Day 19 - Feel Good With Mental Talk - UM 30-Day Challenge

This short meditation with lots of guidance is part of a 30-day Unified Mindfulness challenge I offered at CarMax, and am now happy to share it with the Insight Timer community. The 30 sessions are designed to be done in order, however you can jump around if you wish, just keep in mind I may refer to a previous recording. There's a short introduction followed by a 5-minute practice.
In this session, you'll use positive mental talk to generate good feelings and focus on them.

Transcript

Today, We'll practice feel good again, And we'll use the mnemonic find the spark or reach for the stars for ways of contacting positive emotion and then focusing on it. We'll use the T in stars again today, Which stands for think. Last time we used mental images to generate positive emotion. This time we'll use mental talk. So think of a word or phrase that you can say in your mind that will help you to cultivate some positive feeling. It could just be a single word or the name of a feeling you'd like to generate. It could be an affirmation of some kind or a phrase that feels positive. Any kind of mental talk that you can use to create a positive emotional response is perfect. So think of something you'll say to yourself. You can pause this guidance to think about it first if you need to. When you're ready, We'll begin. Take a moment to get into a posture that is both relaxed and alert. Allow your eyes to close or keep them open with a soft downward gaze. Mentally speak the word or phrase you've chosen to generate positive emotion. Then when you detect the emotion, Drop the word or phrase and focus all your attention on how that emotion feels in your body. Locate it spatially and really contact it with your awareness. When it fades away, Go back to your word or phrase again to bring it back and repeat the process of focusing on it with concentration, Clarity, And equanimity until it fades again. If your chosen mental talk doesn't generate any emotion, Feel free to try something else. If emotional activation is subtle, That's okay. Try to detect and stay with it even if it's very subtle. This strengthens your sensory clarity. Have equanimity with the subtlety as well. Allow it to be however it comes up. If you have unpleasant emotions that activate, That's normal. Just stay with whatever positivity you can generate and allow the unpleasantness to be in the background. No need to get rid of it. Just shift attention away from it. If you get lost in thought, Be kind to yourself. No need to criticize yourself or feel bad. Just start again. Say your word or phrase and soak into the feelings that result. The more we do this type of practice to cultivate positivity, The more positive emotion becomes more natural in our lives. When you intentionally nurture the positive, It becomes more of your default state, Your emotional home base. Who wouldn't want their default state to be more positive? As you focus on your positive emotion, Use your concentration to try to spread it out so that it expands throughout your body and maybe even radiates beyond. This technique can be fun and useful to do during daily life. See if you can find a time today to tap into positive emotion during another activity and allow it to expand and appreciate the experience. As we finish our five-minute guidance, Keep going if you wish or end here. Take your time, Stretch if you'd like, And carry the momentum of your practice with you. Thank you.