Managing Painful Emotions

This meditation is to help those going through difficult emotions, life circumstances, or other challenges that can feel overwhelming to the nervous system. This practice invites us to bring spacious awareness to these emotional challenges and situations. We'll also explore how to gently be with the challenges in a somatic way to help us process what is coming up in the body. This meditation is helpful when working with trauma.

Transcript

Hello and welcome to this meditation on spacious awareness.

This is a meditation that is helpful to do when you are in a particularly sticky,

Emotionally challenging situation.

Thoughts or other challenges are coming up in your life where it's really feels difficult to manage.

Maybe there's a lot of overwhelm or a lot of maybe darkness or other challenges for you.

There's just a lot of intensity in your life right now,

Whether that be through finances,

Relationships,

Or any other maybe health challenge.

So go ahead and take a seat or lie down.

Get comfortable.

And as you settle in,

Just if you can,

Notice where there might be some tightness or tension in the body.

So if you can make yourself a little bit more comfortable as you settle in,

You can go ahead and do that.

So I'll note I'm recording this meditation outside in nature.

I'm at a beautiful park and there's a lake in the background.

And in the foreground,

There's some trees here and grass.

And you might hear some noises here and that's okay.

This is helping me really just ground in and be present in this moment to help you and just transmit a sense of spacious awareness for you in this meditation.

So you might close your eyes and take a few deep breaths in.

So you can allow your breathing to see if it can slow,

Slow on the out-breath,

A gentle in-breath in the breathing.

And then just really tuning in to the sensations of the body.

So you might notice again if there's any tightness,

Any tension,

Any tension in the body.

You might bring awareness to the eyelids or the brow.

See if you can loosen that up.

Anything in the jaw or the tongue,

See if there's tightness there.

Just going down,

Down the neck,

The front,

The chest,

The belly.

Also the shoulders,

Arms.

See if you can loosen and bring a greater ease and openness to the muscles and to the insides of the body.

You can really gently utilize the breath in this process to bring awareness,

Bring spacious awareness to the body.

It's also helpful to ground yourself a little bit.

So noticing where your body makes contact with the surface below it.

So if you're sitting down or if your feet are on the ground,

Just notice wherever your body makes contact with the ground or surface below.

And just,

You might even imagine yourself just right here in the center of your body.

Rooting down into those places,

Feeling connected to the earth.

And with your eyes closed,

You might imagine that you're here with me or in another spacious place in nature where it's open and expansive.

For me here,

I've got blue sky overhead with a few wispy clouds.

The air is very still,

Just a very subtle breeze.

The warm sunlight is coming down,

But it's a nice cooler autumn,

Early autumn day.

So the grass is a little bit drier and not as green,

But there's some wildflowers,

Dandelions,

And some other things in the ground.

And the lake,

The pond,

Is very still.

There's a lot of gentleness here.

So see if you can access something like that within you,

Whether it's in your imagination,

But also bringing that into your body and your breath,

That spacious,

Gentle awareness,

That space of calmness.

And again,

We're not forcing this to happen,

Right?

We're aware that there are potentially emotions,

Thoughts that are very difficult.

So as you tune into those,

Notice those,

And bring those into this spacious awareness,

Recognizing them,

Knowing that there's nothing you actually have to do to fix anything in this moment.

Also noticing any resistance that you might have to going deeper and feeling some of these emotions or thoughts.

It's also okay if you are struggling to find that spacious awareness.

That might be coming up for you.

And so whatever is actually coming up for you in this moment,

Be with that and allow.

See if you can allow the breath and the essence of that space,

Because it's not just in the body,

Right?

It's in your energy field.

It's beyond thought.

It's a sense.

It's a felt sense that goes beyond the physicality of things,

Right?

So see if you can tune into that.

And it might be helpful if the emotions,

Thoughts,

And sensations are really sticky and difficult and challenging.

You might breathe in through the nose and then breathe out through the mouth.

So just a gentle breathe in through the nose and an out breath,

Almost maybe like you're blowing out a candle or just a gentle out through the mouth breathing,

Can be helpful to bring more spacious awareness to these sticky places.

Some thoughts or concerns might come up.

If you're doing this right,

You might not be sure if this is the right way to do it or not.

And that's okay.

You can be with that.

There's no right or wrong way to do this.

The invitation here is really to help you tune into your own body,

Tune into your nervous system and the felt sensations within you.

And really,

Only you can touch on this spacious awareness within you and have that start to open up for you.

The breath can help you,

But also imagining being in a more spacious location can also help.

See what you can tune into just to give more space for whatever might be arising for you.

I'll also say here,

If there's not a lot of strong or difficult emotions coming through,

That's fine too.

This is actually a perfect opportunity for you to practice getting bigger,

Allowing your energetic field to really expand as large as it wants to expand.

You might even also touch into the earth or the cosmos even and or divine feelings that can come through in this process to help you access and help you feel the great expanse of awareness that is possible for you to access.

And if things feel too much,

Too spacious,

Come back,

Root yourself to the earth,

Remembering that you can breathe some of these difficulties or overwhelm down into the earth.

And again,

Bring it down,

Just let it go down through the body,

Down to the earth.

