From Direction To Action, Changing Your Emotional System

This meditation is more of a talk intermixed with meditative practice. Aimed at learning about and experiencing how your emotional system is constantly listening to what you give your energy and awareness to. What happens when you start to make changes in your life and to guide you in the process of change.

Transcript

Begin by finding a comfortable position,

Either seated or lying down.

Simply close your eyes and let your whole body soften and relax.

Sink into the surface on which you are resting.

Notice that the surface is carrying you and that you can relax completely and trust that no effort is needed.

Let yourself rest heavily.

In our lives we have currents of emotion and unconscious processing that affect almost every moment in everything from how to act while driving,

What to say in a conversation,

To what images and dreams about the future that arise.

Sometimes this system works well,

And other times it limits us or color our lives with fear.

But it always tries to help,

Steering you away from anything that might lead to shame,

Fear or an uncomfortable image of the future.

In your mind,

Imagine taking a step back,

Seeing yourself sitting or lying down.

Look at your surroundings and the person in front of you.

See if you can visualize these currents within you that are so important in your everyday life.

Can you see that they try to keep you safe from having uncomfortable images of the future?

They try to navigate and avoid what it believes to be dangerous.

But sometimes it might also steer you away from living in the way that you want.

This system may limit the freedom that you feel,

But not the freedom that you have.

Many people might feel trapped or helpless when their emotional system have trouble finding ways forward that does not involve difficult emotions.

And this system would rarely suggest any path that causes discomfort in the short term,

Which is often what is needed for a change.

So what do you do when these suggestions from your unconscious arise?

If you get a suggestion to look at your phone,

You most likely follow it.

And if you get a suggestion that you should worry about embarrassing yourself at a meeting,

You might tense up as if raising yourself from the impact.

And you might worry and try to calm yourself or control your image of the future.

What few people realize is that your emotional system is like a friend that only knows if you acted because of their suggestion,

Not how you acted.

They only know that if you answer the phone when the emotional system is calling,

It must have been a good reason to call.

Even if you answer and scream at it to stop calling,

The friend within you only notice that you took action and think that it really should call you in similar situations in the future.

So that feeling that you were fighting with will show up in the future again.

Now look at yourself and your life to explore what suggestions you argue with,

Which you follow and which you just notice and let be.

See if you can find things you don't want in your life but then end up taking a lot of energy and attention anyways.

It could be worry or rumination or anything else.

So are we helpless adrift an ocean of emotional currents,

Sweeping us through the unpredictable landscape of our lives?

We have one power,

That is,

Right now,

In the moment,

We can choose what we give our intention and focus to.

We cannot choose our emotional environment in that moment,

But how we act now can affect that environment in the future.

So with this,

We can eventually have effects of the emotional ocean within.

Our emotions are quick to learn if they receive clear signals.

The body does not want to have difficult emotions,

They take some energy.

So if you allow the body to find its own balance,

Through allowing everything to move within you,

All emotions and thoughts,

And not fight with them or try to control them or avoid them,

The body will find its own balance.

If you look at yourself again,

Have you found any behaviors or situations or feelings that you wish were different?

Trying to change the impulses in the moment will only cause your brain to see them as very important.

But letting them be as they are,

No matter how scary they will probably feel,

And how very wrong they will seem in the moment,

Allowing them to be can change the forces behind them in the future.

So choosing where you give your attention and focus,

And letting emotions move freely,

Noticing the emotions but not acting on them or focusing only on them.

Just allow them to be in the background.

Always noticing your friendly emotional system that might increase the alarm,

But acting in the direction you want in this world,

With this emotion.

You are not built to be able to hold that conscious focus through the day,

But you can choose to try and change patterns that are causing you harm.

And if you try to change something,

Do it intensively.

If you act in your old ways half of the time,

And half of the time let the emotions be,

Then your emotional system will be confused and not change as fast.

If you try to change and not act on your emotions,

It still tends and brace yourself,

Your emotional system will also be confused.

The clearest signal will be if you let the emotion rip through you and feel the full force of it,

But choose not to act on it and let your attention also include other things in that moment.

When you get an emotional response,

It is an opportunity to send signals to that system.

It is only when the alarm is ringing that you can change it.

And if you really want to change,

You can choose to create more learning situations by trying to trigger the emotions and thoughts that usually scare you or control you.

For example,

Acting a little weird in social situations to evoke the feeling of fear and thoughts that other people might think you are weird,

Ugly or stupid.

This creates an opportunity for you to teach your emotional system if this is dangerous and it should warn you for these thoughts,

Or if it really isn't that dangerous and the emotions,

Thoughts and suggestions can be noticed,

But not necessarily followed.

If you choose to create such an environment where you trigger your fears,

One hour per day,

You create a very good learning opportunity and might see a more rapid change.

If you have trouble knowing if what you think of is truly dangerous or just scary,

Then you can try to look at it from an outside perspective.

If there was someone else in this situation,

Would I say that it is dangerous and a response of fear is helpful to them?

Or I can look at it from the future,

Two years from now.

Would I see this as dangerous?

Sometimes you may think you want something in the future because your emotional system might be more quiet.

If you choose this,

The emotional system is still in control and you are not truly living in the way you want.

For example if someone has anxiety over their weight,

Think that losing weight will make their world less filled with anxiety.

That direction will lead to anxiety having control of your life and likely becoming a larger and larger part of your life.

If you feel free or not,

Does not change how free you are.

If you feel confident or not,

Does not change how free you are.

Even feelings of hopelessness does not need to change your ability to move in that direction.

If you can see the hopelessness as the feeling it is and that it is only your attention and focus right now that you can change.

Take some time and from an outside perspective,

Looking at yourself,

Explore your direction,

How the current of the emotional system affects it and reflect on if you want to change it in any way.

Also consider the cost of change.

How uncomfortable do you think the emotions will be at first?

What do you want to change?

How do you want to live?

If you have connected with something within,

Take a minute to describe it to yourself and notice the bodily sensations.

If you want,

You could take the next week or so to remind yourself of this every day and explore what you want to change.

Take some time and explore what you think would be your emotional resistance to change.

And then,

If it is possible to have those emotions and still change.

Then return to your intention and direction to see if it is important enough to experience uncomfortable feelings.

When you feel ready,

You can return to the room you are in and notice where the person with this intention is in the world,

Among billions of people in the world with different intentions and emotional currents.

Reviews

Very insightful and filled with helpful suggestions. Thank you.

Love this. What a great practice to work with emotions.

Insightful and thought-provoking. Thank you for sharing this with us. I see you and the light within you. Be well. 🤲🏻❤🤲🏻

Excellent! Thank you! I will practice this!

Thank you. Amazingly restful while at the same time informational:)

This is beautiful thank you Namaste

"What do you want to change. How do you want to live"? Wow! I like this thought. For me, at this stage in my life these questions have more meaning than the question, "who are you"? Thank you and Namaste.

Resonant advice, I will come back and revisit this information and continue to tune into my inner signals. Thank you 🌷