If you're experiencing a lot of strong emotion,
Like fear or anger or jealousy or whatever they may be,
And if you're having trouble being with them,
I want to let you know that that makes perfect sense because these emotions are really hard to be with.
They suck.
When fear arises,
It's uncomfortable,
Which is why we tend to want to run to the cookie jar or the bottle of wine or scrolling on our phones.
We want to get away from this inherently natural,
Albeit very challenging to be with,
Discomfort and to grow spiritually,
We have to start finding ways to be with these challenging emotions rather than covering them up.
And a good way to do that is just to acknowledge that sometimes life's really hard.
And it's in that acknowledgement that we can stop resisting the experience quite so much because we can get caught up in a state of fearing the fear.
And then we're just compounding it.
And as you know,
What we resist persists.
So it's by acknowledging that sometimes life is hard,
It can maybe shift our perception.
Another thing that we can do is be aware of how the emotion can be so big that it can draw our awareness right into it.
We can get lost into it.
We don't want to cover it up.
With cookies,
And we don't want to get lost into it.
And so a good way to be with these challenging emotions is to bring our awareness into our whole body.
And really do our best to feel our body from our feet,
Our legs,
Our back,
Our chest,
Our arms,
Our head.
See if we can really keep our awareness broadly throughout the whole body.
And what that does is it not only diminishes the intensity of the emotion because we're not just lost in it and focusing solely on it,
But it helps us recognize that there's parts of the body that are not in a state of stress.
And it's in connecting to those that can remind us of what it feels feels like to be in a state of peace as well.
And by keeping our awareness throughout our bodies,
And we can do this all day,
Like when we're at work,
If we find ourselves thinking,
We can just draw our awareness deeply and hold it in a very grounded way,
In a very felt sense way in our bodies that keeps us out of our head and it keeps us much more in this moment.
And another thing we can do when we're experiencing a lot of strong emotions is to look around the room that we're in,
Again,
This awareness that we ultimately are can get so drawn into these overwhelmingly strong and painful emotions that we lose touch with reality,
With the present moment.
As we're keeping our awareness in our bodies,
Really feeling the entirety of them and not getting drawn into the strong emotion.
We also can,
At the same time,
Use our senses,
Like our sense of vision or sound,
And pay attention to the world around us.
That keeps our awareness,
Again,
From being drawn into the energy of these strong emotions.
And it keeps us much more in the present moment,
In reality.
So when you're feeling these strong emotions,
Just notice if they are things that you're resisting.
Try to be open to them a little bit if you can.
I know it's hard,
But it gets easier the more we acknowledge that life's hard.
Do your best to keep your awareness in your body.
Really feel your feet.
Feel the chair you're sitting in.
Ground yourself here.
That'll draw you out of the energy,
Out of motion.
And also,
Pay attention to your surroundings around you.
And lastly,
Be very gentle with yourself.
Orient towards ease.
Check in with your breath.
Soften your breath if you can.
Be gentle with yourself.
When we're experiencing a lot of these emotions,
We have the tendency to be really tight.
We have the tendency to constrict.
And it's paying attention to that as well that can help us find a greater sense of ease and presence and help integrate these emotions to at long last be with them rather than running from them or getting lost in them.
And as we do that,
We'll start to reclaim all the energy that's behind them before we're resisting them.
We're resisting a lot of energy and we're expending a lot of energy.
And by being with them in these ways,
And it takes practice,
We can start to integrate them and live much more in the present moment,
In a state of ease and peace and power and presence.
