Noticing Not Processing - August 28

When you begin to notice your emotions rather than trying to process them, you open the door to seeing how they truly work.
In today’s 5 Minutes In Nature, Liz reflects on how the effort to push emotions away can make us miss something far simpler. By allowing yourself to feel the emotion while resting your attention on timeless inner wisdom and presence, you begin to see that there is always something constant beneath the ever-changing flow of feelings.

Transcript

Hello and welcome to five minutes in nature with me Liz Scott and you find me sitting beside the River X. The River X at the point I'm sitting is a cycle and walking path. You'll see cyclists and runners go by at this time of day and I'm quite near as well to a road on the opposite side of the river is a road and I can just see a very big tractor rolling by into the city centre. I don't know what a tractor is doing going into the city centre and I've been watching on the water. Rowers have been out rowing and actually I'm just looking across the water. We've not had a lot of rain and just across the water there are lots of stones exposed that aren't normally exposed and the river is quite low and I can also see that birds are wading in a part of the river that usually is too deep to wade in. Everything is calling out for water as I look around me. We could really do with some rain but no rain is forecast, Well a little bit maybe tomorrow, But no real rain is forecast for the next few weeks. And actually reflecting on where I was if you remember yesterday I was explaining that I'd had a day of sadness and I'd just been feeling I think melancholy is quite a good word to describe it and what I wanted to share with you yesterday was this real sense that I feel sadness and equally I know that I'm okay. I feel a sense of as it was yesterday I felt it was a sense of missing my dad and my dear old dog both of whom had died and just feeling that sense of emptiness inside me and I feel that and I actually feel okay at the same time. I know that there's a part in me the core part the essence part of me that is untouched that is unbreakable that is resilient is wise that is settled and I just wanted to follow on from that today because what tends to happen always 100% of the time in my experience is that my feelings shift and move and there's been no exception today. So today I wake up and I feel more settled in myself that hole I felt within me is not so gaping and wide the sense of missing my dad and my dog is not so intense and I think that's the way of it it's just noticing and my request is you do this it's just like noticing that if you feel an intensity of an emotion it doesn't really matter what emotion it is what name you give it that emotion seems to ebb and flow it gets more intense and it reduces in intensity and there are times when you forget it completely. It's so helpful just to realize that because we spend so much of our time or we can do inadvertently trying to fix our emotions trying to make ourselves feel better feeling an emotion that we don't want and then trying to get rid of it somehow and the extremes of trying to get rid of emotions that we don't want can be addictive behaviors addictive to drugs or alcohol addictive to food addictive to social media addictive to exercise I mean there are a vast range of addicted addictive behaviors but ultimately we do that to manage ourselves manage the emotions and I'm offering you something else which is an understanding of how emotions work and when you start to see for yourself and this is the invitation today just notice if you're feeling an emotion whatever emotion you feel right at this moment clock it and see how it progresses throughout the next hour the next day the next week can you notice it shifts in intensity and sometimes it will be replaced completely so rather than trying to manage your emotions notice them that's what this is all about today and just realize that beyond the emotions if you're looking for something constant and something you can trust then look within and find that space within you that space of awareness that is the experiencer of life that does not change but is always present find that within yourself and when you see that you will know that whatever emotion you feel whatever changing emotion you feel there is a part of you that is constant and can be trusted

Reviews

Thanks Liz 🙏🏼
The intensity lessens.
I needed to hear this today after a particularly frustrating incident yesterday.
This morning I am aware of some residue of frustration whilst at the same time feeling joy for this new day and the opportunity to carry yesterday’s lessons with new awareness.
Aren’t we blessed to have the chance to ‘ lets try that again’
Sending kind thoughts
💟🌿💟

A great metaphor I use for this is we are the sky, and emotions (or e-motions, energy in motion, always moving, always transient if we allow it) is the weather. If it's storm clouds or sunshine, it will pass if we let it, and it is best to let it pass, just as the sky does.

Thanks Liz. For me this is the essence of mindfulness..just be with what is, notice the ebb and flow of thoughts and emotions and know that they are all seen by awareness 🙏😌