We all deal with afflictive emotions,
Feelings of stress,
Anxiety,
Perhaps burnout.
At some times we can do things to kind of calm down the nervous system,
Whether that be through breath work or meditation,
Even going out in nature,
Being with friends or exercise,
But many times in our life there's no way to release these feelings.
So what you can do with your meditation is you can actually bring those emotions and let that be the object of your meditation.
So instead of letting the awareness go to the breath or body sensations or perhaps sound mantra,
Let your object of attention be your emotional state.
So let's say you're dealing with something very stressful and you come to sit down and even if your intent was to meditate with the breath or a body scan,
Instead,
Bring your attention to your stress.
Let that be the object of your awareness.
As you breathe in,
You feel the stress.
As you breathe out,
Sometimes you can let it go,
But sometimes you cannot.
So let's imagine you're not able to ride out and release feelings of tension and stress.
The stress just stays with you or that anxiety feelings.
So breathe in and you feel and be with it.
And as you exhale,
It's the same.
You ride it out.
You're just surfing your emotions.
And the important thing here is to not get carried away with the intent.
Not the why you're stressed or anxious.
You're not really thinking about what happened.
You're not worrying about something about how it's going to get worse in the future.
What you want is just experience the energy of the emotion.
Breathing in and feeling that stress.
Breathing out,
Being with it as well.
Seeing where does it arise from?
Where does it go to?
Bringing a real heightened sense of curiosity.
Do you tend to feel it more as thoughts?
Or does it have an influence in the feelings in your body?
Does it tighten your shoulders?
Do you become uptight?
Do you feel constriction in your chest?
And as we learn to surf our emotions,
We're not trying to change or manipulate.
Just experiencing the energy of emotions,
Bringing a very heightened sense of curiosity.
How do you feel about this?
Just note pleasant,
Neutral,
Or perhaps it's unpleasant.
And we're not judging it,
We're not trying to change it.
Just note if it feels very overwhelming,
The stress or anxiety,
That energy.
Note unpleasant.
And just surf the feeling,
Not making stories,
Not trying to change it.
Just ride in your emotions with the breath.
You can take the feeling of a big open sky.
Crisp,
Clear,
And blue.
With the feeling that this is our original mind.
And when these feelings of stress and anxiety come in,
It's just clouds moving through the sky.
It's not who we are.
It's just coming in and out of our awareness.
And we watch the clouds.
Not being frustrated by them.
Not trying to make them disappear.
Just watching the clouds drift through the sky.
The knowledge that our mind is just like a clear open sky.
Just ride and observe.
Curiosity,
Non-judgmentally.
Just experiencing the energy of the emotions.
Just being with what is.
And as a final thought with this practice.
Learning to change the mindset.
This feeling of not,
I'm stressed or I'm anxious.
But more,
I'm experiencing the energy of anxiety.
I'm experiencing the energy of stress.
Because your true,
Pure,
Primordial nature is calm,
Aware,
Kind,
And joyful.
Thanks for joining.
