Emotion As Object Of Focus

This meditation will guide you in mindfully feeling emotions. When strong unpleasant emotions arise we may try to escape or have aversion to these feelings. To achieve greater well-being we want to be embodied and connected to our present experience, and to be able to meet both pleasant and unpleasant emotions with equanimity and acceptance. This meditation provides techniques for experiencing emotions or feelings that we may find difficult to manage and embrace.

Transcript

Hello and welcome. This is Joe Wilner and this is a meditation to practice being with our emotions as an object of focus. And so to begin, Take a seat in a quiet place where you feel safe and will be undisturbed. Sitting up tall with your spine straight and relax your shoulders, Soften your stomach and belly and close your eyes and beginning to breathe in and out through your nose. Turn your awareness towards the breath and the movement of breath through the body itself. Noticing the rising and falling of the stomach and chest. Notice your body against the seat you're in, Feeling grounded against the floor and chair beneath you. And as the mind begins to quiet, Notice if there are any emotions present. For the intention of this meditation, We want to choose to work with just one emotion and it may be more neutral in terms of the valence of that feeling, The intensity of it. It may be pleasant or unpleasant. Could be anger, Sadness, Frustration, Disappointment. Or you could choose something more pleasant, Positive such as love or gratitude or kindness. Either way, Just choose one for the day. Whatever level of emotion you're able to sit and be with as we practice this. And so turning now your attention toward that emotion, Sort of the sensory experience that comes with that. See if you can locate it within your body and wherever you notice that emotion, See if you can keep your attention in that space, Observing with curiosity if the sense of that emotion moves to some other location in your body. See if your attention can follow, Noticing how we can shift our attention from single pointed awareness in one area of the body and move it to another. Really being present with that emotional state. And now trying to get more familiar with that emotion, Some detail that might come with that emotional feeling. Maybe the temperature of the body. You might connect with there's a size or scope of that feeling. If there's some tension, Softness that tends to come with that emotion and even how you relate to these sensations in the body. If there's aversion to them, If you're open to them or neutral to them. And as you explore the characteristics of this particular emotion, We want to be careful not to chase the story, The narrative of thinking that can be associated with certain feelings. We're not trying to look for a reason or a source of what we're feeling, But instead to just be with and notice the experience and the sensations in the body. Simply stay present with the emotion itself, The felt sense that comes with that. And as you're doing this, If the mind wanders and starts churning, See if you can get out of your head and drop back into the body. You can come back to the breath as an anchor sort of grounding element to this awareness of noticing your body and emotions. And always keep in mind, You're in the driver's seat of this. You can take this intimacy with your sensations as far as you'd like, Or just sort of dip your toe into this experience. If that's where you're at being present with the emotion itself as the object of the focus. And anytime you notice that the mind is gone off chasing stories or getting lost in thought, Come back to your senses, Come back to being present with the felt sense of this emotion. And you might find that the more you move towards the, Or open up to the emotion, The more difficult it is to find as if it's changing and moving like all things do that in the body of emotion is energy. And it's always in motion and we can try to move with or through that energy in our life, Instead of trying to resist it or fight against it by watching it and observing it versus grasping to it, Identifying with it or resisting it. The emotion or energy in the body is given the freedom to move and be processed. Remember that the emotion you're experiencing is not you. It is energy in the body. You are the witness, The noticer, The observer of that energy, The stage across which the play of emotions comes and goes. You experience emotion and feeling, But you are not your emotions. There's something we can become witness to instead of getting lost in. And so notice the space between the emotion itself and the awareness of the emotion and that you are able to connect more with that state of awareness that you can be again with the feelings without getting lost in that inner landscape of the feelings. And this type of practice that we did today can support growing that awareness and learning to relate to emotions from a state of presence and openness or curiosity to that experience. And so I invite you to continue to do this practice and build that resource of internal awareness. Thank you.