Letting Your Feelings Be Felt: A Compassion Practice

Be guided to meet your experience with gentle acceptance.

This is for those tricky moments when things feel:

•  heavy 
•  unclear 
•  or just a little too much 

✧ We Practice

•  Coming out of the thinking mind and into the body 
•  Allowing sensations and emotions to be as they are 
•  Meeting your experience with warmth instead of resistance 
•  Including even the part of you that wants things to change 
•  Resting in a more spacious awareness 

This meditation is inspired by the teachings of Sustainable Compassion Training, developed by John Makransky and Paul Condon. If you’d like to explore more of their work, visit: sustainablecompassion.org

With warmth and compassion, 

Rachael 

---

Thanks for listening! 

🪞 Want to go deeper?  

FREE VISUALISATION
Journey ‘Into Deep Trust’ to connect with an internal source of support and guidance as you move forward on your path. Begin here: https://rachaelebanksgold.myflodesk.com/intodeeptrust

WORKING TOGETHER
If you want a space to connect with more of who you are and move towards what lights you up, I offer 1:1 depth coaching. Find out more: https://www.rachaelebanksgold.com/working-together

*
*
*

If this episode resonated with you, please leave a rating ❤️

How to do it...

⭐ On Apple Podcasts
(iPhone/iPad): open the show page, scroll to the bottom, where it says Ratings & Reviews, and tap the stars.

⭐ On Spotify: open the show page and tap the ⭐ rating under the title.

Thank you!

Transcript

Copy Transcript Copied

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hello, welcome. So I wanted to share a practice with you today. Something that you can return to whenever you're needing a bit of support. So will we noticing what you're feeling and just allowing it to be without needing to change it so that you can feel a little more at ease with whatever it is that's here, whatever it is that you're journeying through at this time. Start by settling into your seat, sitting in a way that feels comfortable and alert, allowing your body to be supported by the ground beneath you. Just taking a few moments to feel out your posture. And with your eyes, you can leave them open with a soft gaze downward, or you can close them if that's what you need today. And if you can, just taking a slow, deep breath, and then exhale slowly, and again a slow deep breath in, and then exhale slowly, and again just one more slow deep breath in. And then exhale, let it go, arriving gently in this moment, and now gently bringing your attention into your body. So not thinking about your body, but feeling it from the inside. Maybe noticing the weight of your body, noticing the areas of contact with the chair or the floor, noticing sensations, and just seeing where your attention is naturally drawn. You might notice an area of tension or discomfort. Maybe something more neutral or even pleasant. Whatever it is, just letting it be here. Being with her in a friendly, open way. And as you notice these sensations, if you also notice a reaction, maybe a subtle desire for something to be different, wanting discomfort to go away, or tension to soften. See if you can include that too. Let's say that reaction be here. So you're just gently noticing what's here with a kind, quiet presence. As if you're sitting with your body like a friend rather than trying to manage it. And now, if it feels okay, you can bring to mind something from your life recently, something that's been sitting with you, and just tuning into the emotional tone of it, perhaps a sense of pressure or worry, irritation, or sadness, and instead of thinking about it, notice how it feels in your body. Notice where you feel it and how it's showing up. See if you can let yourself gently stay with the felt sense of it. Knowing that it's okay to feel this. That wants this feeling or the story behind it to go away, that's completely okay. You can include that resistance in the same gentle awareness. Nothing is excluded. Or you might not. Either one is completely okay. So you're just allowing whatever is here to be here. Not because you pushed it away, but because of the way you're relating to it. Nothing to grasp, nothing to work with, just resting in and as awareness itself. Thoughts may come and go, feelings may come and go like clouds moving across the sky. So just letting everything rise and pass in its own way, in its own time. Feeling your body again, connecting with your breath again, sensing the space around you, and when you're ready, slowly opening your eyes or lifting your gaze, not leaving this awareness behind, but bringing it, bringing this quality of presence, of openness, of steadiness with you. Thank you.