But the truth is, while the circumstances we’re in may seem unprecedented, the difficult emotions we’re feeling are part of our inheritance as human beings. We don’t have to ignore or push away what we’re feeling. With a little practice, we can soothe ourselves and maybe even find the wisdom in our emotional roller-coaster. The ability to be with and befriend our emotions is our foundation for finding the good, and for responding to the crises around us with skill and compassion. In honor of World Mental Health Day, here are five guided meditation practices, shared by world-renowned mindfulness teachers, that you can explore to help you turn toward your emotions, fostering insight, curiosity, and self-compassion.
World Mental Health Day: 5 Guided Meditations to Help You When The World Feels Heavy
1) Tune In to What Your Body Needs
This short self-regulation practice, known as H.A.L.T., allows us to check in with a few of our basic needs and emotional state. In a nutshell, H beacons for asking ourselves: Am I hungry right now? A means checking in to see: Am I angry or anxious, or otherwise dysregulated and activated? L stands for lonely: Am I feeling lonely in this moment? And T stands for: Am I tired? Chris Willard guides this audio practice, encouraging us to deeply tune in to our body and discern what it may be telling us.
A 7-Minute H.A.L.T. Practice for Tuning In to Your Body
When you find yourself a bit dysregulated or overwhelmed, a few of these simple interventions can help. By asking ourselves, Am I hungry, angry, anxious or otherwise activated? Am I lonely, can I reach out? Am I tired, can I give myself some rest or a break? Do something restorative for my energy?, we can much more effectively manage whatever difficulties may arise over the course of a challenging day and weeks ahead.
2) Stay Present with Difficult Emotions
When we’re caught in the throes of an emotion like sadness, loneliness, or anger, shifting our awareness into our body allows us to experience the ever-changing nature of these strong and often unpleasant emotions. Sharon Salzberg guides this practice to help you get used to the feeling of paying attention to difficult emotions in the body with curiosity and without judgment.
A 15-Minute Meditation for Cultivating Awareness of Difficult Emotions
3) Allow Your Emotions by Opening Up to Them
By allowing ourselves to experience where tough emotions are present in the body, and opening up to them with love, we can cultivate a sense of peace and acceptance toward the imperfect nature of life. Kristin Neff shares this meditation with just three basic steps, designed to support you in moments when you’re navigating difficult or disturbing emotions.
Soften, Soothe, and Allow: A 16-Minute Self-Compassion Practice
4) Investigate Your Emotions with Curiosity
Curiosity is a helpful tool for engaging with our embodied experience, including feelings of sadness, anxiety, or any other unpleasant emotion. Judson Brewer reminds us that curiosity helps us tap into our natural capacity for wonder and interest, putting us right in that sweet spot of openness and engagement, even with difficult emotions. From this state of mind, we’re more empowered to help ourselves break out of these old habit loops and build new habits of kindness and curiosity. Explore this simple 7-minute exercise to help you shift your attitude toward what you’re feeling.
An 8-Minute Practice for Investigating Difficult Emotions with Curiosity
As we finish up, I hope this short exercise has helped you get a taste of curiosity as a way to support your natural capacity to be aware of what’s happening in your body right now. Even with challenging emotions, we can bring this attitude of kindness and curiosity to our experience, moment to moment. What do I feel? Where do I feel it? What does it feel like? Hmm. And each time, we’re naturally bringing in that curiosity. If you’ve noticed that by being curious, you’ve gained even a microsecond of being aware of those thoughts, those emotions, those body sensations, and that you can actually be with these rather than running away from them, you’ve taken a huge step forward. Thank yourself for taking this time to take care of yourself, and notice what that feels like as well. As you move into the rest of your day, see if you can bring some of this curiosity with you as you go. Each moment, maybe even just taking a moment to notice when you’re caught up in an emotion or when you’re resisting something. And maybe drop in a little hmm. What does this feel like? And see what happens next.
5) Be at Peace With Change
One of the most challenging parts of life is that it’s always changing, sometimes in unpleasant, unpredictable, and unplanned ways. When we’re going through a time of unwanted change—someone we love dies, or we have a breakup or a divorce, maybe an injury or an illness of ourselves or others, or we get fired from our job—then we struggle not only from the pain of this loss, but from the unexpected nature of it. Part of the reason for this upset is because so little is in our control. In this practice, Kimberly Brown helps us reflect on the reality that everything is impermanent. It’s always changing, coming together and falling apart. And it’s frustrating to not be able to make things go our way. Through accepting that everything is not up to us—as we stop trying to control what we can’t change, or trying to predict what we can’t predict—we can feel a lot more at ease and more open to the moment-to-moment unfolding of our lives.
A 10-Minute Meditation to Help You Let Go and Be at Peace With Change
Remember that you can practice in this way whenever you need to. Stop, feel your feet, put your hand on your heart, and say to yourself, May I be at peace with the changes in life. If you’re struggling with an unexpected loss, be sure to be patient and kind with yourself, and check in with your good heart as often as possible.
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Caren Osten Gerszberg October 13, 2022
Mindful Staff February 15, 2022
Judson Brewer September 23, 2022
