Tag Archives: mindfulness of feelings

Practice Being with Feelings

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To practice getting comfortable with feelings, spend 10 minutes a day being still and breathing.

 

Find a quiet place and get comfortable. Close your eyes or leave them open, it’s up to you. Notice your breathing. As you breathe, become aware of whatever arises in your emotional awareness and physical body.

 

Practice watching and noting feelings as they come and go.

 

It might be helpful to notice physical sensations first. For example, if you notice an itch arise, rather than scratch it, watch it. Notice how the urge to scratch arises. Notice how the intensity of the itch changes. Eventually the itch and the urge to scratch will pass.

 

Now be aware of emotions. If an emotion arises, note what the emotion is without doing anything about it. If you notice sadness, say to yourself, “Sadness is here.” Welcome it by saying, “Hello sadness.”

 

Let go of any thoughts or judgments you have about the emotion. Just notice how it feels in your body. Breathe into it. Bring curiosity to the feeling by saying, “Gee, I wonder what sadness feels like. Let me see.”

 

Next, locate where this feeling resides in your body. Describe the quality of the feeling. How and where do you feel it? Would you characterize it as hot or cold? Heavy or light? Burning or tingly? Describe and watch whatever you notice. Keep breathing into the feeling while you mark its intensity change.

 

Continue letting go of any judgments or commentary that arises.

 

Spend these 10 quiet minutes a day simply watching and noting whatever comes up. Remember, you don’t need to act on any of these emotions. Your practice is to become a curious witness to your feelings so that feelings become more familiar and less scary. Ultimately, you will notice that feelings aren’t permanent, that they change and move through us, if we let them.

 

The more you do this, the more comfortable you will become with allowing feelings to arise and pass without having to push them down with food or other distractions. If 10 minutes seems like too long a time, start setting your timer for 3 minutes to start. Increase the time as you get more comfortable.

 

Start today!

 

Getting Comfortable with Uncomfortable Feelings

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via  http://huckart.blogspot.com/2010/03/monster-closet.html

 

When you have an uncomfortable feeling, do you sometimes reach for food in order to make yourself feel better? This is understandable. It’s not fun to have an uncomfortable feeling and it makes sense that we want to move away from pain towards pleasure.

 

At some point in our life, eating was the best strategy we had for coping. But emotional eating hurts us. While turning to food may help in the short run, in the long run, our uncomfortable feelings eventually return and we will need to keep eating and eating in order to keep them at bay.

 

Unfortunately, the more we suppress our feelings with food, the more we come to fear our feelings. Our feelings end up becoming like monsters in the closet and we become terrified of opening up the closet door. Eating keeps the closet door shut. We never get the chance to experience what feelings really feel like or what they really are here for. We eat, distracting ourselves, and never discover if there actually is a monster in the closet. Or if what we think is a monster is something entirely different.

 

But all feelings are here for a reason.

 

And, if we let them, all feelings that arise will pass away. We don’t need to act on a feeling just because it is here. Instead, we can explore the feeling and let it run its course.

 

Some of our feelings have messages for us and, if we sit with the feeling, those messages become clear. Some feelings just need to be felt and they will naturally move through us if we let them.

To get more comfortable with your feelings, become curious about what a feeling actually is.

 

Next time you have an uncomfortable feeling, rather than thinking about it, locate the feeling in your body. Place a hand over the place you find it. What is the intensity level? Breathe. Tell yourself, “This is just a feeling. I’m going to explore it for a little while.”

 

Is the feeling a tightness in your chest, a queasiness in your belly, or a burning on your face? What does this feeling feel like in your body? What are its dimensions? If you focus on it, does it change over time?

 

As you’re watching the feeling, say to yourself, “This is interesting.” Invite curiosity in by asking yourself, “I wonder how long this feeling will last.”

 

Continue to breathe into the feeling. Spend a few minutes more watching it.

 

Notice any thoughts and fears you have about the feeling. Are you thinking, “This will last forever,” “I can’t stand this feeling,” or “I must eat to get rid of this feeling.” See if you can let these thoughts go and just notice the feeling itself. Critical and fearful thoughts will only exacerbate the intensity of the feeling while relaxing into the feeling might help ease it or allow it to move through you more quickly.

 

Practice being with your feelings for a few minutes at a time without reaching for food. Don’t expect that the feeling will disappear immediately. It might ebb and flow over time, this is natural. The goal here is to practice getting comfortable with a feeling rather than fearing it.

 

Remind yourself that if you need to, you can always eat, but by doing this exercise for a few minutes at a time, you will experiment with exploring the feeling. The more you practice, the easier it will become to be with your feelings rather than reaching for food when you’re not hungry.