Unstable Emotions

A 20-minute guided meditation for unstable emotions. See if you can find out where in your body that emotional state or mood is most manifested, most expressed. What sensations or feelings in your body let you know that you’re having this emotional state? See if you can notice how the emotional state is expressed through your body, through sensations in your body.

Transcript

Take a comfortable posture,

One that's alert and calm,

And gently close your eyes and know that your body is breathing.

Take a few moments to just notice how you are.

What's the relationship between your body and gravity?

Are there any areas of tension you need to disorganize so that you can receive gravity?

If you're sitting upright,

Are there any areas of the body that need more alertness,

Height,

Or upliftedness?

Notice your emotional state,

Your mood.

Even if you can't name it or recognize it,

Ask yourself,

How are you?

How am I?

And notice the tone of your voice when you ask that question.

You might want to wonder,

How are you doing about how you are?

How are you relating to yourself?

How are you holding your mood?

What are your thoughts about how you're feeling right now in your body,

In your heart?

If you're able to recognize how you're feeling right now,

Reflect a little on your feelings,

Your emotional state,

And how that might influence how you interpret this period of meditation practice.

If you're irritable,

If you're aversive,

If you're impatient,

Just notice what that's like in your body.

Are you discouraged,

Hopeless,

Agitated,

Amped up,

Or maybe blue?

Notice this experience as you go forward.

Feel your breath.

Like a fine lining through the inside of your body.

There's nowhere that's not touched by breathing.

So let there be space in the heart.

Let there be a continuum of breath awareness and a mind that doesn't need to fix anything.

As your breath begins to set itself,

Just scan through your body again to see if there are any obvious places where you can soften muscularly.

It could be the tiny muscles behind the eyes or in the forehead,

Along the nose or the jaw.

As you exhale,

Let there be a softening wave that moves through the bones of the skull.

A softening wave that exhales through the bones of the skull.

Letting the body not feel any pressure.

And letting the abdomen be very soft.

Maybe you can even feel the weight of your belly.

And let gravity help settle the weight of your belly.

And in your body,

From the side of your body,

Feel how your body experiences breathing.

Let your eyes float in the skull.

And again,

If any areas of the body feel knitted together by tension,

Let the body and breath come back into ease.

See if you can compose yourself,

Your attention,

Your presence around the experience of breathing in the places where you feel the breath is most pronounced.

Settle into that area.

Wherever you feel the breath most dominant,

Compose yourself around it and hang in there.

Hang out there with the rhythm of breathing in and out.

If your mind wanders away,

Relax the cognitive mind and go back again to your breathing.

Letting go of whatever you're thinking about.

Let thoughts move just like ticker tape in the background.

You don't have to take care of them or attend to them or pick them up.

If you're caught in nostalgia or planning for the future,

Just come back to the tender inhale in the body.

Gentle exhale,

Tender hands,

Tender heart,

Calm bones.

Notice when you shift from simple awareness of the breath in the body to getting involved in commentary or getting involved in reactions.

See if you can tease that apart and return to the simplicity of breathing.

If you find yourself reacting to what's going on,

It might be helpful to very calmly and softly in the mind,

Just like a whisper.

Name it reaction or reacting or some other name.

This kind of frees yourself a little bit from being caught in it.

Or maybe you just want to say thinking and then come back to your breath.

So now let go of the focus on your breathing.

And notice again,

What's the emotional state that you have now,

The mood or the mental state?

Or if there's a kind of reactive state somewhere in the body or mind,

See if you can recognize that state.

And see if you can hang in there with awareness,

Feeling what's happening,

Feeling what you're feeling.

See if you can find out where in your body that mood is most manifested,

Most expressed.

What sensations or feelings in your body are letting you know that you're having this emotional state?

It could be that you're calm or agitated.

It could be that you're impatient or happy or sad,

Delighted,

Confused,

Eager.

See if you can notice how the emotional state is expressed through your body,

Through sensations in your body.

