Yet another exercise

Breath deep, relax, feel good.

Now, remember that situation a few days ago where you felt somewhat bad about something.

Whatever it is - husband, wife, boss, losing virginity, missing the bus, I don't care.

Maybe you don't want to choose something that gets you utterly depressed, for starters. Start with something mildly annoying instead, and work your way up.

Okay. Comfortably relaxed, situation at hand?

I want you to find out how you felt at that time.

No no no no - don't just come up with a name for the feeling. Forget the name! Name's don't matter in here. At all.

Instead, I want you to find out how and where in your body you feel it. In the underbelly, perhaps? Or a bit more towards the chest? Or in your back? In your throat?

Wherever it is, I want you to say hello to that feeling. It's just a feeling, it can't hurt you.

But I want more than that.

I want you to really welcome it. It's part of you, it connects you to your aliveness, it connects you to the world around you. It's part of what makes you who you are.

I want you to connect with that feeling, as if it were a good old friend.

Now try and find out how that changes it. Take your time. Linger on that.

And now, after you've respected and befriended the feeling, I want you to move it. Move it up to the heart, or down to the belly - wherever, just try. Go overboard with that. Be experimental.

And now, that you've done all that, I want you to examine - when you now think about the same situation again, do you feel different from how you felt before?