In this practice, emotions become the object. In Pema Chodron’s book “How To Meditate”, she says when you’re meditating, notice when you’re hooked, when you’re triggered or activated. The first step is acknowledging emotion has arisen. Then dropping the story line (the judgments that appear in the mind) and lean in, connect in with spaciousness and opened to the emotion.
She calls this the pause practice, taking timeout for yourself. Completely toughing in to the emotion, without the story, leaning in to the quality and texture of the experience. How does sadness feel? How does the anger feel? Where is it in your body? She writes that emotion itself is a radical and very potent way of awakening.
We may tend to turn away from emotions due to the accompanying judgments and aversion. Here is an invitation to turn toward the emotions instead of keeping the unwelcome ones buried. Or else they’d continue to eat into us.
Evening, by Charles Simic
The snail gives off stillness.
The weed is blessed.
At the end of a long day
The man finds joy, the water peace.
Let all be simple. Let all stand still
Without a final direction.
That which brings you into the world
To take you away at death
Is one and the same;
The shadow long and pointy
Is its church.
At night some understand what the grass says.
The grass knows a word or two.
It is not much. It repeats the same word
Again and again, but not too loudly.
Guide: Noelle Lim
Image credit: Chris Abney, Unsplash
Kindermind Center 