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Emotional Mindfulness

by Vidya Sury April 6, 2016 12 comments
vidya sury emotional mindfulness

Living mindfully involves appreciating every moment consciously and noticing every nuance in every action. This includes eating, drinking, sitting, hugging and why, even smiling! Isn’t it refreshing when we slow down and experience everything more fully, in a focused manner?

What about emotional mindfulness, though?

Sometimes, even though we practice mindfulness of our surroundings and keep calm, things happen that ruffle our mental state. We experience anger, fear, anxiety, disappointment and a range of other emotions. We’re human, after all.

The interesting part? It is not always the emotion that is important – it is the way it fills our head, blinding us to everything else, as though nothing else matters. It could be a major thing like a loss, something that went wrong, some unexpected event that hurt you. Or it could be something like not receiving enough likes on a status update on your Facebook page. I won’t use the word “trivial” here because the size of an issue is simply a matter of personal perspective.

Whatever it is, the feeling, the emotion, drags one down. Sometimes, we just can’t seem to rationalize the way we feel, even though somewhere in the corner of our minds, we know exactly what to do. But blinded by the haze created by our feelings, we often end up saying or doing things we don’t mean to – and of course, regret sets in to take up permanent residence in our psyche.

Later, when our minds clear up, we wish we had controlled ourselves better. But that’s not the real issue, you know. Remember that time you were seething inside but put a smile on your face and pretended to agree with your boss/your partner/your friend/your children/your neighbors/your parents because you didn’t want to rock the boat?

Just being in control doesn’t change a thing.

So, is venting it out better?

Maybe a little, but not entirely, because there’s the possibility of playing the blame game when you “talk it out”, leaving you with an unresolved issue.

Ignoring it won’t make it disappear. Rather, it will build up and affect your health – mental and physical.

So, how do you tackle this?

Emotional Mindfulness

The problem is, we allow thoughts fuel our emotions and come in the way of resolving them. Instead of reacting to strong emotions, how about sitting with them and watching them as they course through our body? No emotion is permanent. How about allowing it to soften and then choosing our response to it?

Emotional mindfulness is all about figuring out what triggers it and takes you on the rollercoaster ride to regrettable words and action, and then, acknowledging it.

While living mindfully is a great start to calm your mind, the trick is to recognize the emotional triggers, acknowledge them and choose how your respond.

How do you do this?

Start by noticing what’s around you

See what’s happening around you. Observe. What is your reaction to this? How does your body feel?

Maintain a ranting journal

Yes. Rather than say things to someone and regret it later, how about using a journal instead It is a great way to safely get it all out of your system. Pretty much like a food journal you know, that you use to analyze your diet. Carry the ranting journal around with you.  Once you calm down over a situation, write down how you feel, who was involved, what was around you, how it physically felt – and just about anything you can think of. Over a period of time, you will see a pattern. You will become aware of how some people or events influence the way you feel.

Get to the source of those emotions

This is the crucial step. When you identify what triggers your emotions, the next step is to practice mindfulness the moment you feel those emotions surfacing.

Separate

After you find the source of your emotions, focus on separating the emotion so that you can stop it from involuntarily getting triggered. Think about how your antivirus program works – it isolates a threat and quarantines it, followed by either neutralizing or eliminating to prevent it from doing any harm. Same thing with emotional mindfulness. Once you identify the threat, you isolate it. You acknowledge it and perhaps swallow it and digest it, so it can no longer mess with your mind. But first, you must wallow in the emotion.

Wallow

This is going to be painful, yes. You will have to mindfully acknowledge it, engulf it and then neutralize it. In the process, you will be immersed in the emotion. That’s the uncomfortable part, and not an easy one. You will consciously experience the emotion in all its rawness, empathize with it, understand it and make it harmless. This way, by breaking it down to its basics, you will ensure that it no longer threatens your emotional well-being, releasing the energy that was trapped in it.

It is very important to remember that emotional mindfulness is NOT easy. Emotions that we’ve been harboring inside for years don’t just go away. Conquering them with emotional mindfulness will put us through the wringer and of course, we’ll go through intense hurt. And this time, it will be worth it, because we won’t allow it to make us miserable. Instead, we’ll be diverting the energy towards more positive things.

How long will it take to achieve this? That depends on the individual practicing emotional mindfulness. But when those emotions are overcome,  you will feel great mental peace and clarity.