And it might change or it might go away.

Notice what replaces it.

And in this practice,

It's okay to name it and let the naming of what you feel help you be simple with it.

Get a distance from it,

But still feel it.

So have some independence from the emotional state,

But feel it at the same time.

Okay.

Now come back again to your breathing and just hang out with your breathing as if it's the most important place you can be right now.

Just let everything else we've explored recede into the background.

Okay.

Okay.

Whether emotions are strong or a mood is dominant or you're calm and absorbed with your breathing.

See if you can access that mode of simplicity,

Being absorbed with your breath and allowing yourself to feel whatever you're feeling with far less reactivity.

And if there is a lot of reactivity accompanied by the breath,

Just know what that feels like.

Without continually investing in it,

Just feel what it's like to be in this moment in this body.

As time passes.

If we create the conditions for a calm body,

Unstable or turbulent emotions have a place to settle and a place to exist.

If we meet strong emotions with a lot of reactivity and the nerves get amped up and upregulated,

Our emotions become more turbulent.

So now hang out with your breathing for the last few minutes of this practice.

Usually our practice ends with the sound of the bell.

And then we deepen our breath and open our eyes.

Today I'm going to ring the bell and then I just want you to lie down for an extra minute so I can offer some reflections on working with emotions,

With awareness practice.

So feel free to let your hands and feet and eyes move.

And I just want to offer this reflection about working with the mind.

Which is that even though we may get confused and reactive and we might do unskillful things when we're very emotional,

We have a practice to come back to.

We have a practice that teaches us.

So here is your life right here.

And everything you need is right here.

Whatever your circumstances,

They are sufficient,

No matter how much you feel aversive to them.

You carry eternity inside you.

You have a teacher inside you.

You have a practice.

So I encourage you to love enlightenment,

Which is already inside you.

And it's always at work in your life,

Whatever form it comes in,

Whatever ways.

So listen,

Pay attention,

Hear what your life has to say to you.

Bring awareness to your body all the time.

And use your practice to continually bring you into the sanity of this moment.

Sometimes our enlightenment will ask us to love things that seem impossible to love.

And that's why we practice.

Thank you.

Reviews

Very thoughtful and gently focusing guide. The sequence of alternating observations was useful.

Amazing, adept and skillful walkthrough on some of the most difficult aspects of meditation, and life, thank you 🙏

Such a helpful meditation! I struggle with cPTSD and this was a great meditation for handling an emotional flashback. Thank you for creating this.

That was without a doubt the best guided meditation I have ever had. I’m going to use it in my morning routine since it packs everything I’m trying to practice.
Thank you so much for this 🙏🏾

Thank you. This guidance was greatly needed and welcomed ♥️

I took a deep breath at the end and let go of some tension and it was like a wave of tingly feeling and this sense of calm. I've been struggling with some difficult feelings today. Boy, what a relief this meditation was.

Thank you. This meditation always brings me back to myself. Michael’s instructions are impeccable 🙏🏽💚

Eloquent and touching. What an inspiring and helpful meditation…thank you!

I always enjoy this meditation. I love Michael's language and insights into ways of interpreting our experiences.

Love that it is impossible to love.

🌿✨💜✨🌿 Thank you. Xxx

Very calming meditation Thank you .
Blessings with love.

Wonderful teachings. So very helpful. Deeply grateful 🙏🏻

very helpful
thank you!

Michaels instructions for working with strong emotions are simple and powerful! I highly encourage anyone to check out his website and offerings!

Very helpful for sitting with body & soul in the moment, esp when things are difficult (but also when things are going as I wish!)

Wonderful meditation for getting in touch with our internal processes!

Thank you 🙏🏻

Will they this again, as I think it will be very useful when I can get to grips with it a bit more x

Fantastic Thankyou!

Today I stumbled upon your words and they brought me back from the edge. From my heart and soul, thank you, Michael.