To practice getting comfortable with feelings, spend 10 minutes a day being still and breathing.
Find a quiet place and get comfortable. Close your eyes or leave them open, it’s up to you. Notice your breathing. As you breathe, become aware of whatever arises in your emotional awareness and physical body.
Practice watching and noting feelings as they come and go.
It might be helpful to notice physical sensations first. For example, if you notice an itch arise, rather than scratch it, watch it. Notice how the urge to scratch arises. Notice how the intensity of the itch changes. Eventually the itch and the urge to scratch will pass.
Now be aware of emotions. If an emotion arises, note what the emotion is without doing anything about it. If you notice sadness, say to yourself, “Sadness is here.” Welcome it by saying, “Hello sadness.”
Let go of any thoughts or judgments you have about the emotion. Just notice how it feels in your body. Breathe into it. Bring curiosity to the feeling by saying, “Gee, I wonder what sadness feels like. Let me see.”
Next, locate where this feeling resides in your body. Describe the quality of the feeling. How and where do you feel it? Would you characterize it as hot or cold? Heavy or light? Burning or tingly? Describe and watch whatever you notice. Keep breathing into the feeling while you mark its intensity change.
Continue letting go of any judgments or commentary that arises.
Spend these 10 quiet minutes a day simply watching and noting whatever comes up. Remember, you don’t need to act on any of these emotions. Your practice is to become a curious witness to your feelings so that feelings become more familiar and less scary. Ultimately, you will notice that feelings aren’t permanent, that they change and move through us, if we let them.
The more you do this, the more comfortable you will become with allowing feelings to arise and pass without having to push them down with food or other distractions. If 10 minutes seems like too long a time, start setting your timer for 3 minutes to start. Increase the time as you get more comfortable.
Start today!