Embracing Sensations
Exploring feelings during meditation can lead to profound insights. By observing sensations with curiosity, one can tolerate discomfort and allow emotions to emerge, ultimately transforming the experience. Sticking with sensations may not always be pleasant, but it offers valuable long-term benefits.In this clip
From this podcast
Being Well with Forrest Hanson and Dr. Rick Hanson
How to Work with Your Parts: Complex PTSD, IFS, and Dissociation | Elizabeth Ferreira
Related Questions
In the practice you have described, if a person is instructed to try and feel positive emotions like joy, happiness, and excitement, is it fair to say that during the initial attempts to keep the body calm using breathwork when negative beliefs or thoughts arise, and while redirecting focus to the intention of becoming a famous singer, the person will probably only feel frustration and anxiety as the brain begins to adapt to this new belief and dissociate from the negative default thoughts? Moreover, only after a consistent practice, when the brain has started to embrace the new thought—seeing the person as a famous singer—would they be able to feel those emotions of joy, happiness, and gratitude? Is it also possible to feel some of these positive emotions in the early stages while engaging in neuroplasticity, even amidst feelings of anxiety and frustration? Can one experience both positive and negative feelings simultaneously in the beginning?
I have heard stories of people who erased trauma through meditation. I guess those people would calm their bodies using breathwork every time a fear, trauma, or distressing thought appeared. They would kind of dissociate themselves from that; they wouldn't see the fear, trauma, or distressing thought as truth. Instead, they would see them for what they actually were: trauma, stories. Then, they would repeat another story to themselves, the one they chose to believe, over and over. They would keep doing this process of just watching the fear and trauma, calming their bodies, and then reminding themselves what they actually wanted to believe in. Does this make sense or align with what Andrew Huberman discussed about erasing fear and trauma and the process required to do that? Can you explain to me the similarities and why meditation seems to work, even though people aren't actually retelling the narrative of the trauma over and over? It seems more like they are watching it and trying to keep their body calm to not engage with it physiologically.