Compassionate Abiding For Difficult Emotions

This was recorded by Adele Stewart,

MBSR teacher,

In May 2020,

Winuna.

Compassionate abiding for the difficult emotion.

This can be done both formally,

Sitting down in a meditative posture,

Or walking slowly in nature,

Or lying down,

And can also be applied informally in daily life.

Starting as best you can by embodying the difficult emotion that's coming up.

Finding where in the body you notice the emotion.

If possible,

Penetrating into the center of this difficult feeling.

Perhaps noticing its shape,

Size,

Texture.

Perhaps there's a sense of color.

Noticing qualities like heaviness or lightness.

Any temperature,

Movement,

Pulsating,

Throbbing,

Expanding,

Contracting,

Flickering,

Or stillness.

And noticing whether there's a tight,

Dense quality,

Or a loose,

Diffuse,

Perhaps fluid quality.

And as best you can,

Breathing now,

Breathing this emotion deeply into the heart.

Having a sense of the heart being big enough to continue to expand,

So there's plenty of room for this difficult emotion.

And on the breath out,

Breathing some sense of relief into the emotion.

Being careful not to try and breathe it away,

But breathing some qualities of warmth,

Softness,

Kindness,

Perhaps compassion.

Perhaps having the sense that it's a dear one's emotion,

Rather than your own,

If that helps.

So that you can again,

Breathe deeply into the heart,

Allowing the heart to expand.

Breathing out,

Breathing this relief.

Words like kindness and warmth.

Acceptance.

Perhaps even love.

Best you can,

Breathing in to the heart.

Opening the door of the heart,

The heart that's actually huge.

There is room in there for the emotion.

And on the breath out,

Breathing relief into this emotion.

Perhaps if the analogy of the heart being big enough is difficult for you,

You can imagine that the emotion goes through your heart,

Back out of your chest,

Into the wide open space.

And then breathing back through the heart into the emotion.

Continuing with this compassionate abiding as best you can.

No emotions exempt from this.

Sadness,

Shame,

Dread,

Anxiety,

Guilt,

Disappointment,

Irritation,

Frustration,

Anger.

Fear.

All these very,

Very normal human emotions that we all suffer.

And perhaps that feels like enough for you right now.

Or perhaps you'd like to add an extra step.

The practice of tonglen.

Where we say,

Well,

I'm breathing in this really difficult emotion anyway.

So I may as well breathe it in for all the thousands or millions of people out there that are feeling this exact same emotion as I do.

Because after all,

There's room in my heart.

Or I can breathe through my heart out the back of my chest into the space.

I can breathe out that relief to all those thousands or millions of people as well.

Breathing in the difficult emotion for everyone.

Breathing out the relief for us and everyone.

Pema Chodron says,

Lean into the sharp points and fully experience them.

The essence of bravery is being without self-deception.

Wisdom is inherent in emotions.

Skipped.

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