the close of our meditation,
I want you to take your arms and act as if
you are wrapping yourself in a big hug full of self-compassion.
I want you to remember that you are not your anger,
And your anger is not you.
Your anger is a messenger,
Guiding you toward restoration and protection.
Thank yourself for allowing this exploration and reminder to yourself that you are worthy
of compassion and understanding.
When you're ready,
Release yourself from your self-hug.
Gently open your eyes and move your body in a way that helps you to release any residual
feelings you might be carrying,
And remind yourself that you are here,
Now,
In this present
moment.
If the anger still feels really present,
You can try one of these ideas.
Try pushing against a wall or some other surface until your body fatigues or doesn't want to
push anymore.
You can try again clenching your fists and feeling that tension until they want to naturally
unclench.
Or you could go for a walk or a workout that can help you expend some of the energy.
I also love journaling if you still have residual things that you want to get out.
Thank you for being here with me and with yourself today.
The next time that you experience anger,
May your practice here serve you in that moment.