Here’s a simple 3 minute exercise that might help

  • Sit comfortably
  • Close your eyes
  • Focus on your breathing
  • Allow your mind to recall a recent situation that felt emotionally stressful
  • Relive the experience.
  • How and what did you feel?
  • Do a body scan
  • Where do you sense reactions?
  • Hold it.
  • Observe the sensation.
  • Is it tension in a particular area?
  • Examine it with curiosity, non-judgmentally.
  • Watch it ebb and flow, rise and fall…and shift
  • If you find your mind wandering, harness it back with deep breathing
  • Bring your focus back to the sensation in your body
  • Pretend to surf these emotions, just as you would a wave in the ocean.
  • Be acutely aware of this until the feeling subsides.
  • Return to your breathing
  • Do another body scan
  • Do you feel any sensations now?
  • Pay attention to them.
  • Acknowledge them.
  • Now open your eyes.

You’ll often find that the physical sensation is not as intense as the emotional one. Take strength from it. No one said letting go is easy! But it is so worth it. Accept it.

And remember you can do it!

vidya sury emotional mindfulness

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12 comments

Yolanda Renee April 7, 2016 at 3:55 am

I really needed this post today Vidya, truly. I’ve been crying off and on all day. At first I didn’t know why, and then, yes, I knew, but it didn’t make the situation better. I shall follow your lead. I need to rid this negativity from my soul. The weight of it is too much! Thank you!
Have a truly beautiful week! Your blog is priceless!
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WriterlySam April 7, 2016 at 7:24 am

I love that quote so very much!! Wow, did I need this post today, Vidya! Thank you, for the powerful advice on how to not let the emotional roller coaster run away with me:)

#TeamDamyanti
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Kathryn Trask April 7, 2016 at 8:43 am

Thank you for another very wonderful post and very practical too.
Kathryn Trask recently posted…Eclectic Reading.

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Dahlia April 7, 2016 at 9:06 am

Seems like sound advice and doable too! Will surely keep it mind and try it out – thanks for sharing.
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Evelyn April 7, 2016 at 9:32 am

I like the idea of emotional mindfulness, and you offer some nice tips on how to become aware of and deal with our emotions in a positive way. “Mindfulness” is kind of a buzz-word in my office lately, so I’m curious to see some of your other topics around this theme throughout the month. Thanks for posting!
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themoonstone April 7, 2016 at 5:06 pm

Great post Vidya. As you said, being able to observe our own emotions clinically and then tackling it, is the only way one can handle them too
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Darla M Sands April 7, 2016 at 10:06 pm

Excellent advice! And I really needed it. I’ve been anxious over family drama lately. It creeps up in bad dreams and groundless panic attacks. Ugh. I imagine things will eventually be resolved and will try to restore my inner calm in the meantime. Be well!
Darla M Sands recently posted…F is for Faster Pussycat

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Vasantha Vivek April 9, 2016 at 2:44 pm

I have faced this many a times. Even though I practice Yoga and Meditation, I will get tensed easily. But it was very low when compared to me 7 years back. But that should not be treated as an excuse. Hope Emotional Mindfulness would help me in this regard. I too have journals like Happy Journal, Travel Journal, Gratitude Journal but not this Ranting Journal. I will start right now. Thanks, Vidya !!!
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Vidya Sury April 9, 2016 at 9:47 pm

It always helps to get it down on paper. My Mom always said that thoughts are much larger inside our heads than when we bring them outside. That is true because we tend to build things up, and as we do that, we tend to start believing what we dream up 🙂 A ranting journal is a great way to get things out of our system – and when we read what we’ve written, it can often change our perspective about how we feel. Thank you for your comment, Vasantha!
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Ellen Bard April 12, 2016 at 1:59 pm

This is a lovely post, and I really like the meditation – I often find myself in my head and not in my body, and pretending the emotions in me don’t exist, so I love techniques to get more in touch with them.
Ellen Bard recently posted…7 Productivity Myths – Busted!

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Sandra Pawula April 13, 2016 at 1:40 am

I am absolutely loving this series on living mindfully, Vidya. Emotions – that’s where the rubber hits the road when it comes to mindfulness. Love the process you’ve offered here.

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Sunila Vig April 13, 2016 at 5:29 pm

Beautifully done Vidya 🙂 and so practical. You have broken it down so well too. Your mum was one wise lady for sure .
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