First Aid For Feelings

The role of physical sensations and emotions is often dismissed, and we go to great lengths to suppress, ignore, numb, or disconnect to these feelings. But all feelings are information and there will come a time when ignoring them will start to negatively impact our work, relationships, and health. Are you familiar with the mnemonic ABC (Airway, Breathing, Circulation) for medical first aid? This course offers a new tool "First Aid for Feelings" that allows you to recognise feelings, even when they are uncomfortable, and deal with them in a productive way. Informed by Thich Nhat Hanh’s practice of looking deeply, these teachings take an inclusive approach to feelings and draw on a deep understanding of how the body’s fight or flight mechanism and freeze response works. You will learn what to do when your feelings intensify to the point that you are struggling, why the way the brain has evolved over millennia, why that means that you’re not as in control of what happens as you might think, and how to work with your brain's inner workings in order to improve your experience and become more skilled in understanding your feelings and acting on them.

Leçon 1: Why Do We Have Feelings?

Today lesson focuses on how understanding the purpose of feelings means you no longer get stuck, but can respond to your feelings appropriately and move through them.

Practice – Meditation on the purpose and role of feelings, followed by the day’s awareness tip

Leçon 2: What Are You Doing Now?

Inculcating curiosity about your current strategy towards your feelings, we look at how you talk to yourself about your feelings. You’ll learn how to be kinder with yourself during self-talk.

Practice – Meditation on current behaviour and self-talk, followed by the day’s awareness tip

Leçon 3: Learning Your ABC

We look at why having ABC for feelings' first aid is as important as ABC for medical first aid.

Practice – Meditation on ABC for feelings' first aid, followed by the day’s awareness tip

Leçon 4: Your Brain Is Like a Three-Scoop Ice Cream

Drawing on Professor Linden’s analogy of the brain, we will understand how your brain works to create the possibility to be kinder to yourself even when you are unskillful.

Practice – Meditation on shifting from critical to curious and kind to yourself, followed by the day’s awareness tip

Leçon 5: Your Breath Is Your Portal To Choice

We learn how the practice of breathing mindfully helps release stress and improves your ability to think more clearly.

Practice – Meditation on breathing, followed by the day’s awareness tip

Leçon 6: Your Feelings Are Your Guide

We will discuss how taking the time to learn what your feelings mean and what they are communicating give you the clues and power to reach your goals.

Practice – Meditation on your body’s communication, followed by the day’s awareness tip

Leçon 7: You Always Have A Choice

If you feel that you don’t have any choice, you are ‘crocodiling’. Learn how soothing your crocodile reconnects the part of your brain that can see and make choices.

Practice – Meditation on choice, followed by the day’s awareness tip

Leçon 8: The Power Of Curiosity

We will learn why curiosity makes it easier to respond to intense feelings and take helpful action.

Practice – Meditation on curiosity, followed by the day’s awareness tip

Leçon 9: Why Self-Compassion Is So Vital

We discuss how being kinder to yourself helps you be more skillful and successful with yourself, as well as with others.

Practice – Meditation on self-compassion, followed by the day’s awareness tip

Leçon 10: Reclaiming You

Today, we will learn how knowing your own feelings' first aid means reclaiming your attention and agency every time you use it.

Practice – Meditation on reclaiming you, followed by the day’s awareness tip

Reviews

I’ve just finished this course for the third time, and I know I’ll be returning to it again and again. I’ve found this course so helpful for me in my everyday life. I appreciate how every lesson builds off the previous lesson and how Thor always invites the you to check in with yourself throughout each lesson. Additionally, Thor always provides actionable steps for you to implement, which I really appreciate as it helps me to practice applying what I’ve learned. Also, the ABCs are so simple and yet powerful. This course has helped me to further develop my awareness and practice being skillful when it comes to whatever I’m experiencing. I also really appreciate Thor’s compassion. I’ve learned so much from this course, and I’m so grateful for it! Thank you Thor for creating it!

Beautiful course , very effecting in helping to deal with overwhelming emotions . Love your reminder that it is always helpful to be more curious than critical ! Much love and gratitude to you for creating this course and sharing this amazing information with IT community . ❤️🙏🕊️🌸

I loved this course & Thor’s approach to feelings with very helpful insights and tools! 🙏✨🦋✨🌀

Enjoyed finding a way of exploring what I’m feeling and how to cope with some of the overwhelming emotions 🙏🏻 thanks

This is one of the best courses uhave experienced. It is a unique blend of the spiritual and physical body using a healthy scoop of common sense to ensure the ingredients combine smoothly.
I will use this course again and again and cant recommend it highly enough as an effective way forward. It is life changing . Thank you so much Thor xxx

Very helpful and enjoyable course, I loved the pace and found your voice very soothing to listen to, thank you so much 🙏

Good reminders as well as new information. I love the notion of being curious rather than critical. Soothing voice. The short loud bell startled me every time. If you are someone with PTSD, maybe just be aware of that. I felt the information and presentation valuable and so stuck with it and am glad that I did.

will return ... feel i need to pause then repeat ... just what i need ... 💙🙏🏻💙 ... thank you

Thanks so much Thor for a lovely class. The tone that you struck was fabulous, and you have duly imparted to me the great value of curiosity (although I have some work to do before becoming anywhere near as curious as our pet rats).

I love courses that include meditations and wonder if you’d consider including meditations in your next course (fingers crossed)?

Thank you. I have to say I changed the course of one of my encounters with my older teen daughter when I “crocodiled” and realized what was happening. When telling this to my wife and younger daughter they both stopped what they were doing and turned to me to listen when I realized...hm...I don’t usually talk about my feelings or how I handle them. Helpful in these darker days. Again thank you.

AWESOME course! I am someone who has struggled with regulating my emotions. This course sums up many of the hepful points I have learned through years of therapy in just a 10 day period! A diamond in the rough! Thank you! God bless you! 💕💕💕😍🙏🙏🙏

Thank you so much! Blessings!

Helped me connect to myself and my experience in simple and I hope lasting way.

Thank you Thor! I learned so much and am beginning to understand the difference between "knowing" and "feeling". Allowing myself to feel and honoring the feeling itself is empowering. I appreciate you for sharing your gift. ♥️

Incredible and thought provoking course. I’m curious what more I can learn in the second round. Shall we begin again.....🙏🏻

Very relaxing meditation and voice. Great insight on how the brain/body and emotions/behaviour influence on another. Thank you! I really enjoyed it, will definately listen again. Specifically the one on the analogy of the brain with ice scoops, so interesting!

Thank you for such a great course!! I truly loved everything about it...I learned so much and even as a long term meditator have new tools for awareness. Highly recommended!

Great course. Thank you.

Wonderful class— explained some of my challenges in ways that I hadn’t heard before- helpful information in a calm and soothing voice

The tools I learned here helped me through an emotionally difficult time, and I feel like I can never lose them again. Most important for me was the chapter about choice. It almost immediately got me out of a rabbit hole I was stuck in. Wonderful course with life changing qualities.