When things are very difficult to be with,

You might also do some audible exhales,

Some vocalizing,

Some sounds with your mouth,

Some ah,

Or even go deeper than that.

Just notice ah,

Some sighs.

Any other vocalization that you feel drawn to do,

You can also do that as part of this process.

Sometimes for me,

It's some light humming or other vocalization that's very gentle.

So you can bring really a compassion,

Tenderness,

A sense of caring to this process.

Caring to this process.

You also might bring awareness to thoughts that revolve around controlling the situation,

Trying to hang on to your sanity,

If it were.

So be with that.

Notice that.

Notice if there is resistance.

Resistance that comes through trying to control,

Trying to not lose it.

So you can be with that very gently.

And especially,

I'll speak to this in difficult situations,

Difficult emotions,

Challenging circumstances of life,

It can be very difficult to know what's on the other side of these emotions and of these challenges.

And so it's very common for our brain and even our nervous system to want to try to control or essentially keep you alive.

So you're aware of that.

And just trust that in this moment,

You can access safety.

And you're helping your nervous system really work through this process.

Because often,

There are past experiences that have created some unhealthy patterns in your system.

And so bringing spacious awareness now here to the present moment,

You are learning to tend more gently and mindfully to what is actually around you.

So noticing if there are past stories,

Experiences,

Emotions that are coming through right now,

You can tend to those in the present moment of awareness.

And also remember,

You don't have to go deep into those past stories,

You can just touch on the felt sense of them.

And also,

You don't have to go too far into the future,

Where it becomes anxious,

Where you're trying to control.

Again,

Just bring yourself back to the breath,

Back to the present moment of what is arising.

So there might be a sense of releasing the past,

Releasing of emotions.

And often that can be done through tuning into the body,

Noticing where there's tightness,

And just bringing greater spacious awareness into those tight places in the body,

Into your energy field.

I'll also name here that if it feels like it's getting too much,

If you're touching on things that just feel too difficult to go into,

Or you're just you don't feel like you have the energy or the capacity to process right now,

That's okay.

You actually don't need to do that right now.

Only be with what you have the capacity to be with.

And you'll know,

You'll be able to tune into your body and your energy field,

And really know in your nervous system what it's able to handle right now.

So the important thing here is to stay with the breath and bring more spacious awareness to what you have capacity to bring awareness to.

Something you also might experiment with is gentle movements.

So if it feels comfortable for you,

Sometimes when we're dealing with difficult emotions,

Strong emotions,

A gentle rocking back and forth,

Or other swaying back and forth,

See if there's anything that maybe wants to be felt through some gentle movement.

You can also do that as well.

There's a chance as you're processing some of these things that you might touch on some grief that you might touch on some grief or sadness or despair that might be coming through.

Whatever it is in this moment that might be coming up for you and wanting to be seen and witnessed,

Just see if you can bring again awareness to that,

Utilizing the breath,

Really just tending to what is here.

For some,

After experiencing grief,

There can also be anger or other strong emotions that arise.

You can also be with that.

Anger could be a difficult one to be with in spacious awareness.

So with that,

You can root that into the earth a little bit,

Bring that earth element to help hold that as a container.

Just be with whatever again is coming up for you in this moment.

Again,

Just touching on this,

Noticing if there is resistance to what is coming through.

Just ask yourself,

What in this moment am I unwilling to see?

Am I unwilling to feel?

And as you explore that,

See if you can bring spacious awareness to those things,

Those emotions,

Thoughts that are really tender or you're resisting.

And as you touch on those,

You might again breathe in deeply and breathe down,

Breathe into the body and be with the sensations in the body.

So letting the stories go,

The thoughts go,

But coming back to the felt sensations in the body.

And noticing where there is still maybe tightness,

Tension in the body,

And using the breath,

Seeing if you can really bring more spacious awareness to those areas,

Loosening,

Allowing,

Letting go,

Surrendering.

And another thing you might explore if it feels very difficult is to let go of the body.

Very difficult to be with,

Very overwhelming.

You can also utilize your hands to maybe put your hand on your heart or even put your hands on the ground or a surface and just utilizing the touch and your hands to reconnect you and even hold those areas of the body where there is tightness gently.

So bringing touch as part of your awareness practice here.

As we prepare to close,

You can take a deep breath in.

Stay in this space as long as you need to tend to anything that's coming up.

Don't feel like you have to rush off.

You can tune in now to the sounds around you.

If there's any noises outside of you in your space,

You might gently open your eyes just slowly.

And just stay here again as long as you need to just to be with these sensations.

And see as you come back to your surroundings here,

Bring that spacious awareness with you.

So whatever you've been able to tap into today,

I just want to name that you've done a really good job being with things today.

And bring that spacious awareness into your environment,

Into your present moment,

Into your day.

I just want to thank you so much for joining me in this meditation.

And I wish you all the best in your journey.

And I have confidence in you that you'll be able to continue this journey and just know as you continue to practice and do these,

Things will get lighter,

Things will get softer.

And you will grow in your capacity to hold big emotions and difficulties in your life.

Thank you so much for joining me today.

Reviews

Very calming and helpful for feeling into the body and experiencing difficult emotions. Will come back to this often, thank you 🙏