Welcome to week three of Introduction to Mindfulness Meditation.
I'm Heather Stang.
During this practice,
We will be working with emotions.
If at any time you become overwhelmed or feel like the focus on emotions is making you feel completely unsteady,
You can always practice self-compassion and return your attention back to your breath.
And if it feels right,
Back to the sensations in your body in the present moment.
When working with emotions in mindfulness practice,
We're learning how we don't have to buy into whatever is happening in our mental state,
Whatever is happening emotionally.
We learned that by not struggling against emotion,
We actually can gain powerful control over our stress and over our reactions.
The side effect of this is you wind up having a better relationship with yourself and with those in love.
Which is the acronym for Recognize,
Allow,
Investigate,
And Non-Identification with Emotions.
So go ahead and find a comfortable meditation position,
Whether it's on the floor or seated in a chair.
And allow your eyes to close if that's how you choose to practice or find a point in front of you that you can gaze upon softly.
Begin to notice the natural rhythm of your breath and you might even want to label your breath in,
Out,
In,
Out,
Or rising,
Falling.
Just beginning by focusing on your breath.
Allow your breath to become your anchor to the present moment.
And invite your awareness to arrive fully and completely in the here and now.
And do a brief scan through your body,
Starting with the soles of your feet and rising up through your legs,
Your pelvis,
Your torso,
Your arms,
Eventually your neck,
Face,
And head.
And invite yourself to relax as much as you possibly can right now without forcing it.
See if you can simultaneously notice your breath and your body.
Begin to notice the feeling tone that's present in your mind.
You might start with one of the three classic feeling tones,
Pleasant,
Unpleasant,
Neutral,
And maybe even distill this down to more specific sense such as happy,
Sad,
Anxious,
Bored,
Jittery,
Neutral.
Just taking stock of your emotional landscape right now.
Allow your breath to still be in your field of awareness.
And if a primary emotion arises,
You can name that.
You don't have to force this though.
If there isn't a strong emotion present,
You can just stay with your breath.
But if one does arise,
You might try noticing how it impacts your body.
Are you able to notice where in your body this primary emotion is resonating?
A physical sense of emotion.
And let your attention turn to this.
And you can start using the technique of RAIN here just first by recognizing what you're experiencing.
You might even ask yourself,
What is happening inside me right now?
And right here on the spot,
You can start to notice how you tell yourself what's happening.
If there's a strong amount of judgment or tension in your labeling or noting,
Try to soften a little.
If there's hostility or resistance,
Just find your breath,
Notice what's happening and try to tell yourself in a more factual way,
More gentle way,
Without the add-ons.
What's happening inside me right now?
With noting,
Sometimes it's helpful to label something a couple times before re-investigating.
So anger,
Anger,
Fear,
Fear,
And then trying to dive a little deeper.
What's underneath that?
Now that you're aware of what you are feeling and what's happening right now,
Consider the possibility of simply allowing it to happen.
No matter how unpleasant,
Whatever you notice for the next period of time,
Just let it be and observe.
And if it becomes overwhelming,
You can always return back to your breath and let that become the primary object.
But if you choose to stay with this emotion,
You can also try labeling this with,
I consent,
I consent,
Just allowing what's happening to happen.
Or another way of labeling it is by saying,
Yes,
Yes,
Or this too,
This too.
You're allowing this to unfold as you witness it in a very unbiased way.
And in this moment,
You can transition from allowing into really investigating.
So imagine you could unhook yourself from the object of the story,
Stepping away from the content of the story and witnessing your experience with some kindness,
Some openness.
Maybe it helps to even imagine that you're witnessing your experience as though you would witness this experience unfolding in someone you love dearly,
Treating yourself the way you would treat your best friend or your beloved.
What am I believing to be true right now?
What is this emotion,
This feeling asking of me?
Not so much in a planning way or strategizing how to fix it or change it,
But more,
How does it want me to attend to this experience?
Does it want me to rebel against my experience?
Does it want me to deny it or does it want me to just acknowledge this is happening?
But knowing that this is also temporary.
This experience will change if it hasn't already,
Often just by paying attention to our difficult emotions and the physical sensations that arise.
They start to dissipate.
This is non-identification,
Recognizing you are not the sensation,
This emotion or this experience.
Your awareness is much bigger than this one aspect.
It's just a temporary event arising.
Just like you witness sound or sight or smell or taste or touch with an open curiosity.
Just experiencing this emotion,
That same attitude of presence.
It's okay to be feeling whatever it is you're feeling.
The practice here is to try to let go of reactions and come back to direct experience.
It might help to also notice the inverse of your experience.
So if you're feeling perhaps anxiety or tension in your stomach,
You might also notice what you're feeling in other parts of your body.
What are your shoulders doing?
What are your legs doing?
If you find any tension there,
Invite it to relax.
You're taking in the whole body and then you can come back to that primary feeling in your stomach and notice if it's shifted or changed.
Same with emotion,
If you're noticing a part that's sad,
Notice if there's a part of you that's not sad.
So you're seeing the big picture.
Okay.
Okay.
Okay.
Okay.
Okay.
Okay.
Okay.
Okay.
You can simply rest in choiceless awareness,
Just let whatever arises appear,
Let it stay as long as it needs to and then fade away without clinging or grasping to it,
Without pushing it away.
Okay.
Okay.
Okay.
This concludes this practice.
So take a few moments and thank yourself for spending some time getting to know your relationship to your emotions better.
This will help improve your relationship with yourself and with others and help cultivate peace for the rest of your life.
