family or roommates, making dinner and watching TV, your misery may be telling you to isolate yourself in your room and forget about everything else.
R.A.I.N. can teach you to embrace your sadness in order to understand your panic and sadness from another viewpoint. You can practice R.A.I.N. while eating dinner or while watching your favorite TV programs. It is useful to bring mindfulness into your life, however briefly, even when life is bubbling all around you, brimming with activity.
Once you’re ready to begin, center on your breathing. Notice the oscillation between air moving into and air moving out of your body. In and out.
Take this pause to recognize any intense emotions or feelings that come up. By recognizing, you are just identifying the feelings and making a note of them. You may think to yourself: I feel depressed. I feel misunderstood. I feel utterly sad and empty.
Acknowledge these emotions by allowing them to be here with you. Perhaps you might envision your feelings of sadness or desperation sitting beside you, like a couple of very close friends. Your feelings of sorrow are with you but they are separate, outside of you, accompanying you on your path through life.
Return to your breathing and being present.
You may experience some doubt along the way in your practice. This is perfectly normal. Doubt will try to sabotage your practice and convince you that nothing can help you through your sorrow and panic. Doubt may say to you: This meditation won’t work. Nothing works, so why bother? The best prescription for doubt is to just be aware of your doubt. When you notice and acknowledge your doubt, you can begin to take back your confidence and move ahead. By identifying your doubt, you can add doubt to your row of emotional friends seated with you. Allow your disbelief to just hang around if it wants to. Doubt is just another companion who likes to tag along for the ride.
Now it’s time to investigate how the sadness feels in your mind and body. Where is the sadness coming from? Where does your sadness like to hide out? Be patient and be aware of any feelings that arise.
The final step is to not take your feelings personally and to not identify with your sadness. You are you, and your emotions are just emotions. Remember, your feelings are just close friends who come and go. Some feelings may sit and stay for a bit, while others may drop in for only a quick visit. Eventually, each one leaves. How does it feel to not identify with your panicky and sorrowful emotions?
As you return to your dinner and interactions with others or your program, take a mindful moment to be fully present with yourself and others.
This practice offers you a chance to form a new perspective and choose a more constructive response to your panic rather than the old, familiar way of withdrawing from your painful and despairing emotions.
Let Emotions Be
Another common feeling for people who struggle with panic is overwhelming fear, alarm, and apprehension. You may fear something from your past or something that might happen in the future. You may fear being out of control, and when a panic attack strikes, you may fear that it will never end. As soon as one panic attack has passed, you may live in constant fear of another attack. Your fear is normal, but you might be surprised at how powerful the practice of mindfulness can be for changing your response to these frightening emotions that accompany panic. This next mindful practice will assist you with acknowledging troubling feelings and letting them be while doing chores at home, such as folding laundry.
Start by checking in with your breath. Even as you get stationed with piles of laundry stretched in front of you, tune in to your breathing and connect with this present moment right now.
Feel free to set your intentions for this practice, such as May this practice bring me more awareness. May this practice enhance my self-compassion and understanding when I am feeling afraid and
R.A.I.N. can teach you to embrace your sadness in order to understand your panic and sadness from another viewpoint. You can practice R.A.I.N. while eating dinner or while watching your favorite TV programs. It is useful to bring mindfulness into your life, however briefly, even when life is bubbling all around you, brimming with activity.
Once you’re ready to begin, center on your breathing. Notice the oscillation between air moving into and air moving out of your body. In and out.
Take this pause to recognize any intense emotions or feelings that come up. By recognizing, you are just identifying the feelings and making a note of them. You may think to yourself: I feel depressed. I feel misunderstood. I feel utterly sad and empty.
Acknowledge these emotions by allowing them to be here with you. Perhaps you might envision your feelings of sadness or desperation sitting beside you, like a couple of very close friends. Your feelings of sorrow are with you but they are separate, outside of you, accompanying you on your path through life.
Return to your breathing and being present.
You may experience some doubt along the way in your practice. This is perfectly normal. Doubt will try to sabotage your practice and convince you that nothing can help you through your sorrow and panic. Doubt may say to you: This meditation won’t work. Nothing works, so why bother? The best prescription for doubt is to just be aware of your doubt. When you notice and acknowledge your doubt, you can begin to take back your confidence and move ahead. By identifying your doubt, you can add doubt to your row of emotional friends seated with you. Allow your disbelief to just hang around if it wants to. Doubt is just another companion who likes to tag along for the ride.
Now it’s time to investigate how the sadness feels in your mind and body. Where is the sadness coming from? Where does your sadness like to hide out? Be patient and be aware of any feelings that arise.
The final step is to not take your feelings personally and to not identify with your sadness. You are you, and your emotions are just emotions. Remember, your feelings are just close friends who come and go. Some feelings may sit and stay for a bit, while others may drop in for only a quick visit. Eventually, each one leaves. How does it feel to not identify with your panicky and sorrowful emotions?
As you return to your dinner and interactions with others or your program, take a mindful moment to be fully present with yourself and others.
This practice offers you a chance to form a new perspective and choose a more constructive response to your panic rather than the old, familiar way of withdrawing from your painful and despairing emotions.
Let Emotions Be
Another common feeling for people who struggle with panic is overwhelming fear, alarm, and apprehension. You may fear something from your past or something that might happen in the future. You may fear being out of control, and when a panic attack strikes, you may fear that it will never end. As soon as one panic attack has passed, you may live in constant fear of another attack. Your fear is normal, but you might be surprised at how powerful the practice of mindfulness can be for changing your response to these frightening emotions that accompany panic. This next mindful practice will assist you with acknowledging troubling feelings and letting them be while doing chores at home, such as folding laundry.
Start by checking in with your breath. Even as you get stationed with piles of laundry stretched in front of you, tune in to your breathing and connect with this present moment right now.
Feel free to set your intentions for this practice, such as May this practice bring me more awareness. May this practice enhance my self-compassion and understanding when I am feeling afraid and
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