Accepting Emotions

This is a mindfulness practice to help teach you to manage difficult emotional experiences without getting caught up or carried away in them. The key components of this practice include: acceptance, non-attachment, non-judgment, and self-compassion.

Transcript

To begin today's meditation find a comfortable position either sitting on a cushion on the floor or in a chair or lying down on your back. If you are sitting allow your spine to be long and straight and let your shoulders drop. Gently close your eyes or if you'd prefer gaze down at the floor in front of you with a soft focus. Begin to let go of the day so far, Of things you've done, Conversations you've had. Bring your awareness into the present moment. Allow yourself to be here now. So today's practice involves tapping into your emotional mind and body. We'll explore how you're feeling today and practice observing your emotional experience without getting caught up or carried away in it. So this is a particularly helpful practice for when you're experiencing something difficult or painful like anxiety or stress or feeling down. Typically when we experience unpleasant or painful emotions we want to run away from them. We might distract ourselves by watching television or use substances to numb the pain or we might try to think our way out of them but end up ruminating and feeling even worse. But today we'll practice doing the opposite of this. So rather than avoiding this inner discomfort we will embrace it with kindness and curiosity. By doing this, By practicing this, We learn that feelings and emotions change. So even when we're experiencing storms of anger, Anxiety, Pain or sadness, When we give these feelings space they will gradually fade or change and be replaced with something else and then something else. So let's take a few deep slow breaths to begin. Breathing in through the nose and out through the nose or mouth and just feel or imagine the breath flowing into and out of the body as you do this. And now return the breath to its natural rhythm and begin to shift your attention inwards and scan through your body from head to toe observing any feelings or emotions that are present. Take your time to move through each area of your body noticing and observing its emotional charge. Now zoom in on one part of your body where you're feeling a sensation or emotion quite strongly. So zoom in and observe how your body is moving. And now move to the other side of your body where you're feeling a sensation or emotion quite strongly. So zoom in and observe how it feels closely and with your eyes. Let your thoughts come and go and just try to keep your attention on the feeling. Notice all the different elements of the feeling. So where it starts and where it stops, Where it's most intense, Noticing if it's on the surface of your body or deeper down. Is it light or heavy? Is it soft or hard? Is it hot or cold? Is it moving or still? And as you're observing this feeling see whether you can begin to direct your breath towards it. So imagine your breath flowing into and around the feeling. Breathing down into and around this feeling. And as you're breathing into it see if you can open up around this feeling. Make room for it somehow in the body. And see if you can just allow this feeling to be there. So you don't have to like it or want it but just allow it. Just let it be. Let it do its thing in the body. Breathing into it, Opening up around it and allowing it to be as it is. You may feel the urge to fight with this feeling, To alter it or push it away. If so just acknowledge this urge is there without acting on it and continue simply observing the sensation. It might be helpful to say to yourself something along the lines of it's here whatever it is it's already here. Let me experience it. If the feeling changes by itself that's okay and if it doesn't change that's okay too because changing or getting rid of it is not the goal. We're simply allowing it to be there. So now take one of your hands and place it on the part of your body where you're feeling this sensation. With your hand press into this area gently and feel the warmth flowing from your hand into your body. Not to get rid of the feeling but to make room for it. To soften, Loosen, Open up around it. Letting your hand fall away now and once again just breathe down into the feeling. When you notice that this feeling or sensation is no longer pulling your attention to the same degree simply return to your breath. Return your focus of attention back to the breath and feel your whole body as you breathe in and out. It might be nice to take a few deep breaths here as we did at the beginning of the practice. I'm going to ring a bell to signal the end of the practice. You of course have the option to continue to sit here with your breath for as long as you like but otherwise when you could no longer hear the ringing gently open your eyes and come back into the room.

Reviews

I'm sending this to an acquaintance who's going through some deep grief.

Many thanks, this was such a helpful mindfulness exercise in dealing with strong feelings of abandonmen,t namaste!

Interesting process - I shall try it again when feelings are more intense.

Very nice meditation, it actually reduced my anxiety by not trying to make it change or leave. I definitely look forward to trying this again when dealing with strong emotions and feelings.

I felt safe and supported throughout this meditation. At the outset I was immersed in emotions and bombarded by thoughts and this shifted to being with all of this difficulty, whilst having space and separateness. The meditation was really effective and helpful. Thank you.