This is one of the pointers I have found invaluable:
Feel sensations as sensations.
Instead of seeing it as anger, sadness, grief, exhilaration, discomfort, physical pain, compulsion, or something else, feel the sensation component of it as sensations. Notice where it is in the body. Feel the sensations.
It sounds almost too simple, maybe even naive.
And it can be amazingly effective, when we are able to do it. When the shift happens to feeling the sensations as sensations.
It’s not always so easy. The reason it initially appears as anger, sadness, or whatever it is, is that the sensations are connected with images and words. They form a whole, which we have stories about, and which may seem scary.
It can help to do some simple inquiry. Feel the sensations. Notice images connected with it. Notice words connected with it. Rest with it. Ask simple questions about it, to make it easier to see what’s already and really there.
Look at the word “anger”. Look at the letters, the shapes, the spaces between and around the letters. Are those letters angry? Are they anger?
Look at the image of your father. Look at the colors, texture, lines. Imagine touching the surface. Is that image your actual father?
Look at the image of a dark ball. Is that image a threat? Can it hurt you?
Doing some inquiry with the associated images and words helps us see images as images, words as words, and sensations as sensations. It helps us feel and rest with sensations as sensations. It can make it much easier to do so.
……..
……..
……..
Initial notes…..
– feeling sensations as sensations
– instead of as pain, anger, sadness, grief, discomfort, compulsion etc.
– amazingly effective (when can do it, when the shift happens)
– and also not so easy
– often connected to images and words
– may need to do some inquiry to get there, where can feel sensations as sensations