Meditation Regulation
Super catchy title, I know, but seriously, meditate to regulate your feelings.
We are living in a time of conflict and extremes. The poles of human morality are being stretched. Centuries old systems are starting to fail us. Our leaders are more concerned ego than service. Our collective health is at the mercy of pharmaceutical corporate greed, and we are living in the middle of it all, trying to hang on.
Despite the conflict, the division, and all the hate, there is hope within. The insistent and unrelenting noise of the outside world needs balance. The refuge, the peace, the quiet, the love, is all within. And it is when we choose to go within, when we choose to be still and sit in silence that we get the truth, clarity and wisdom of who we truly are.
Something is off with our (in)ability to deal with our emotions. Seventy five percent of the millenial generation has left jobs for reasons of mental illness.
Does that seem okay to anyone?
Our children’s exposure to mass shootings over the past few years alone is changing the landscape of their emotional health. We have simultaneously become more emotional and more restrictive of expressing our feelings in public (but NOT online, especially when it comes to expressing judgement and righteous anger).
Our feelings are becoming more prevalent and powerful, meaning the need for emotional well-being is at its most critical, and we are still digging our heels into our old ideas of what emotional health looks like. Don’t show the “negative.” We now have this thing called “toxic positivity.” Yeah. We knew being negative all the time wasn’t the best call, but we coudln’t figure out how to properly love ourselves, so we just swung to the other side of the pendulum, making being human (and having feelings, even the ones we don’t like feeling) impossible. By continuing to internalize past generational coping mechanisms, we give ourselves very little room grow into new ways of being.
The truth is meditation is can be the balance. Meditation allows for the quiet voice to be heard. Meditation provides inner discipline of when to emote and when to observe.
From personal experience, I correlate the degree to which I can focus in meditation with the degree to which I can manage overwhelming feelings. When my mind stray frequently, and I am distracted by erroneous thoughts during meditation, I can usually bet that I will be more reactive to daily stimuli. When I am able to step back, observe, and respond to a highly emotional situation, I’m usually feeling the bliss ride during meditation.
If we are aware of who we are, and we are willing to do the ongoing work toward compassion and self-care, we have nothing to fear in our feelings. Everything within us is safe. Trusting your head and your heart to work together is the key.
Make friends with yourself. . . Meditate.
