Hey everyone!
Today I'm going to teach a simple straightforward process for getting in touch with your feelings and figuring out what needs you have and then potentially a pathway to meeting those needs.
This is called the feelings and needs meditation and why I like this tool is it helps me clarify what I'm feeling because sometimes I just feel uneasy or not good.
I'm pausing,
Slowing down,
Connecting to my heart and understanding what I'm feeling is a really good first step and usually when we're feeling good our needs are being met.
When we're feeling not good,
When we're not feeling good,
Typically our needs aren't being met and believe it or not humans are all the same in that we all have universal needs.
We all need shelter and water and fresh air.
We need physical movement.
We need play.
We need love,
Affection,
Connection,
Belonging.
There's tons of needs and what's fun is actually looking at a list of human universal needs because it makes us realize that we're connected through our common humanity and so this meditation allows us to connect to our feelings and then connect to what we're needing and that usually allows me to just process through my feelings and and then I can identify like how I'm going to get those needs met.
Am I going to meet the needs or am I going to ask a friend or how can I kind of help help move forward?
So let's do it together.
I will probably close my eyes as I guide us and I like to put my hand on my heart when I'm connecting to my feelings.
It just helps me remember that it's not in my head.
It's really in my body and my heart.
So I invite you to do this along with me.
You can close your eyes and you're going to ask the question to yourself three times.
What am I feeling?
So we'll start together.
Let's take three breaths.
Breathing in through our nose and out through our mouth.
You're going to gently ask yourself this question.
What am I feeling?
Whatever response you get,
Maybe it's a mental thought,
Maybe it's an image,
Maybe it's body sensation.
Validate.
So I hear you're feeling this.
What else are you feeling?
So you're asking the question again.
Again,
Validate whatever response you get and you're going to ask yourself one more time,
A third and final time.
What else am I feeling?
Again,
Validate.
You might say I hear you,
Sweetie,
Or I hear that,
I see that.
Yes,
You're feeling this.
Yep,
This again.
And now you're going to ask the question,
What am I needing?
What am I needing?
Sometimes,
Both with feelings and needs,
They're hard to name and distinguish.
So it's okay if the response is I'm not sure.
I don't know what I need.
I just don't feel good.
But if you get a specific need,
Or even I don't know,
Again,
You're going to validate and be kind and compassionate to yourself and say,
Oh,
Yeah,
Of course,
You're needing this,
Or it's okay,
You don't know what you need.
You're going to ask it again.
What else am I needing?
You're going to ask it a third and final time.
Is there anything else I need right now?
When that feels complete,
You can spend a moment or two reflecting on the rest of your day,
You can kind of look ahead and see if there's time for you to meet your need.
Or if there's not time today,
There's a time in the future on the weekend.
You might be able to identify if it's something you can provide for yourself.
Or if it's something you need to ask help with,
Ask for support.
Once that feels complete,
You have a little bit of an action plan.
Open your eyes.
That's our practice.
Thank you for being here.
