Watching emotions land in the body

This meditation guides you to notice emotions as they show up in your body. You’ll explore pleasant and unpleasant feelings without needing to change them. A helpful practice for understanding emotions and responding more skillfully.

Why this helps? Recognizing emotions as physical sensations builds emotional awareness and self regulation.

Transcript

Practice Overview

Settle Into Posture And Breath

Naming Today’s Emotions

Scan The Body For Sensations

Pleasant And Unpleasant Emotions

Nonjudgmental Awareness

SPEAKER_00 0:01

This is a mindfulness of emotions practice. In this meditation, you're going to practice cultivating awareness of your emotions and how they can be felt in your body. Let's begin by coming into a comfortable and alert meditation posture. Allow your eyes to gently close, or you can leave them open and relaxed. Feel your body sitting and feel the pull of gravity as you allow your body to rest and relax into your seat. Feel the contact your body is making with the ground beneath you. Allow any tension you may be holding to release. Feel your whole body sitting and breathing in a very relaxed way. You can begin exploring emotions by simply asking yourself how you're feeling today. You may feel peaceful, happy, sad, worried, confused, angry, grateful, or hopeful. There's no right or wrong emotion. Just ask yourself how you're feeling today and notice what comes up. Whatever comes to mind is just fine. And if you're not sure what emotion or emotions are present, that's okay too. Just listen along and see what happens. As you bring awareness to how you're feeling today, tune into your body. What do you notice? What sensations can you feel in your body? Sometimes emotions can be felt in the belly or in the chest or in the head or face, even in your hands or your legs. Again, there's no right or wrong. Just notice how you're feeling today emotionally, and notice where you feel it in the body. Just getting curious and exploring your own experience. You're not trying to change your emotions. You're just practicing noticing emotions in the body. Some emotions are experienced as pleasant. We like these emotions, such as happiness and gratitude, excitement. Others can be experienced as unpleasant, boredom, anger, worry. Whatever you're feeling is okay. No need to judge. We're just practicing noticing, being aware of emotions and how they feel in the body. Mindfulness of emotions helps you build self-awareness. You're learning how to recognize emotions and feel them in the body. Every moment growing more and more self-aware.