Exploring Emotions Meditation
(Engaging With Your Whole Experience)
Before you start your practice, find a relatively quiet place to sit where you will be uninterrupted.
You will also need a timer, set for twenty minutes. You can use a timer on your phone, an app or a simple kitchen timer. (It can be helpful to set interval bells every five minutes to help you move yourself through this meditation.)
Obviously, you cannot read and meditate at the same time. So briefly read through this document before you begin each session.
• • • • •
•Sit down, start your timer and close your eyes.
Inhale. Exhale.
Another inhale bringing your attention to sensation. Exhale, focus.
Inhale. Exhale.
Inhale, stretch up, spine long.
Exhale, relax shoulders, open your chest.
Rock back and forth, then side to side. Allow your body to tell you how to sit.
Inhale, fill up your belly.
Exhale, let it relax.
•Bring your awareness to the top of your head.
Your face and the rest of your head.
Down your neck.
Right shoulder, arm, hand
Left hand, arm, shoulder.
Front of your body.
Back of your body.
Right hip, leg, foot.
Left foot, leg, hip.
• • • • •
•Take a deep inhale. Exhale fully.
Bring your awareness to your mind and spend a few moments experiencing your state of mind in this moment. Pay attention to sensations, impressions, insights; as well as how they shift and change.
Next, bring your awareness to your heart for a while and experience your current emotional state. Notice feelings, moods, insights; shifting and changing.
Finally, bring your attention to your gut, pause here and experience your state of intuition. Open to words, feelings, images, or sensations; allow these to arise and to pass away.
•Reflect upon your experience. Which of these three areas, your mind, your heart, your gut, was the most intense or “loudest” today?
Return to this area of your body.
Spend a few moments watching and experiencing this area again, noticing if what you experienced at first has changed in any way, or if it is currently shifting or in flux.
Our emotions communicate to us through all manner of information.
For the remainder of this meditation period you will be opening to the information your emotions share by focusing on the feedback you receive in the area of your body you are observing now.
This will be a new type of conversation.
• • • • •
•Begin by creating a safe space for this conversation.
Focus on the area of your body that you are observing. Imagine surrounding this area with care.
Assure your body and the feelings that reside within that you care for them, and are ready to participate in a conversation in good faith.
With your thoughts, say, “I care for you and I will take care of you.”
Time this with your breathing and repeat, “I care for you and I will take care of you.”
Again.
And again.
Allow the feelings you are in conversation with to introduce themselves.
Ask them, “Do you have a name? Would you please tell me?”
You may be greeted with a name you recognize, like anger, sadness, contentment, ease. Or you may experience a name that is a picture, a feeling, or simply a sense of knowing.
Let your feelings know that they are welcome, just as they are.
Say with your thoughts, “You are welcome here, just as you are. I want to get to know you.”
•When you feel ready, you can begin your conversation in earnest.
If, for example, your feeling introduced itself to you by saying its name is “fear,” you could ask it, “Tell me what you are afraid of.”
If your feeling is “loneliness,” you can say, “Tell me why you feel lonely.”
All you need to do is ask and wait. Allow yourself to silently observe and “hear” the answer you are given.
This “answer” may come as words or impressions. It may be verbal, visual, or emotional.
Take your time. Be patient. You may deepen the conversation by asking things like, “Tell me more,” or “Is there anything you need? Is there anything I can do for you?”
It is not your job to “fix” your feelings, to argue with them, or change them. Give them space and listen.
• • • • •
•To conclude your conversation, remind your feelings that you are a safe space for them.
Again, tell them, “I care for you and I will take care of you.”
Use the timing of your breath and repeat, “I care for you and I will take care of you.”
And again.
Imagine that you are surrounding this feeling, this part of your body that is holding it, with care, love, support.
Thank this feeling for sharing itself with you in whatever words feel appropriate.
•When you are ready, finish your meditation by taking a deep breath.
Wiggle your fingers and toes. With eyes still closed, cast your gaze downward.
Slowly exhale and gently open your eyes.