Calming Emotional Turbulence
In moments where we feel carried away by our feelings, we can calm our emotional turbulence more quickly if we don’t resist our emotions. In a moment where we feel angry, depressed, anxious, or other unpleasant emotions, we can bring our attention to the feeling at hand and simply observe it. Where is this feeling in our body? How can we describe our feeling? We can observe our intense emotions without getting carried away by them.
We consciously breathe slowly and deeply, using our breath to bring loving and healing attention to the area of our body where we feel our emotion most strongly. We allow our body to relax. We listen to the thoughts, bodily sensations, and feelings we’re experiencing, while staying connected to the safety and power of our breath. We allow our thoughts to flow without adding judgments or resistance. What are our thoughts saying? What is our body communicating? Why do we feel the way we do?
We practice patience as we observe our unpleasant feelings, because we know that eventually they will pass and we'll feel still again. We usually react strongly due to stressful stimuli, so with the strength of our mindful breathing, we can inquire into our feelings. What offended us? What rigid definitions are we holding onto that are causing us suffering? What other perspectives can we consider? What do we need in this situation? When we give our compassionate attention to our feelings and introspect as to why we have them, we can discover deep inner truths and reduce the intensity of our emotional storm.
When we feel more relaxed, we can fill any empty space or depleted feelings left within us with positive affirmations. We take care of our suffering so we may be happy, free, and at ease. We care for our suffering so we may care for the suffering of others. When we don't get swept up in the intensity of our feelings, observing the sensations instead of judging them, we'll realize our inner strength to transform our weak moments into lessons and long-lasting betterment. When we develop this understanding of our emotions, we build our idea of self, empower ourselves to become the best version possible, and reduce resistance to our emotional needs.
When we feel more relaxed, we can fill any empty space or depleted feelings left within us with positive affirmations. We take care of our suffering so we may be happy, free, and at ease. We care for our suffering so we may care for the suffering of others. When we don't get swept up in the intensity of our feelings, observing the sensations instead of judging them, we'll realize our inner strength to transform our weak moments into lessons and long-lasting betterment. When we develop this understanding of our emotions, we build our idea of self, empower ourselves to become the best version possible, and reduce resistance to our emotional needs.
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Deepen Your Understanding: Our emotions are a key factor in the amount of stress we experience. "Stress" is the result of emotional distress, ranging from emotional unease to intense emotional turmoil. In addition to mentally holding space for our difficult emotions, we can use scientifically-backed techniques to calm, soothe, and shift painful emotions into more comfortable, productive, and fulfilling ones.
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Shifting Intense Feelings
Life is made of vibration. Even objects that seem stationary are constantly in motion when we look at their microscopic molecular structure. Our entire physiological being is constantly oscillating, vibrating, and resonating with energy as we breathe, speak, and pump blood around our body. In moments were we feel our heart hammering with dread, anxiety, frustration, anger, or sorrow, we can acknowledge the change in our baseline vibration and mentally shift to a positive emotion of the same intense vibrational frequency, such as courage, excitement, laughter, joy, or strong appreciation.
Questioning our Problems
Our daily situations come with endless victories and endless problems. Sometimes our achievements feel more fleeting than fulfilling, and our problems may trouble us very deeply. Some life situations introduce many problems, but we don’t have to identify with these challenges. Each of our problems is an opportunity for enlightenment. We can ask ourselves, “Is there lightness (something positive), happiness (something enjoyable), and ease (peace of being) in this moment?” If the answer isn’t a grateful yes, we’re likely caught up in our emotions.
We can quickly soothe the emotional upset by tuning into the present moment with our senses. Look, listen, smell, and touch the things around you. Be aware of the presence of the things around you. Be aware of the delicate balance that allows us to live in this planet. Be aware of your own delicate balance of body and mind. Bring your attention to the present moment and ask yourself, truly, do you have a problem in this moment? Not tomorrow or later today, and not a problem from the past, but do you have a problem right now? If so, take some time to problem-solve! Usually, our biggest problems are nothing but a painful tangle of emotions about something that can be solved reasonably with the right focus. So next time we feel too caught up in our problems, all we have to do to size them up properly is ask ourselves, “Do I have a problem in this moment, right now?”
We can quickly soothe the emotional upset by tuning into the present moment with our senses. Look, listen, smell, and touch the things around you. Be aware of the presence of the things around you. Be aware of the delicate balance that allows us to live in this planet. Be aware of your own delicate balance of body and mind. Bring your attention to the present moment and ask yourself, truly, do you have a problem in this moment? Not tomorrow or later today, and not a problem from the past, but do you have a problem right now? If so, take some time to problem-solve! Usually, our biggest problems are nothing but a painful tangle of emotions about something that can be solved reasonably with the right focus. So next time we feel too caught up in our problems, all we have to do to size them up properly is ask ourselves, “Do I have a problem in this moment, right now?”
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Deepen Your Understanding: This post was inspired by the teachings of Eckhart Tolle. His book, The Power of Now, is one of my favorite books to shift troubled perspectives into a peaceful and happy place!
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How to Make Progress with Difficulties
Anything can be achieved when broken down into smaller goals. Whether we’re facing an emotional, financial, interpersonal, or unexpected challenge, we can accomplish whatever needs to be done if we focus on more manageable chunks of time, effort, or progress. Often people face feelings of defeat or hopelessness if they see a challenge as an overwhelming, complex problem; but if we break solving those problems down into more approachable steps, we can steadily make small achievements until we reach our ultimate goal. It can be easy to undervalue our time, and sometimes we don’t use our time very wisely. If we consistently put 15 minutes of focus into something we care about each day, over time we’ll see incredible progress with that focus, and we’ll learn to really respect how much 15 minutes can make a difference! Anytime we find ourselves overwhelmed with a problem, we should take a few deep breaths to center our mind, then we can more calmly analyze the situation to see what we can control, what we can improve, or what we should separate from in the situation.
