How to Sit With Difficult Feelings - Guided Meditation with Zen Master Henry Shukman #637

Hey guys, how are you doing? I hope you're having a good week so far. My name is Dr. Rongan Chatterjee and this is my podcast, Feel Better, Live More. Today is another short meditation from the wonderful Henry Shuckman to give you a flavor of what meditation is and what it can actually feel like. Now all throughout March, my podcast community has been building a simple daily meditation habit together. So far, over 22,000 people have joined this free 30-day challenge from 178 different countries, which is absolutely incredible. And if you haven't started yet and want to, there's still plenty of time to take part. Now just to give you a brief insight into how other people are finding the Way Meditation app, which is Henry's app, this is just one of the many incredible comments I've received over the past few months. Hi Dr. Chatterjee, I have recently started using the Way. I have tried dozens of times to meditate but never found any other apps useful. Three months in with the Way, I have to say it's changed my life. I used to think of meditation as just another chore, but now I actively look forward to it and I love the benefits I feel from the practice. Guys, that is exactly how I feel and why I'm so passionate about trying to inspire more and more people to give this practice a go. So this March, why not join Henry and me and thousands, tens of thousands of other meditators on this 30-day journey. All you have to do to take part is go to thewayapp.com, forward slash live more, you'll get practical tips, exclusive content and 30 free short meditation sessions to get you going. I have also joined the challenge and I'm using the Way app every day throughout the month and I very much hope you decide to join me. And now here's another short relaxing meditation from Henry. Welcome to another meditation with me, Henry Shuckman. In this one, we're going to be moving into a very important topic actually which is how to be with emotions that may come up when we're meditating. It's a critical thing because meditation is this space where we sort of let go of the common ways that we hold ourselves together to move through our days and we allow this deeper side of us to come forward and we actually don't want to be pushing that away but it may bring emotion with it. So it's really helpful to be able to host emotion, to be allowing of emotions that come up and that actually helps diffuse them. There's a wonderful poem by the Sufi poet Rumi called The Guest House which I just want to share a part of with you now which expresses this so well. The Guest House, this being human is a guest house every morning a new arrival, a joy, a depression, a meanness, some momentary awareness comes as an unexpected visitor. Welcome and entertain them all because each has been sent as a guide from the beyond. So rather than rejecting feelings that come up Rumi is encouraging us to host them, to welcome them, to allow them. So let's settle in for another meditation right now where we'll explore how to do this. Yeah, get into a comfortable position. Usually meditation is done seated but it can be done lying down or reclining. You don't need really any special equipment. Yeah, ordinary kitchen chair is just fine. Your desk chair, edge of the bed, couch. Get comfortable. Check in with your body. Is it comfortable? If it's not adjusted. We're coming back to ourselves always in meditation so that means helping ourselves to be at ease, comfortable, starting with the body. So let's just have a moment now of being with the body in whatever position it's in. Close the eyes if they're not already closed and lower the gaze if the eyes are open and let yourself feel your body in the posture that it's in and allow the whole body to become soft. Let a subtle softness pervade your body. And let's just check how we're doing. How are you feeling right now? Are you feeling open and spacious? Is there a certain kind of expansiveness present? Or are there subtle energies of tightness? Of contractedness? Or a certain trace level of stress which is so common for us? Is there a way that rather than feeling we should be trying to fix emotions that are uncomfortable, instead we can allow them. We can let them be present. Is there a way that we can be that welcoming host? As if our field of experience, our own field of experience is a kind of guest house and whatever comes could be welcomed. What if we don't have to fix how we're feeling? What if it's actually okay to feel the way we feel? To welcome our emotional energies. You might see if you can bring a kind of warmth into your chest area or perhaps into your whole upper body, your belly, your chest. Can you let them be warm and soft? Maybe you can even get a sense of your chest and belly being like warm wax with a tenderness in them. And perhaps that warm tenderness can welcome whatever feelings and emotions may be present. And rather than having to do anything about them, we simply allow them. We welcome them. And after all, they are part of who we are. And actually, it may only increase stress to try to push stress away. What if instead there's a kindness, a patience in us already that knows how to welcome them, how to be with them, how to welcome all of what we are? Resting with all of who we are. Allowing all of who we are. Turning a kind of a light of kindness onto ourselves. A compassionate awareness that we all already have. Just resting a moment more in a state of allowing and kindness. Okay, let's gently come out of the meditation, bring movement into hands and feet. Raise your gaze. Have a little stretch if that feels supportive and nice. And congratulate yourselves on having done another meditation. Thank yourself for giving yourself this time to be with who you really are. This is the heart of meditation, being with who we really are. Thank you very much for joining me. And if you enjoyed today's episode, it is always appreciated if you can take a moment to share the podcast with your friends and family, or leave a review on Apple Podcasts. Thank you so much for listening. Have a wonderful week. And always remember, you are the architect of your own health. Making lifestyle changes always worth it, because when you feel better, you live more.