EMOTIONAL DISCIPLINE: Core Practices

DAILY EMOTIONAL REVIEW

No matter how skillful a person is with staying present to feelings as they come and go, most days end with a backlog of unprocessed emotion. In our complex and fast paced lives, so much happens so fast that some of the feelings go unattended. With regard to emotion, the past remains present until I feel the truth of it.

CENTERING
Use a meditation exercise to get your awareness centered. Bodyscan, Following the Breath, or Mindfulness can be useful here. The point is to become conscious of your embodied presence in the moment.
REMEMBERING
Then spend time breathing while remembering the events of the day. Allow your awareness to sift slowly through your experiences. Recall as many of the details as help each event to become real once again. Pause to acknowledge and honor your feelings, one at a time.

Let yourself be present to each feeling as if the event were happening now. This means breathing with awareness of the energy of the feeling in your body, as well as thinking through the value that is highlighted by this feeling.
LEARNING
As you acknowledge the meaning of each feeling, listen with care to what this feeling has to tell you about yourself, your relationships, your intentions, your choices. Gather your learning, if you wish, in a journal.
UNFINISHED BUSINESS
Many days you may notice an incompleteness to some experiences.
- Perhaps, in the midst of one or more experiences, you are not sure what you are feeling. Immediately following this practice is another called Sifting. It will help you to identify what it is that you are feeling.
- Perhaps your feelings tell you that something in one of your relationships requires further attention. Following the next exercise is another called Relational Review. It will help you process specific interpersonal experiences, and clarify where you go from here.
SPIRITUALITY
What might you add to, or notice in your experience of, each of the above steps, that would support your awareness of your relationship with the divine?

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