Feeling Tones: Positive, Negative, or Neutral
Every day is full of new opportunities and new experiences! When we tune into the present moment, we can become more aware of our experiences. With mindfulness, we can observe our many sensations as they change throughout the day. To look more deeply into our experiences, we can acknowledge our feeling tones. Feeling tones aren’t emotions, such as happy, impatient, or confused, they’re the tones behind those feelings, such as positive, negative, or neutral. Our feeling tone is the general quality or nature of our experience. We can attach a feeling tone to anything we perceive, including what we see, hear, taste, smell, feel, say, and do. We can tune into our feeling tone with every experience we have! When we look at a flower or embrace a friend, we usually feel a positive tone. When we smell something unpleasant or drop something valuable, we would be more likely to classify that as a negative feeling tone. Sometimes, our emotions inflate into unmanageable feelings, but when we note the feeling tone of our experience, we can simplify those overwhelming feelings and have more insight to act skillfully with.
Earlier today I felt very anxious, so I used that as a cue to tune into the feeling tone of my physical experience. Was the knot in my belly, my racing heart, and my sweaty hands a positive, negative, or neutral feeling? I determined my feeling tone was neutral; because when I think about what classifies a negative physical feeling to me, it would be being in pain or being sick. Acknowledging I felt neutral about my discomfort was reassuring because anxiety can come off as negative just because it’s overwhelming, but classifying it as a neutral feeling tone helped put the experience in perspective. I was able to benefit from looking into my feeling tone and my anxiety naturally reduced because I had soothed myself with this introspection.
Earlier today I felt very anxious, so I used that as a cue to tune into the feeling tone of my physical experience. Was the knot in my belly, my racing heart, and my sweaty hands a positive, negative, or neutral feeling? I determined my feeling tone was neutral; because when I think about what classifies a negative physical feeling to me, it would be being in pain or being sick. Acknowledging I felt neutral about my discomfort was reassuring because anxiety can come off as negative just because it’s overwhelming, but classifying it as a neutral feeling tone helped put the experience in perspective. I was able to benefit from looking into my feeling tone and my anxiety naturally reduced because I had soothed myself with this introspection.
Try this mindful exercise throughout the day to uncover hidden feelings and inner strength.
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Deepen Your Understanding: We can protect our inner peace by consuming things that are positive and nourishing, while reducing things that make us feel negative, unsettled, and anxious. Look into the feeling tones of your media, food, interactions with others, livelihood, hobbies, and physical sensations.
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I learned about the "Feeling Tone" concept from Matthew Sockolov, in his book, Practicing Mindfulness. Access his writings, free podcasts, and meditations here.
Feeling Tone Meditation
To develop a clear feeling tone, we can mindfully tune into our present surroundings with this easy meditation. We observe the world around us with all of our senses, so we can uncover many different feeling tones within one situation. This meditation can help us sort through our feeling tones calmly while developing great insights about ourselves.
1. To start, find a comfortable sitting position. Close your eyes and connect to your breathing as you inhale and exhale mindfully. For as long as you like, concentrate only on the sensations of your breath.
2. Staying grounded with mindfulness, tune into your physical body to see if you notice any interesting feelings. What bodily sensations can you uncover? Contemplate whether the sensations are pleasant, unpleasant, or neutral. Take your time as you slowly scan through your body with gentle, observant awareness. Have any new sensations appeared in the body? Consider the general tone of each sensation. Is it positive, negative, neutral, or a combination?
3. Next, look for feeling tones in the sounds around you. What can you hear right now, in the present moment? How does each sound make you feel? Are they pleasant, unpleasant, or neutral?
4. If any thoughts enter your awareness, look for the feeling tones of your thoughts. Try not to judge or react to these thoughts, just acknowledge them, then describe their feeling tones as pleasant, unpleasant, neutral, or a mix. If you feel uncomfortable at anytime or simply want to recenter your mind, return your focus to the physical sensations of breathing in and breathing out.
5. Take a few mindful breaths and notice the feeling tones of your breath. Does your in-breath feel positive, negative, or neutral? Does your out-breath feel different? Enjoy investigating the feeling tones of your breath for a few moments, notice any shifts or changes in your observations. When you're ready, slowly open your eyes. Bring this awareness of feeling tones forward into your day to uncover all sorts of fun and helpful insights.
2. Staying grounded with mindfulness, tune into your physical body to see if you notice any interesting feelings. What bodily sensations can you uncover? Contemplate whether the sensations are pleasant, unpleasant, or neutral. Take your time as you slowly scan through your body with gentle, observant awareness. Have any new sensations appeared in the body? Consider the general tone of each sensation. Is it positive, negative, neutral, or a combination?
3. Next, look for feeling tones in the sounds around you. What can you hear right now, in the present moment? How does each sound make you feel? Are they pleasant, unpleasant, or neutral?
4. If any thoughts enter your awareness, look for the feeling tones of your thoughts. Try not to judge or react to these thoughts, just acknowledge them, then describe their feeling tones as pleasant, unpleasant, neutral, or a mix. If you feel uncomfortable at anytime or simply want to recenter your mind, return your focus to the physical sensations of breathing in and breathing out.
5. Take a few mindful breaths and notice the feeling tones of your breath. Does your in-breath feel positive, negative, or neutral? Does your out-breath feel different? Enjoy investigating the feeling tones of your breath for a few moments, notice any shifts or changes in your observations. When you're ready, slowly open your eyes. Bring this awareness of feeling tones forward into your day to uncover all sorts of fun and helpful insights.
Inspired by a meditation in Matthew Sockolov's book, Practicing Mindfulness. Access his writings, free podcasts, and meditations here.
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Deepen Your Understanding: Light or Heavy? Our emotions and feelings have weight to them. Joy, positivity, and optimism feel light, while doubt, jealousy, or guilt feel very heavy. Learn more about emotional weight and how to lighten difficult feelings here:
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