August’s Mindfulness and Emotional Wellbeing, as part of Eye Matter’s Tranquil Tuesdays series with Laura Brodie.
Making Space for What Is: Learning to Allow and Accept Difficult Emotions
“Much of our suffering comes from the gap between life as it is and life as the mind thinks it should be.”
— Melli O’Brien
In this session, Eye Matter explored what happens when an unpleasant emotion appears and our first response is to resist it, judge it, or wish it would go away. We reflected on emotions such as anxiety, sadness, loneliness, anger, fear, and disappointment. These emotions can be uncomfortable, yet they often carry useful information about a loss, an unmet need, a boundary, a threat, or something that matters deeply to us.
Laura showed Eye Matter how to used the story of “The North Wind and the Sun” to explore the difference between force and warmth. The harder the Wind blew, the more tightly the traveller held onto his cloak. The Sun created warmth, and the traveller gradually loosened his grip.
Our relationship with difficult emotions can work in a similar way. Resistance often adds another layer of tension. Allowing creates more space around the experience.
The group explored acceptance as recognising what is happening in the present moment. Acceptance does not mean liking the situation, approving of it, or giving up on change. It gives us an honest starting point from which to decide what care, support, boundary, or action may be needed.
Eye Matter also explored the awareness of allowing as the moment-to-moment practice of making room for an emotion. This may involve noticing it, naming it, feeling where it appears in the body, and softening some of the tension around it.
Through the guided meditation “Learning to Allow and Accept Your Emotions”, Eye Matter practised meeting emotions with curiosity and kindness, while remembering that we can return to the breath, the support beneath the body, or the sounds around us at any time.
Amongst the personal reflections from this session Rosie said, “A huge thanks to Eye Matter, for providing another chance for us, to work with Laura again. I’m really looking forward to her September weekly course.”
From September Laura will be providing these sessions as part of her weekly Marvellous ME Monday’s mindfulness sessions but if you want to reflect on the past few months please click here: https://www.eyematter.org.uk/tranquil-tuesdays/