Watching Your Emotions during Meditation

It is quite common to experience strong emotions during meditation. If you are by nature an emotional person this may not be a problem for you because you are used to experiencing high levels of feeling, but if you are a cool, unemotional type who is used to keeping their feelings in check, coming face-to-face with your emotions may be a shock. Be prepared for this eventuality.

Rather than being caught up and pushed around by our emotions so that they overwhelm or govern us, through meditation we can learn to observe our emotions and then to understand their nature and to discover why they are occurring. In these ways, we can learn to manage our lives more calmly and rationally, not by turning our feelings on and off at will, but by becoming more aware of them and understanding how best to encounter them and respond to them.

Fighting to suppress our emotions or to gain control over them is usually futile. The struggle can often be stressful and tiring and it is rarely of any psychological benefit.

Our emotions help us to form relationships and in meditation we are learning to develop a relationship with our inner selves. When you experience strong emotions in meditation, monitor how they affect you and whether the feelings are negative or positive. Become an observer of your emotions, not only in meditation but also in your daily life. Try to detect patterns in the way you react to situations, and find out what the triggers are.

If you have a well of strong, overwhelming emotion inside you that you want to release, try to let it out gradually and express it in a constructive way, writing about or even drawing a representation of the feeling can be therapeutic and will help you to understand it better. You need to be able to step back from your emotions. If you discover that you are being taken over by them, you should stop and try to let them lie down.

A good way to deal immediately with powerful emotions, such as rage or burning desire, is to close your eyes and imagine that you are being soothed by a gentle shower of cooling rain. In doing so, you may feel your inner turmoil gradually being washed away.

Walking Meditation

Practised regularly the following exercise (based on Kinhin, a Zen meditation technique) will increase your awareness of the relationship between your mind and body. Practise it for as long as you feel comfortable.

1) Find a peaceful space, preferably outdoors. Choose a place where you can walk freely for a few minutes without having to negotiate your way round too many obstacles and without being disturbed by other people.

2) Walk steadily at a slow and deliberate pace. Focus on each part of your body in turn, beginning at your feet and working upward, and note how each part feels. Observe how you can control the way in which each part of your body contributes to the process of walking.

3) Let this experience be a calming one, allow your thoughts to come and go as you focus on the act of walking. Ensure that you are fully aware of how it feels to be “in” your body. When you feel ready, return your awareness to the outside world to end the meditation.