Tending to your emotions: Script 1

When we are feeling angry or upset, our emotions often get the best of us.

Our thoughts run rampant, sometimes so fast that we can hardly keep up. And we end up getting frustrated with ourselves or others.

Even though we know that emotions are impermanent, our mind wants to hang onto them. When we hold onto negative emotions, they grow bigger and more intense.

We may become afraid or worried about what will happen when they arise. By engaging in mindful awareness of your mind, you can learn to be more skillful at managing these emotions and responding more wisely.

In this guided practice, you will be offered a gentle way to manage emotions that is useful for developing patience and equanimity.

Close the eyes, and gently move your awareness to the body. Invite gentleness into the body from the beginning. Notice if you are feeling tense or anxious, and make an effort to relax. Notice if you are feeling any emotions arising in the body.

Just let them be.

After a few breaths, bring your attention to the breath. If the mind wanders away, come back to the breath. When the mind settles, bring your attention to the sensations in the body. Do you feel your heartbeat? Your pulse? Feel the air moving in and out of your nostrils? Take a few moments to rest in awareness of the breath.

Allow the mind to settle and focus by returning your attention to the breath as many times as necessary.

After a few minutes of resting with the breath, bring your attention to your body once more. As you scan over your body, notice if you feel any emotions. Be aware of any emotions that are present. If you notice any emotions, pause for a moment to acknowledge them.

Then continue noticing your emotions until your attention is no longer drawn to them. You may notice that some emotions come and go quickly, and other emotions linger for a little longer. Notice that you don’t have to engage with your emotions at all.

You can simply be with them, allowing them to be as they are. You may notice that the emotions you’ve held on to for a long time seem to be bigger than before. Let them be.

After a few minutes of being with your emotions, you will turn your awareness toward the breath again. Bring your attention to the sensation of the breath. Observe the breath for a few breaths. Then, bring your awareness to the body once more.

Now that you have brought your attention to the body, do you notice anything else? If so, pay attention to it for a moment, noticing whatever arises. Don’t judge anything you see. Don’t force anything away or push it away.

Just notice the feelings and sensations in your body. After a few minutes, invite gentleness into the body and mind.

Continue bringing your attention to the breath for a few more minutes. When you are ready, open your eyes. You may notice that you have a sense of calm or relief from the practice.

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Tending to your emotions: Script 2

When you’re struggling to cope with stress, you may feel overwhelmed and caught up in the emotions of the moment.

These emotions can seem unbearable. When you’re experiencing pain, you may feel like you can’t bear it.

To deal with emotional challenges, you might turn to food and drugs to numb your feelings.

If you’re living in poverty, you might use alcohol or drugs to ease the pain. When we’re feeling overwhelmed by life’s challenges, it can be hard to know what to do.

Many people find themselves turning to anger and rage. These are not good options. Anger can lead to violent actions or isolation.

Anger is only part of the story. Instead, it can be helpful to explore the different kinds of emotions in the mind. To feel the full range of emotions, you can practice the following meditation. You can find this meditation on YouTube.

Find a comfortable sitting posture. Bring awareness to your body and notice any discomfort or tension. Soften your awareness around the areas that are tense and ask for gentleness. Bring to mind a painful memory, and notice what happens. As you notice the sensations of your body, you may feel the emotions that arise.

If they are too overwhelming, simply pause to breathe and return to the sensation of your body. After a few moments, you can bring your attention to your breath, noticing what is happening in your body.

You can focus on the breath moving in and out, or you can focus on the feeling of air passing through your nostrils, or the sensation of the lungs and chest.

You may notice a sense of sadness, fear, or grief. Bring your attention to that feeling and be with it. You may also notice something else.

Perhaps you notice a sense of appreciation, or joy, or a sense of calm. Whatever it is, just notice it.

Stay with the feeling as long as you like. When you are ready, bring your attention back to the breath and the sensation of the body. You have practiced a technique called focusing on the feeling.

You can use this practice to tend to the mind when you’re feeling overwhelmed. If you are struggling to deal with the emotional pain in your life, you can also try this technique.

You can also try the visualization below. You can find this visualization on YouTube.

Tending to your emotions: Script 3

Tending to the mind includes paying attention to thoughts as they arise and coming back to them again and again, instead of thinking in an automatic fashion.

It means you become aware of your thinking and how it shapes your experience.

When you do this, you can begin to see your own patterns of thinking and how they affect your experience.

The meditation practice of tending to the mind is similar to focusing attention, but you allow thoughts to arise without trying to control or change them. When you attend to the mind in this way, you develop greater awareness of your thinking, how it changes over time, and the power it has to shape your life. In this exercise, you will practice turning toward thoughts that arise in the mind.

It’s possible that these thoughts have been with you for a while, perhaps even most of your life. The key is to not judge these thoughts or try to avoid them. Instead, turn to them, and observe them for what they are.

Let them come and go, as they naturally arise. They may seem insignificant at first, but they can actually reveal some valuable information about yourself.

After spending a few minutes turning toward your thoughts, you may want to practice doing the same with emotions. When you turn toward emotions, notice how they come and go, how they shape the mind, and how they change throughout the day. In this exercise, you will practice paying attention to emotions and letting them go. Find a comfortable posture and bring your awareness to the body.

Notice any tension or discomfort and invite gentle softness into the body. Notice any thoughts that arise as you connect with this body and mind.

When new to this practice, you may wish to work with a simple emotion like anger or sadness.

Start with a few breaths, pausing in each place of tension to notice how the emotion comes and goes. When you are ready, begin to move toward these emotions with phrases like this: I welcome this emotion as it arises.

May this feeling be a part of my life. May I allow this emotion to be a part of my experience. Allow five minutes to pass, and return to your own body. Take a few deep breaths, and open your eyes.

Click here to get back to the list of self-compassion meditation scripts

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