Ride The Wave

All feelings are legitimate and okay. We get into trouble when our behaviors become negative in reaction to our feelings. This talk suggests a prescription for dealing with difficult emotions.

Transcript

Today on Beautiful Life,

Ride the Wave.

What is the hardest part of being human?

I would argue that most people's answer to that question would have to do with dealing with difficult emotions that stem from difficult life situations.

Something bad or burdensome happens and we feel a certain way.

Often we feel angry or scared or perhaps even sad and lonely.

These are emotions.

Emotions are a complex pattern of changes,

Feelings,

Thinking patterns,

And behavioral reactions in response to a situation perceived to be personally significant.

And if left unchecked,

Can influence our mood for hours,

Days,

Even weeks and months.

I would like to suggest that we learn to ride the wave of our strong emotions.

That instead of resisting against them,

Avoiding or numbing them with alcohol,

Drugs,

Food,

That we actually just experience them.

What's the worst that can happen?

We feel bad for a period of time?

Yes.

What's the best that can happen?

We get over it and move on?

Yes.

I'd like to suggest a prescription for dealing with strong and difficult emotions.

First,

Name the emotion.

I am angry.

Second,

Notice the physical sensations in your body.

I am starting to sweat and I'm getting a stomach ache.

Third,

Breathe.

Take five deep breaths now.

Fourth,

Allow yourself to experience the anger.

Feel how negative you feel and allow yourself to feel it.

Fifth,

Observe outside of yourself,

Your feelings and reactions.

I noticed I am getting ready to yell at her and I feel like an eight on a one to 10 scale of anger.

Emotion can help you experience the emotion without being overcome by it.

When you become more and more aware of your experience of a strong emotion like anger,

This gives you greater control over it.

You train yourself to not be overcome by it.

Anger specifically feels both good and bad in the moment.

You feel empowered over the situation when you are intensely angry,

But also immensely uncomfortable and even shameful once you start to come down from it.

Riding the wave of emotions allows us to move through a strong feeling faster.

There are no wrong feelings.

All feelings are legitimate and okay.

We get into trouble when our behaviors become negative in reaction to our feelings.

I challenge you to play with this concept in your real life and see if it can help you to not only feel better,

But also to feel more in control of your strong emotions.

And then ask yourself,

What did I learn from this?

And use this information to move forward,

Which will ultimately help you as you ride through every day of your life.

Reviews

Lots of waves to ride in my life right now, but this short meditation assisted with the noise in my head.

Very powerful. Thankyou!!!

A lovely way to start my day.
Thank you 💜

Nice simple tips.
I keep coming back to this because it helps very much with my anger.

Succinct and helpful.

Very helpful insights in dealing with emotions and a way to not allow them to become so intense and powerful! Thank you, will listen again!

Another great tool to help with difficult situations.

Really helpful and beautifully clear talk. Will return to this, thank you

Encouraging short summary about (conceptually simple) means with which to observe, acknowledge, & flow (i.e., recognize & move forward - not get stuck) with challenging emotions / situations.

Thank you for this refresher re: a powerfully positive guiding life principle.

Love the concepts. Will listen again and attempt to do - thanks so much.

Like it. Need it. Will practice. And listen again. 🙏🏽

Very empowering and helpful.

Terrific! Thank you for sharing here. Many Blessings. 🐢🌻🦋

Thank you for an interesting perspective dealing with difficult emotions.

Thoroughly enjoyed the content of this talk. I would love to see it slowed down and drawn out more for contemplative meditation when ‘riding the wave’ of strong emotions. Thank you! 🙏🏻❤️

Excellent. I like the concise manageable formula you lay out here. I’ve been working on pieces of this for a while but I feel like you’ve put this in a construct that’s doable for me.

this was very enjoyable not so much a meditation as more as a self-help Medsage

Perfect knowledge, to start a day in this sometimes crazy world.