Welcome to the Mindful Agility Meditations Podcast.
I am your guide,
Mirela Petali.
Thank you for taking this time to meditate with us today.
In our previous meditations,
Noticing and Labeling and Labeling Emotions,
We practiced how to recognize,
Get familiar with,
Label our emotions and observe them as they arise,
Change,
And then go away.
In today's meditation,
We will focus on how to work with difficult emotions.
We'll use mindfulness,
Curiosity,
And compassion to recognize,
Label,
Soften,
And allow difficult emotions to pass through us.
Working with difficult emotions in this way helps us deal with them more skillfully.
Keep in mind that we'll bring in our awareness a difficult situation in our life,
And you are free to stop at any time if this meditation becomes too uncomfortable.
Knowing when to stop is also a practice of mindfulness and self-compassion.
You can find the corresponding discussion in Episode 10 of the Mindful Agility Podcast at mindfulagility.
Com.
And now let's start.
First,
Find a comfortable position,
Either sitting or lying down.
You can close your eyes or keep them slightly open.
Focus downward in front of you.
Let's start by taking a few deep,
Long,
Slow breaths to settle in our bodies and relax.
Now allow your breath to return to normal.
Bring your attention to your body.
Become aware of your position,
The room you're in,
The temperature around you,
The feeling of clothes on your skin.
Remind yourself that you are here,
Safe,
Meditating.
And now scan your body slowly,
Starting from the top of your head all the way down to the soles of your feet.
Notice the places in your body where you feel pleasant or neutral sensations,
Calm,
Peace,
Warm,
Coolness.
Choose one of these places.
It can be your belly,
Your hands,
Your feet,
Or any other place in your body where there is no pain,
No tension,
Tightness,
Or discomfort.
You can come to this place to ground and soothe yourself at any time during this meditation.
I invite you now to bring to mind a somewhat difficult situation in your life right now,
A situation that is not trivial,
But it's also not too difficult.
It can be a moderate problem you are having or a loved one's pain or difficulty that causes you stress in your body when you think about it.
Take a few moments to think and visualize the situation,
The people involved,
What happened or is happening.
How do you feel about it?
In this part of the practice,
We'll recognize and label our emotions around this difficult situation.
Scan your body again and notice what emotions are coming up as you are thinking about this difficult situation in your life.
There might be feelings of anger,
Sadness,
Fear,
Confusion,
Disappointment.
Recognize these emotions and label them.
I am feeling anger.
I am feeling fear.
Now see if you can focus on the strongest emotion that is coming up,
Or if there isn't a clearly strong one,
Just pick one of those emotions and focus your attention there.
Become curious about it.
Where do you feel it mostly,
In or around your body?
What sensations are there?
Any tension,
Tightness,
Pain,
Discomfort?
Notice your tone when you are labeling the emotion.
See if you can make it a little softer,
Kinder,
Like you tell a dear friend or a child,
Oh,
You are feeling sadness,
Oh,
You are feeling anxiety.
If the emotion or the sensations become too intense,
Move your attention to the place of calm,
Pleasant,
Or neutral sensation you chose at the beginning of this meditation,
Either your belly,
Your hands,
Or your feet,
Or any other place of calm in your body,
And take a long,
Deep,
Slow breath to ground and soothe yourself before returning to the practice.
We try to keep our attention on the place in our body where the difficult emotion feels the strongest,
And name it with kindness and compassion.
If it feels comfortable,
You can place your hand lightly on the place you most feel the emotion,
Your heart or your belly,
Same as you would put your hand on a friend's shoulder to comfort them,
Keeping your attention on the place in your body where you feel the emotion the strongest,
The tightness,
Pain,
Tension,
Or discomfort.
See if you can soften that place a little,
Relax the muscles around it.
If you still have your hand there,
Imagine its warmth softening the discomfort.
You can also say to yourself,
Same as you'd say to a dear friend in pain,
I am sorry you are going through this,
Or you can say any other comforting phrases that come to mind.
We can give ourselves the same kindness and compassion we give to our loved ones.
Now let's expand our attention to include our whole body in our awareness.
In this way,
We create some space around the place in our body where we feel the difficult emotion the most.
See if you can allow the discomfort to be there,
And see if you can let go of the desire to change it or make it go away.
You can use this practice of labeling,
Softening,
And allowing difficult emotions at any time to create an open space for the discomfort to just be there without wanting things to be different than they are.
Now let go of the meditation and return your attention to your body and your surroundings.
Notice how you feel without judgment,
And when you're ready,
You can open your eyes.
