Meditation with strong Emotions
Sometimes we find ourselves having to face strong emotions. This can cause our thoughts to churn around and around in our mind, attempting to resolve it in some way.
When strong emotions feature, I have found it useful to think of emotions as energy moving through the body. This technique is particularly useful when emotions come up in meditation.
If you are not familiar with the practice of deliberately making your negative emotions the centre of your attention, it may feel a little scary at first, especially if you are experiencing anxiety, anger or sadness.
(* Just a note here: If you are dealing with difficult experiences, perhaps loss, illness, failure or depression, I believe in and recommend the safety and refuge of a therapeutic relationship in addition to and in conjunction with insight meditation.)
Observing emotions as energy moving around the body, you may observe that emotional energy can have a texture or temperature, for example anger could feel warm or strong, fear could feel cold or sharp. Anxiety could create a feeling in your belly, whereas other emotions may sit in a different area.
Most of the time we work very hard at getting rid of negative emotions, but the emotional energy we feel is not usually what causes the discomfort. It’s most often the accompanying narrative; the thoughts which underpin it all. We associate emotions with past experiences and thoughts, and usually we will have quite a lot of emotional or mental conversation going on when we experience vivid or strong emotions.
It can be difficult to distinguish between the thought and the emotions, and separating the two is not always easy. In meditation we practice observing what arises without reaction. Practicing not to attach to, nor identifying too closely with what arises.
With this practice of observing, we allow ourselves to feel and experience our emotions as energy, positive or negative. With regular practice, you may also begin to notice the thoughts that accompany the emotion. This loosens the grip, the feeling of the emotion having a strong hold on us. If you sit and observe for long enough, you will notice the energ moves through you and eventually dissipates.
There is a great calmness in this practice. “Calmness is resting and resting is a precondition for healing” (Titch Nhat Hahn)
