Being With Your Emotions in Meditation

It’s hard to apply to these concepts in the heat of the moment, however. But as the Amygdala Hijack article and Kristen Jonson’s video suggest, mindfulness practice can develop the part of our brain that strengthens our ability to manage emotion. This activity will give you a chance to practice mindfulness meditation.

Before starting, set aside 30 minutes in which you can be undisturbed. This will give you time to do the practice and make some personal notes.

Using the

instructions

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, or one of the guides linked below, do a 10-minute meditation.

This meditation focuses on relaxing through meditation. Best for beginners:

Decompress Your Body and Mind (Links to an external site.)

This meditation focuses on using meditation work with difficult emotions. This meditation is better for those with some experience in meditation:

Working with Difficult Emotions (Audio Meditation) (Links to an external site.)

Questions for Your Reflection

Describe your experience doing this meditation. First, tell me which guide you used. Did you use the written instructions, Decompress Your Mind, or Working with Difficult Emotions. Or, if you are an experienced meditator, tell me in a sentence or two how you did your meditation.

Then discuss:

What kinds of thoughts and feelings came up? Were you able to notice them and let them pass? If you have a meditation practice, describe how you do it.

If you don’t have a meditation practice, do you think a practice like this could be helpful to you in the future? If so, how?