Gay Landeta
I find this is a wonderful practice that allows me to transform a strong emotional responses into a deeper acceptance of my life and my experiences as well as my acceptance of others. This is based on a Tibetan Tonglen Practice. Tonglen is Tibetan for giving and taking and Tonglen practice is a meditation on applying compassion.
When an emotion arises allow yourself to feel it, without the story, just experience the feeling. You may be feeling anxious or sad or angry… Stay away from the story and just feel the actual feeling. This allows space for the feeling to process.
Next, stop and realise that you are not the only person feeling this right now. In actual fact there will be millions of people around the world who are also struggling with this emotion right now. There will be many stories but the emotional is the same. Breath the energy of the emotion in – really get the full (often hot, heavy, hard, dense) energy of that emotion (again, NOT the story!).
Now, what do you need to help process that emotion. It may be a sense of safety or trust in the process, it may be happiness or a sense of peace or acceptance, or it may be something completely different. Identify your own healing.
Then imagine and breath in that healing as light, bright, cool, clear energy and then breathe it out into the world, into your pain and all of humanity’s. Continue breathing until you feel peaceful, centered and connected.
If you would like to find out more about Tonglen you can explore the actual practice through the work of Pema Chodron or Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche or in The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying by Sogyal Rinpoche.
Note, meditation practices can intensify issues, if you find this happens seek professional help to enable you to work through those feelings in a safe and supportive environment.
Enjoy!
Gay
This article was written by Gay Landeta with the intention of helping you to Create the Life you Want to Live! All rights reserved 2014.
