Sitting With Your Feelings

Sitting with your feelings can be difficult. In this meditation, you're invited to observe your feelings and notice them in their fullness. After this meditation, you'll have more compassion for your feelings and for yourself while moving with them.

Transcript

This is a meditation where you can sit with your feelings and befriend them. So take a moment to get seated and comfortable. Close your eyes or keep them at a soft gaze. Now place your hand over your heart and feel your chest rise and fall with your breath. Gently. Just notice your breath within your body. Is it louder or softer in any particular parts? Maybe in your chest or your belly or somewhere else. Just notice. Now bring to mind a challenging feeling that you have right now or even recently. Maybe you had a hard conversation with a family member. Maybe you're angry about an injustice. Maybe you're sad about something that happened in the world. Bring something up that you can feel but doesn't feel like too much for you right now, Especially if you're newer to this. Just reimagine the situation that centers this feeling. Visualize it even if it's just for a small moment. If you find yourself getting lost in it, Feel free to pull back. Now I want you to take this feeling on its own and create an image of it. What color is it? What size is it? What shape is it? What's its temperature? How might it feel to the touch? How does it sound? Just take a moment to create this image of this feeling thinking of the senses. Whether it's big, Gray and sharp or hot, Maybe shaped like a mountain constantly erupting. Just imagine. And as it takes shape, Imagine yourself floating up into the sky with this feeling. Maybe it's quick, Maybe it's slow. Float in a way that feels good for you. And notice how close you are to the feeling in the sky. Are you really close to it? Really far away? Somewhere in between? Now start floating around this feeling in the middle of the sky. Maybe moving closer and further away. Just observing it as it exists. Just notice how it stays as is or maybe changes. Are there any changes in its shape or size or color or in your distance from it? Just be with this feeling by observing it instead of absorbing it. And take a moment to give gratitude for observing this part of you a bit differently. Now take a moment and bring yourself and your feeling slowly back down to the ground where you're in an environment that feels nourishing to you. Perhaps the beach or the mountains. Maybe a town or a city and just start taking a walk with your feeling right beside you. Maybe you're having a conversation with the feeling or maybe you're walking together in silence. Notice the pace you're moving and just enjoy the scenery around you while seeing what sensations come up in your body while you're on this walk with your feeling. As you're walking, You see a bench so you ask your feeling if they'd like to sit down with you and they agree. So you sit next to each other on the bench literally sitting with your feeling. And get comfortable. Notice if any part of you feels tight or loose or stagnant. This is not a judgment, Just an experience. Now ask your feeling the following questions. How do you help me? What do you need? And just listen to the feelings answers and hear what it has to say. What do you notice in your body as it speaks? Do you find yourself taking an extra breath, Feeling other sensations? Are you surprised, Relaxed, Something else? Now take a look at the feeling. Has the feeling changed in appearance at all? In its size, Shape, Color, Something else? And just respond to the feeling and say, Thank you, I receive what you're saying. Now ask the feeling if it wants to sit in your lap. Your feeling agrees and you sit there together with the feeling on your lap. Accepting who it is as is. Admiring its shape and color, Sitting with the gratitude for how the feeling has helped you. And accepting what the feeling needs. As you sit with this feeling, Just take some gentle breaths as it feels good for you. And notice how your breath is in alignment with the feeling, Knowing that this feeling is on your side, There to support you. Now tell your feeling, It's time to go. Say, It was good to meet you feeling. Notice how it responds through words or movement or something else. And look at the feeling as it slowly disintegrates on your lap. Now I'll guide you through three deep breaths in through your nose and out through your mouth. Inhale through your nose, Exhale through your mouth. Inhale, Exhale. Inhale, Exhale. Now open your eyes or lift your gaze when you're ready. Thank you for being here.

Reviews

A great meditation to concentrate your breathing and listen

Great meditation! I struggled a bit today to get the size, shape and color of my anxiety/fear, but I felt it gripping my heart in my chest as we began. I had a little trouble floating with it, and watching it, but then we walked along the beach in the sun and sat on a bench and talked. It told me it needed me to focus today. When I acknowledged that, it started shrinking. It was fairly small by the time I put it on my lap and gradually faded away. The grip on my heart was gone and I could breathe. Thank you so much! I will be using this with my group as well. 😀

I liked this too, a similar thing to what we do in Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, thank you 🙏

Thank you so much for this offering. This helped me experience feeling in a whole new way. It is often scary and difficult for me to sit with or even access my feelings, but imagining them with senses instead of descriptions really helps!! I feel hopeful and even a bit calm now. I'll be coming back to this!! 😌