Welcoming Emotions into Our Present Moment Experience

Your intellect may be confused, but your emotions will never lie to you.-- Roger Ebert
 
This week Community Mindfulness Project will sit together in community at our regular times and places (see below) to be present for the emotions that arise in those moments.  
 
One can think of emotions as thoughts that are expressed in the body.  And emotions behave like thoughts:  each cycle of an emotion has a beginning, middle, end.  We can acknowledge their temporary presence without giving them the weight of a permanent object, and we can see that they don’t define us.  
 
As we sit with Mindfulness of Emotions, we will lean on a tried-and-true four-step process for interacting with emotions:  the RAIN method.
 
R=Recognition:  acknowledging the emotion’s presence in the moment
 
A=Acceptance:  allowing it to be, not judging it, just riding it like a wave
 
I=Investigation:  observing with curiosity how we feel that emotion in the body (tight belly?  racing heartbeat? flood of thoughts?  sense of peace?)  Can we separate thoughts and emotions?  Does one emotion lead to other emotions?  Investigating does not mean pondering why we are feeling an emotion, and does not mean moving off on a thought train about the emotion or a situation related to the emotion.  We rest with the felt sense of the emotion in the present moment.
 
N=Non-Identification:  Knowing that we are temporarily experiencing this emotion.  We are, perhaps, feeling anger but we are not an angry person.  The emotion will pass and new emotions will arise, the way that weather changes and thoughts come and go.  We have the capacity to be with and experience it all.  
 
Over the next week, we invite you to familiarize yourself with the emotions listed on the attached worksheet.  See if you can begin to discern a greater diversity of emotions in your daily life.  When you recognize an emotion as being present, pause for a moment to see if it manifests itself in the body in some way.  Can you create an emotional map of the body?
 
Community Sits This Week:
Monday 7:30 PM Sama Yoga 45 Grove Street, New Canaan 
Tuesday 2:00 PM Ferguson  Library, 1 Public Library Plaza, Stamford
Wednesday  12:00 PM New Canaan Library 151 Main Street, New Canaan

May you be well and may understand your capacity to experience it all,

The CMP Team


CMP is a licensed charity in the state of CT with 501c3 nonprofit status!  Checks can be given to facilitators at our weekly sits or mailed to Community Mindfulness Project;  P.O. Box 1713, New Canaan, CT 06840. 
 
If you'd like to join our weekly email list, send an email with your first and last name and email address to communitymindfulnessproject@gmail.com.  We'd love to connect with you!
 

We welcome you to join our Facebook page, here facebook.com/communitymindfulnessproject, where notices are also posted.  Please note that we have established a Meetup page, as well - please join.  You can also find us on the Insight Timer app, available on iPhones and Android devices.

 

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Submitted by Norwalk, CT

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