The moment is ‘NOW’.
Exercise- Sensing Emotions in the Body
by meditative - September 9th, 2010.Filed under: Insight Meditation Exercises.
Introduction & Guidelines– You will need at least 15-20 minutes for this exercise, which focuses upon coming alive to the emotions in your body. In general, our emotions are sets of bodily sensations accompanied by thoughts and images. The following exercise is simple and brief. It’s an effective way to help you “come home” to your emotional states- and to experience more fully in awareness as you identify less with the thoughts and images that trail your emotions.
Making the time to really be with & sit- to explore- and to examine the physical imprints of our emotions- especially the difficult ones can be a truly liberating experience. Intimate, open, and direct awareness of our emotions in the mind-body experience increases our capacity to stay with them- and to notice & acknowledge them without being carried away by them.
Practice– As a formal meditation practice, find a quiet space free of interruptions. Gently close your eyes and connect with your body’s breath cycle for a few minutes just noticing both inhalation and exhalation. When calm and settled, see if you can next expand your awareness to sense what emotions are occurring… How do they appear to be manifesting in your body? Where do you feel them- in your throat, eyes, chest, shoulders, belly, etc? Try to stay with the emotions & sensations, and breathe with them. Observe the fullness of their physical imprint in the body- as well as the associative thoughts and/or images that stream along in awareness. How do the sensations change or shift while observing with warm and open (i.e. non-judging) curiosity.
During your meditation, notice any impulses for reaction… Try to stay with and attend to whatever sensations are happening until they come to pass by themselves.
When ready, gently bring your attention back to your breath for a couple of minutes. Simply note whatever may be present, and stay with your breath.