Intense Emotions and Finding Spaciousness

How to touch into intense emotions in the body a bit at a time by finding an open spaciousness behind the emotions that offers relief.

Transcript

In this practice,

We'll explore working with intense emotions that might be present in the body,

Learning how to safely be with them for short periods of time,

And then developing the flexibility to drop back behind them into a sense of openness and spaciousness.

And then from that sense of openness and spaciousness,

Being willing to go back in and experience them just as much as we feel like we're able to,

Developing the confidence that we know how to move away from it in a safe way when needed.

So to begin,

Find a comfortable seated posture,

Feeling yourself grounded and rooted,

The bottom half of your body heavy on the earth,

And then straightening up,

Lengthening through your spine,

Lifting through the top of the head,

Letting the chin tuck slightly.

And allow yourself to take a few deep relaxing breaths as you let the awareness descend and come into the body,

Feeling the space inside your body and feeling the breath as it fills and relaxes in that space.

Getting a general sense of what sensations are present in the body.

I'm doing a quick scan in the major centers where there's strong or intense emotions usually lie,

Bringing your awareness to the center of your throat.

Just feeling the space around the throat,

The back of the neck,

The front of the neck,

The sides,

Noticing the space in between,

Noticing any sensations that are present there,

Holding your attention there with concentration,

And bringing equanimity to your experience,

Allowing whatever is present to arise and pass without resistance and without grasping.

Then letting your awareness drop into the center of the chest,

Taking a few breaths,

Feeling into that space,

Noticing whatever sensations are present,

Allowing yourself to focus on them,

And bringing a sense of relaxation and equanimity without resistance and without grabbing on to that experience,

Simply allowing yourself to feel what's there.

And then finally coming into the lower belly,

Back and towards the center of the body.

And in the same way taking a few breaths into that space,

Just checking in,

Noticing what sensations are present,

Holding your attention down into the body,

And allowing whatever sensations are there to come and go.

So after exploring these three areas,

Letting your awareness now freely roam through the body,

Coming to be aware of wherever a sensation is most present,

Wherever it is calling to you,

Might be somewhere located in those three areas,

Or it might be somewhere else.

Just noticing what sensations might need your attention at this moment.

And allow yourself to be aware of those sensations and feel the space around the sensation.

Make sure that you're holding a little bit of a wide space so that right around the intensity of the sensation you feel a sense of relaxation or spaciousness.

Noticing any subtle resistance or subtle physical tension that shows up in relationship to that experience.

Experimenting with different ways to relax and release into this experience,

Allowing it to be as it is without resistance.

Maybe that means it becomes less intense,

Or maybe that means it becomes more intense.

So whatever happens,

Simply experiencing it,

Allowing it to change moment by moment.

And then noticing as you're feeling this intensity and you're feeling this emotion,

You're feeling these sensations in the body,

Noticing spatially where they tend to be located.

And if you notice that it's located more towards the front of the body,

See if you can allow yourself to drop your awareness back behind the intensity,

Moving a little bit more towards the back line of your body,

And even kind of dropping your awareness back into the space behind you.

You might move back kind of locally in the same general area where that sensation is,

Or you might zoom your awareness out and cover the whole back of your body,

Or even drop like you're reaching or feeling back into the space behind you.

Almost as if there's a sense of falling backwards,

Your awareness is falling into this space behind you.

Tuning into the fact that this space behind the intense emotions or the intense sensations tends to be a little bit more free,

A little bit more gentle,

Not as much content.

A sense of rest,

A place where you can go when you need a little bit of space from the intensity.

And allow yourself to tune into a sense of relaxation that's present in that space.

A sense of thinness in your experience.

And a sense of openness,

A sense of equanimity.

Being able to simply rest and be present.

Noticing if your attention gets pulled or drawn a little bit more forward into the sensation or emotion that may or may not still be there.

And if so,

Notice that kind of pull forward and then once again let your awareness fall backwards.

So really experimenting and getting this sense of what it's like to place your attention in the back of the body,

Along the back line.

And then even falling back behind that and being aware of the space behind you.

Let your awareness keep falling back behind you into that space.

And feeling some connection to that space.

Then once again noticing if that emotion or sensation is still present,

Allowing yourself to come a little bit further forward.

Right at the boundary where you start to really meet that sensation.

Where your attention really starts to feel what's there.

And allow yourself to feel the intensity of whatever sensation or emotion is present.

But keep this awareness of the space behind you in the background.

Allowing yourself to stay present with this sensation,

Allowing it to be as it is.

Tuning into the subtle ways that we resist this experience.

Either directly in our awareness,

Maybe kind of getting distracted into thoughts or images.

Or in the form of kind of physical tension or physical tightness.

Seeing if you can stay with the sensation,

Try to relax into it.

Notice any subtle form of resistance to it and allow that to drop away.

Cultivating a sense of equanimity,

Of openness,

Acceptance,

Of a willingness to feel this experience right now.

And staying with it for as long as you can maintain that quality of equanimity.

And if it ever gets too intense or too overwhelming,

Then once again,

Drop your awareness back into the space behind you.

Maybe into the space directly behind the sensation,

Or the space covering the whole back line.

Or really falling backwards and extending out in all directions into the space behind you.

So doing this,

Getting a flavor of the openness and the safety in the space behind.

And the willingness to approach and be with the intensity that is in front.

And so slowly going back and forth and kind of feeling at your own pace,

Being with the sensation for as long as you can maintain a sense of equanimity and releasing any resistance.

And if it becomes too strong or overwhelming,

Having the confidence to really be in that space behind.

Knowing that that's a place that you can always go to if anything gets too intense.

And then finding and making a connection with that space.

Noticing the inherent quality of equanimity that's present there.

And then bringing that experience forward to meet the intensity that also might be present.

So feel free to continue to practice on your own for as long as you'd like to in the remainder of this session.

Continue to explore and experiment with the different concepts and methods that we have explored together so far in this practice.

Reviews

Haven’t experienced spaciousness this way. Approachable and allowed a real experience of the value of practiced spaciousness. .

Excellent. Very helpful tips to prevent yourself suffering from painful emotional reactions to difficulties.

Thank you. I felt it is difficult when the emotions is mix up with fear. Fear starts to control the breath/ awareness. Being gentle and patient toward the fear and emotions in that practice might be the key. And starting over and over again being present. At some point it will get easier.

I like that this approach tries to give me some tools to deal with overwhelming emotions

An innovative method for emotional exploration. I found it very liberating. Thank you. (A bell sound in the end would give it star number six)

Great techniques! Wonderful visuals and a calm, accepting voice. Bookmarked to return and continuing to explore related meditations. Thank you.

I am experiencing an intense life situation right now and this was a perfect meditation. My feelings are intense right now and I am more easily distracted than usual- this meditation helped by expert guidance in a more skillful approach. I am grateful. 🙏🏻

Unique and calming. I will return to this one.

Amazing! Such a new way to approach the pain safely with mindfulness. Thank you!

Good for me today. Helpful, for my present descent into very old and powerful emotions. Time for spring cleaning 😊thank you!!