Hello,
And welcome to this meditation on working with difficult emotions.
Let's start by tuning into the breath,
Just feeling the breath,
And see if you can feel your breath in the area of your body where you tend to feel your emotions.
That could be the chest,
Or the stomach,
Or somewhere else,
And if you're not sure where you feel your emotions,
Or you're not used to feeling them in your body,
Then just feel the breath in the chest,
So using the breath to guide your attention into this part of the body,
And noticing what you can feel in there,
Feeling the sensations,
And in particular noticing any that are connected to your mood or emotional state,
Seeing if you can feel how you are right now,
By feeling the sensations here in the body,
And letting your breath guide your attention into this part of the body,
And don't worry if you can't feel anything much,
That's completely fine,
Just feeling this area of the body,
Just staying receptive to whatever you can feel here,
And any sensations having to do with your emotional state,
And now we're going to generate some emotion that we can work with,
So calling to mind something a bit difficult,
Something in your life that might cause you to feel a bit upset,
Maybe don't go for the worst thing,
Go for something a bit more manageable,
But something that's liable to generate a bit of emotion,
Call it to mind,
Let yourself think about it,
Let yourself start to feel a bit upset,
And then when a bit of emotion has arisen,
Focus your attention fully in the area of the body where you can feel that emotion,
So maybe if you tune into the chest you can feel something,
Maybe the stomach,
Maybe somewhere else,
And if you can't feel the emotion anywhere in the body,
Just tune into the chest,
Focus your attention on the emotional sensations that you can feel in the body,
So however that upset feeling shows up in the body,
Place your attention there,
Just feel those sensations and notice what they're like,
Maybe there's tightness,
Sinking,
Aching,
Burning,
Whatever it may be,
Bring your attention in close and feel it as vividly as you can,
We're not focusing on our thoughts about the situation or about the emotion,
We're just focusing on the raw physical experience,
The sensations in the body that arise when we feel this emotion,
And if at any point this starts to feel overwhelming,
You can always move your attention away to some more neutral place in the body,
You could feel the soles of the feet or the palms of the hands,
But if it feels okay,
Stay with the emotional sensations in the body,
Notice how you react to these sensations,
Are you averse to them,
Are you wishing they would stop,
Just notice if that's the case,
See what it's like,
To approach them with a little curiosity if you can,
See if you can become interested in just how this feels in the body,
Not thinking about it or analysing it,
Just sensing it directly with a curious attitude,
Getting to know just what it feels like,
See what it's like just to let it be there,
Not trying to make it go away,
Notice if you're tensing up around these sensations,
Bracing against them,
If you are,
See if it's possible just to let that relax,
Let the sensation be here,
Stay as long as it wants,
Spread out if it wants to,
These sensations,
This feeling in the body,
If there is one,
Just wants to be heard,
And when we tune in and feel it,
Sense it directly,
It's as though we're listening,
Staying with the emotional sensations of the body,
And if it gets too much you can always go to a more neutral place in the body,
Such as the soles of the feet,
But otherwise staying with the emotional feeling in the body,
Getting to know it with a gentle curiosity.
And now I'll leave you in silence for the last few moments of the meditation,
So you can continue the practice on your own.
