Safe To Feel - Emotional Distress Tolerance Meditation

This is a guided practice in which we learn to stay present and conscious even in the presence of distressing emotions. Some examples might be rage, grief, fear, despair, and shame. This can be used alongside other techniques and modalities you use to process these emotions and is intended as a way to remain grounded, stable, and feeling safe so that your other therapeutic inputs are more effective. In addition, this can go a long way to developing a sense of safety and trust within ourselves as we learn our emotions are nothing to fear.

This practice is based on the scientific cognitive behavioral approach and therapeutic practices for PTSD such as Dialectical Behavior Therapy, alongside the spiritual approaches of Kashmir Shaivism, Presence, and Tantra. (Note: This is a complementary practice and not intended to replace any psychiatric or professional mental health input you are receiving.)

Transcript

Hi team. Welcome to this emotional distress tolerance guided meditation. If you are currently experiencing a period of emotional distress, Suffering from uncomfortable painful emotional states. I hope this meditation is of some relief and helps bring you to the other side. Of this period of emotional turmoil. Begin by simply becoming very aware. Of your breathing. And the sensations in the body. As well as the current emotion. So the emotion that you are suffering from is there. We are accepting its presence. We are acknowledging. That this emotion is here, It is being experienced. While at the same time acknowledging There are other elements of your experience too. It's all included. In the present moment. So perhaps you're feeling fear. Agree. Rage. Shame. Any of the painful emotions. . . We accept and acknowledge that it's there. As well as the presence of the sensations of breathing. The presence of the sensations of the body. All of the sounds that we can hear. The quality of the light in the room. The temperature. You can currently feel. The sensation of the fabric of the clothes on your skin. All of these things are present. As well as the presence of this emotional distress. Unease. Turmoil, This pain. So there are many elements to the current experience. Just allow everything to be as it already is. Just as you allow the breath to rise and fall. Allow the emotion to be there also. You are allowing and accepting the body to continue its functions. You're just aware of this. You're not involved. You're just aware. Apply that same awareness, That same allowing acceptance to the emotion that you're feeling. It's alright. You are safe to feel this. Don't try to change it. Don't try to fix it. Don't try to hurry it along. Just let it be as it already is Notice if the experience of the emotion changes. When you don't try to resist it. And you don't try to avoid it. So you're not trying to get away from it. You're not pushing it down. And you're not judging it either. So don't feel as though it shouldn't be here. Don't feel as though you've done something wrong. Or that something has gone wrong. And that's why this emotion is here. Just don't see it like that. Instead, Just see this emotion. To be like a natural phenomena. Just like the weather. It's just hair. There's no sense in trying to control it. There's no need to analyze it or judge it. Just feel it for what it is, The raw material. Of emotion, What actually is it? How does it actually feel? And take all of the narratives out of the emotion. So remove memory from the emotion. Remove the analysis. Remove the conditioning. And remove. All of their implications. Thoughts of future about the emotion. Sometimes we feel If I feel like this tomorrow I won't be able to go to work or. . . I feel like this. Later it will affect my relationships. Just take that out of it and just in the here and now, Just be very present. Very conscious of the here and now. Whatever the emotion is. Just let it be here. There's no pass. Doesn't exist. There's no future. No next moment never arrives just in the now how deeply Can we actually just feel and accept the now? Remain conscious and present. So we're not going up into memory. We're not going up into the mind at all. You're just feeling emotion as naturally as you feel the breath. The body. As naturally as you're aware. Of your sense perceptions. And now we're just seeing that all emotion is a natural. Healthy. Innocent energy Just another element of experience. It's alright. It's okay for it to be here. It really is. And just get to know. This feeling. It's very deep. Experience. Develop. A relationship with your own emotional world. That is based on total acceptance, Pure love. Just relentlessly reaffirming it's okay. It's okay to be here. It's alright to feel. It's okay. You don't have to hide. Don't have to hide this emotion from people. In fact, This emotion It doesn't have anything to do with anyone. It's none of anyone else's business, Actually. It's just your own experience of your inner emotional world. That's all. And the deeper that we're saying, It's alright, It's okay to be here, I can feel this. The more we realise this emotion is not a threat. Just uncomfortable. It just sucks. It does. But, That's alright. There's lots of things in life that suck. Doesn't matter. Just feel this fully. It's okay. Be as though. This emotion is really the only thing in the universe that's of any interest. And be curious about this thing. This emotion that you might have been trying to get away from for a long time. Now we're taking the opposite approach. Just go towards it. Just get to know it. And this is not. Analysis, This is not interpretation or judgment. It's actually just curiosity. What is this thing? What's it made of? And you can begin to allow. The emotion to actually teach you. So you're not trying to push it around or tell it what it is. Turn the picture round. And we're now just listening. Listening? What's this energy trying to say? What's the communication here? And begin to realise. The emotion itself. Already knows. How to free itself how to discharge the pain. How to unbind itself, How to untangle itself. We just need to let go and give it the space it needs. There's no urgency. There's no immediacy about this The emotion has its own timeline. Let it do it, Whatever it wants to do. Does it need the body? Does it need to do something in the body? Do you need to cry? Cry? It's good. So good to cry. Need to shout. The body needs a shape. Hand over. Hand over to the emotion. And it will guide you. It will guide you. And in this conscious acceptance. Truly feeling. Where is the suffering? Is the emotion itself. Suffering. Is the experience. Of raw, Pure. Emotion itself suffering. Or is the suffering what we attach to the emotion? The feeling that it shouldn't be here. Or the belief, I can't cope when this emotion is here. Those are thoughts, That's conditioning. That's where the suffering is. Without those thoughts, Without that mind. Activity. When it's just a pure experience, Just raw energy. Suffering's gone. It still might not be pleasant. That's okay. It's all right. There are worse things than unpleasant. So unpleasant is okay. Just. . . Leave it all alone. I don't mind. You might have thoughts like, How long is this going to go on for? But that's just another thought. There's no time. There's no such thing as the future or the past, There's only now. So forget the idea of how long things last. Just be in it as it. And everything passes according to its own timeline, Its own life cycle. You won't. Need to get to the end of this emotion once it's accepted. Once it's accepted, All is well, Whether it's here or not. In a moment, We'll be coming to the end of the formal aspect of this meditation. And naturally do whatever you need to do if you need to comfort yourself or do something physical to discharge some energy, Absolutely. But just be mindful. That the old conditioning of the mind can come crowding in very quickly. Say right that's enough of all that we need to go get get on with real life stuff like that sort of endless chatter of the mind. Just don't be so quick to. . . Get swept away in a stream of thoughts again. Stay heart-centered rather than head-centered and find that emotions actually not nearly the problem that we used to think they were. In fact, When you stop thinking entirely, Emotions just simply aren't a problem at all. They never were. I never were. There's nothing wrong with you. There's nothing wrong with your emotions. You're not too sensitive. It's all just the fabrication of the mind. Let yourself feel deeply. All right. Take care, Be well, Stay present.