Tune Into Your Inner Dialogue
Throughout the day, pause, and check in with the thoughts in your head. Observe how your thinking bounces around to different ideas within your awareness. Do you have clear thinking, or are your thoughts crowded and jumbled? Obsessive or negative thinking can be addictive and build momentum, so if we start feeling uneasy, we can bring our attention back to the present moment by breathing.
Breathing in, we say silently to ourselves: “I am breathing in.” Breathing out, we say in our mind: “I am breathing out, into the present moment.”
Breathing in, we say silently to ourselves: “I am breathing in.” Breathing out, we say in our mind: “I am breathing out, into the present moment.”
The more we stay in the present, the more we can reduce how deeply we’re affected by our painful emotions.
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We can comfort our difficult emotions by remembering that there is relief available to us in each moment. Each in-breath offers us refreshing, nourishing oxygen. Every out-breath offers us a chance to let go of unwanted thoughts and feelings. Breathe in, and focus on feeling appreciation for each breath. Breathe out, and allow yourself to consciously slow down and find ease in your exhale.
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Breathe in, cleanse the mind.
Breathe out, calm the body. |
Mindfulness Practice: Tree in a Storm
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If we’re overwhelmed by strong emotions, it can be difficult to see or think clearly. Whenever we feel caught in a storm of emotions, we can practice being strong like the trunk of a tree. If you've ever seen a tree blowing about in a storm, you've seen the frenzied chaos in the branches, but no matter how strong the storm, the tree has deep roots to keep it anchored in the Earth. Our outer branches whip around, some leaves may even fly off, but our trunk is rooted and stable. The wind may be loud and scary, but our tree is still and solid. We don’t stay up in the higher branches (our mind), we bring our attention down to our trunk (our breath in our abdomen) and focus on our deep roots of mindfulness, concentrating on the rhythm of our breath expanding and contracting our belly. With each inhale, we build strength. With each exhale, we become more flexible. Breathing like this protects us from acting unskillfully or suffering within intense emotions.
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 Meditation Practice Video |
“You are educated when you have the ability to hear almost anything without losing your temper, or your self confidence.” —Robert Frost
Mindfully Holding Negative Emotions
When we feel a negative emotion, we can use mindfulness to become aware of where the feeling is in our body to gain insight about our emotions.
Breathing in, we refresh our system with clean, cleansing air. On our out-breath, we focus our attention on holding loving, compassionate space for our feelings wherever they are in our body. Maybe we feel our anxiety in our stomach, our anger in our face, or our stress in our chest. We stay grounded and anchor with the soothing cycle of our breath. If strong emotional thoughts pop into our awareness, we acknowledge them briefly and then return our focus to breathing and holding concentrated love, compassion, forgiveness, and understanding on the body part where we feel our troubling emotion manifesting. When we hold space for our emotions and take time to acknowledge how we feel in our body, our negative feelings will be tended to, will settle in intensity, and we'll be able to work through our challenges much easier.
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Deepen Your Understanding: A Mindful Body Scan is a great exercise for uncovering insights about how we hold our emotions in our body. In addition to better understanding our mental state, we can physically tend to any areas where we hold our distress to help ourselves feel better mentally and physically.
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Choose Your Beliefs
If you’re suffering, try looking into your beliefs, values, and emotions. These attachments shape how we feel about our reality. With meditations, introspection, and self-awareness, we can let go of outdated attachments and curate our values to support, inspire, and enrich our lives.
“Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen.” —Albert Einstein
“Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen.” —Albert Einstein
Mindfulness Practice: Weathering the Storm
We can observe our feelings like we observe the weather, knowing that no matter how powerful or thunderous our emotions may be in this moment, they will eventually clear to reveal warm sunshine once again.
Throughout the day, we can determine the ever-changing status of our current weather report.
Throughout the day, we can determine the ever-changing status of our current weather report.
1. Pause for a moment. Allow your body to be still.
2. Breathe in and out mindfully. Connect to the sensation of your inhale and exhale.
3. Investigate how you’re feeling right now. What’s the weather like inside you? Are you feeling relaxed and sunny, or is your forecast more wild and stormy?
4. Accept your forecast. Just as we can’t change the weather outside, it can be difficult to change our mood. We can be patient with and accept our feelings as they are because just like a storm, our moods will naturally blow over and change.
5. Breathing will help settle our stormy feelings. We breathe and continue to observe our weather, watching it as it slowly changes.
2. Breathe in and out mindfully. Connect to the sensation of your inhale and exhale.
3. Investigate how you’re feeling right now. What’s the weather like inside you? Are you feeling relaxed and sunny, or is your forecast more wild and stormy?
4. Accept your forecast. Just as we can’t change the weather outside, it can be difficult to change our mood. We can be patient with and accept our feelings as they are because just like a storm, our moods will naturally blow over and change.
5. Breathing will help settle our stormy feelings. We breathe and continue to observe our weather, watching it as it slowly changes.
We can take inspiration for this exercise by observing the many types of weather conditions in our daily life!
Get outside, look out the window, and notice what organic artistry our beautiful world is offering in this moment.
Get outside, look out the window, and notice what organic artistry our beautiful world is offering in this moment.