IRest Practice 16: Welcoming Your Feelings & Emotions

When you deny your feelings & emotions, peace & well-being remain out of reach. When you welcome & allow your feelings & emotions, you're able to recognize & experience lasting peace & well-being. Fearlessness & peace spread throughout your life when you're no longer afraid of experiencing fear or joy. When you're open to experiencing all of your feelings & emotions, anxiety & fear no longer control your life.
This practice involves engaging your feelings & emotions. It's designed to hone your ability to welcome & respond to every feeling or emotion that arises within or around you.
iRest Practice 16: Welcoming Your Feelings & Emotions from the iRest Program for Healing PTSD: A Proven Effective Approach to Using Yoga Nidra Meditation & Deep Relaxation Techniques to Overcome Trauma. Written by Richard C. Miller, PhD. Recorded by Erin Finck, TCTSY-F, RYT 500, Level 1 iRest Teacher

Transcript

When you encounter a feeling or emotion, Your first task is to welcome and experience the feeling and emotion as a body sensation. Then, Note where you experience this sensation in your physical body. And how it's affecting your breathing. With your eyes opened or closed. Welcome the environment and sounds around you. The touch of air on your skin. The sensations where your body touches the surface that's supporting it. Experience the feeling and mood of your body. Locate a feeling or emotion that's present. Stay with what you're experiencing without going into memory or thinking. Sense where and how you experience this feeling or emotion in your body. Now ask, Where do I feel this feeling or motion in my body? Is it in my belly, Chest, Throat, Head, Arms, Or legs? How would I describe this feeling or emotion that I'm experiencing? What is its shape? Is it solid or vaporous? Does it appear as an object? Plant. Or person. Is it small or large? As I experience it, Do I feel tense or relaxed? Heavy, Stay with your experience just as it is, Whatever it is, And however it appears to you. While noticing where and how you're breathing. Are you breathing in your belly, Midsection? Or chest. Is your breathing long, Deep, And slow? Or short. Shallow and quick. Now ask yourself. . . Do I have any judgments about this particular feeling or emotion? If so, What are they? And how and where do I feel them in my body? Describe your feelings and emotions to yourself in as many ways as you can. Then come back to simply experiencing the felt sense of this feeling or emotion. Taking a few moments to simply experience the sensations that are present in your body that are this feeling or emotion. When you're ready, Allow your eyes to slowly open and close several times. Sense the surface that's supporting your body. The feeling of the environment around you. Sounds. Objects. The sensations of your body. Feelings. Emotions. Thoughts? And the feeling of well-being. With your eyes open. Feel yourself present to this moment. While sensing your inner resource. Sensations of well-being. Peace and ease present to this moment in your wide awake state of mind and body.