Over the years, many people have enquired of us about how to work with challenging emotional states, such as anger or depression, anxiety or grief. These are very human experiences that we all encounter at least at some stage in our lives, if not on a more regular basis. Meditators are not immune to these emotional experiences, and in fact, when we start a spiritual practice, we may even come into contact more strongly with mind-states and emotions that we haven’t seen so clearly before.
Its important in our spiritual practice not to disassociate or cut-off from emotions with the idea that we should be more ‘detached’ or ‘above’ such things. But rather, we can develop an attitude of real interest in them in order to begin to understand these states with wisdom. We also, of course, need to develop the heart qualities of kindness and compassion to fully embrace such experiences without judgement, as resistance merely sharpens the pain.
Ayya Jitindriyā has created a series of guided contemplations and meditations which offer a way of working with some of this more challenging emotional terrain that we encounter in life. The series invites us and guides us to come more fully into presence with these emotional experiences, allowing them to transform… and in the process, to transform us – into more fully integrated, balanced and wise human beings.
While the approach in the guided practice is aimed at supporting those in the midst of such states to come out the other side with a deeper understanding and a more peaceful heart, they may also prove beneficial for those who wish to process and understand more deeply these experiences from a recollective perspective (i.e. if not currently feeling too impacted by them). Regardless of your current mind-state however, we hope you’ll find them helpful resources!
You’ll find this new series on the ‘Guided Meditations’ page of this website (under the ‘Resources’ tab), and we’ve also linked to it here.