Dancing With Dragons - Working With Difficult Emotions

Dragons are those wonderful, mythical creatures we are both in awe and wonder of but also can fill us full of wariness and fear. Our emotional life is similar, they too can fill us full of fear (an emotion itself) because we are not sure how to approach them. Suryacitta invites you to 'dance with your dragons' and become at ease with them. Once we begin to dance with them we are filled with their energy and wonder ourselves.

Transcript

Hello,

I'm going to guide you through a meditation on working with difficult emotions.

Sometimes I call this meditation Dancing with Dragons.

Being the emotions that we're slightly wary of,

That we don't want around.

So we're learning to dance with them.

We're learning to dance with the dragons.

So during this meditation there have been moments of pauses,

Of silence.

I don't want to talk through the whole of the meditation.

In other words,

I don't want to do the meditation for you.

So in those moments of silence I want you to remain sensing and feeling into the body.

I will guide you.

So sitting or lying,

Checking that you are comfortable.

And just taking one or two deeper breaths to help arrive in the body.

That's it.

Just feel the breath for a few moments.

Just allow yourself to breathe naturally now.

And I'd like you to take your attention to your middle body area.

Your belly,

Chest,

Including your throat and perhaps your shoulders.

So you become aware of this middle body area.

And just sensing into this area.

See if there's something there that wants your attention.

A tightness.

Maybe a holding in the belly.

Maybe there's a heaviness.

Maybe there's just a vague something on the edge of awareness.

Be curious.

If you cannot find anything,

Bring something to mind that's bothering you in your life at the moment.

And notice where you feel in the body.

So what does this something feel like?

What's the most obvious quality?

Does it feel heavy?

Is there a tension somewhere or a tightness?

Located in the body.

Be curious,

Be interested.

If you wish,

You can say hello to this something as a way of welcoming.

Just notice how you feel towards this something,

This sensation,

This feeling.

You just want to get rid of it.

Just be honest.

Does this something have a shape?

Is it round,

Square?

Is the shape indefinable?

Just keep feeling into this.

Does it have a color?

Is it dark and kind of heavy?

Is it red,

White,

Yellow?

After it's black?

We're just giving it some attention here.

That's all we're doing.

Just holding this in awareness rather than pushing it away.

Having judgments about it.

If you notice that you've gone into thinking,

Just say to yourself,

Thinking.

It's okay and return back to the body.

And walk around the other side of this something as it were.

Feel around it.

Just acknowledge any change if anything does change.

We're not trying to change anything.

Just touch this something with your awareness.

Just feel it.

What we feel,

We heal.

That's it.

Just relax with it.

And you may just notice how it feels from its point of view.

For example,

Is this feeling sensation,

Is it angry?

Just sense into it.

Often there are emotions locked in these sensations.

Is it sad?

Just sensing into it.

Perhaps this part of you is scared.

Maybe it's not your what of.

It's just scared.

Just acknowledging and receiving anything it reveals.

This is an act of compassion.

Normally try to push these away,

Ignore them.

But not anymore.

Does this part of you,

This feeling sensation,

This emotion,

Does it want to reveal anything to you?

Ask it.

Quietly inside.

Does it want to reveal anything?

And again,

If you find yourself lost in thoughts,

Just say to yourself,

Thinking just quietly inside.

And return back to the body and this something.

The feeling in this world leads to healing.

Every feeling,

Emotion,

Just wants to be felt.

Wants to be acknowledged.

So now you can begin to broaden awareness to include other parts of the body,

The hands and feet,

The hips,

Head and have a sense of the body as a whole.

And if you're at your eyes closed,

You can open them.

And just sensing how you are.

So this is a meditation we can do whenever we've got some feeling or emotion that we're not sure what's going on.

You might just feel low or in a low mood or you might feel angry about something,

You're not sure what.

What we can do is take time out and spend time with it,

Explore it.

But most of all,

What we want to do is to feel it.

If you take your attention to it and feel it,

You have to become aware of it.

You can't feel it without being aware of it consciously.

This is not analysis.

It's not trying to work anything out,

Get rid of it,

Get rid of it or change it.

It's being with it and listening to it.

That's all we're doing.

Thank you very much.

Bye bye.

Reviews

Seemingly simple, yet so profound. I've been a meditator for years, and am a proponent of therapy, yet this dove right into the heart of the matter. What a unique and healing take.

So very helpful, thank you 🙏💛
To practice being with unknown unease and discomforting feelings without trying to analyse or change anything.
Greatly appreciated 🙏

I appreciate this practice of allowing feelings to Be, without being carried away with them.

Thank you Surya, although there was a quick movement from contraction, to allowing & acknowledging to understanding for me, it was pleasant to stay and complete the meditation. Always appreciating your calmness and sensitivity!

🤔very interesting, just being ,& learning every moment🙏

Very helpful way of letting yuk feelings flow by observing them rather than holding them unacknowledged and tight in the body. Excellent, I really enjoy your way of teaching, thank you Suryacitta.

Thank you for your gentle guidance through this very healing practice. 🙏🏼

Phenomenal and practical. Thank you. Perfect on this Vasak (Buddha) day.

That felt absolutely right & grounded me so much - from a dark abyss of pain & sadness my pounding frightened heart evolved & said: "I am here, you're not alone, we've been in this together for so many times & we've got this"... Thank you for this meditation, I highly appreciate it, will come back to it & recommend it ❣sending you much love & peace ❣🧚‍♀️💫

Simple but powerful meditation. Perfect to explore that coming and going anxiety. Thank you so much🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼

Very helpful - I like this technique very much and found the prompts clear and easy to follow. The promise of pauses was fulfilled - so often people talk over the meditation “trying to do it for me” and it’s frustrating but not this one. I will bookmark this for sure! Thanks again!

Powerful and healing. Thank you.

Amazing! JUST what I needed. Will definitely be saving for use in the future. Perfect length and perfect summary throughout

Love it. Simple and practical.

I am in a 12 step program and I say to my friends the diss….. ease is like a sleeping dragon 🐉 with one eye open waiting I the near distance.. and it wakes every now and then to remind you .. it’s still there.loved this feel to heal . It’s definitely helping me slay the disease of addiction and numbing by being brave to feel it. And through vulnerability comes real strength . So glad to have discovered this teacher in the live meditation on Insight Timer . 💕🙏

Thank you so much for this meditation. I'm definitely not use to sitting with my emotions. That helped work through some of that stuck feeling. I'll keep coming back to this.

Great meditation for shifting emotional pain 😁 even without fully knowing why it got there. 🙏Thank you SO much

Wonderful and helpful.

Absolutely lovely. Thank you 🙏

Got me exploring the feeling very curiously. Liked feeling is healing 🙏🏼