Mindful Walking & Reflection (45 minutes)
o Sit or walk with this. Find a comfortable
place to read it—2 or 3 times if need be.
o Then begin to work with this practice as
suggested
o When the church bell rings, slowing ‘come
back’ (you’ll have 10 more minutes)
WORKING WITH FEELINGS
If you decide you’re ready to ‘practice’ investigating one
of your strong-ish feelings, then take time to review some ‘stuff’ you’ve been
experiencing lately. Choose one strong-ish feeling to work with.
Think about it. Journal with it. Is it familiar, regular?
How long have you experienced it? What’s it about?
What’s its source? Journal just enough to make this feeling ‘active’ now. Then stop thinking and journaling and begin to work with it in meditation.
What’s its source? Journal just enough to make this feeling ‘active’ now. Then stop thinking and journaling and begin to work with it in meditation.
Bring kind attention to your mind and body. ‘Welcome’ what
you’ve been thinking and journaling about. Don’t try to get rid of any part of
it.
How do you ‘feel’ the feeling—where is it in the body? What
does it feel like--Hot? Cold? Solid? Soft? Sharp? Does it come with anger, anxiety,
fear, sadness, shame? Or something else? Just notice this much.
Then ask, What ‘story’ or ‘stories’ does this feeling tell or evoke? What habitual narrative is paired with it? Let it tell its tale.
Now, begin to let the story, the thinking part, go. Let it
go. Slowly, purposefully let it go.
Bring your attention, your kind attention, only to the feeling. Hold it gently in awareness.
Continue to feel it as you breathe. Breathe into the feeling.
Breathe out from the feeling. Breathe all the way around it. Continue to do this
kind of breathing in and out and around--doing your best to notice both the
feeling and the breath. Repeat the pattern—in and out and around—see if the feeling
‘relaxes.’
If the feeling seems too painful or if it feels in some way dangerous,
put more of your attention on your breathing—in and out and around. If it’s
still painful or seems dangerous, bring all your attention to your breathing. Keep
breathing, with your attention anchored in your breath.If it gets to feel
unmanageable, stop. Get up and walk. Let your attention go entirely to
something else.
This is a way we can work with feelings and their narratives—small
and big. Either way, whatever comes up, we learn more about it. Most feelings and
the stories that come with them naturally dissipate, at least somewhat, when we
work with them in this way. If they’re big and scary, we can work with them more
slowly, gently, lovingly and cautiously. Over time, even scary stuff most often
becomes manageable. And this back and forth between conscious thinking (whether journaling or just good, focused thinking) is a fruitful process.
This is a good practice to use regularly with small-ish
stuff—and then, in those times when stronger feelings are hijacking our lives, we’re
more prepared to work with those too.
