Get to Know Your Monsters: A Playful Mindfulness Practice to Work With Difficult Emotions
Unleash the power of playful mindfulness to tame your inner monsters. Discover a unique approach to dealing with difficult emotions, transforming them from daunting adversaries into friendly companions. Let's embark on this enlightening journey together.
Emotions are not personal
Emotions arise based on a wide range of situations and conditions in our lives
- We often act as if our total existence is that emotion
- Our lives contract around our emotions and we give them the power to pull us along
- By using this analogy, we can also keep our relationship with our emotions as one of interest and even a little light and playful
- In paying kind attention to our monsters, we begin to cultivate acceptance and a deeper understanding of our inner world
Find out what your monster wants and needs
Naming and acknowledging its presence is enough to support it continuing along the parade route
- Ask it some questions
- Is there something you want from me? Do you want to tell me something? Are you trying to help me in some way?
Know When to Give Your Monster Some Space
When you feel yourself getting pulled along with your monsters, it is important to know when it is more skillful to create a little distance.
- Some ideas include feeling your feet on the floor or placing your hands palms-down and feeling them on your lap, breathing in and out, and listening to the sounds around you.
Notice the monster and name it
We are not our emotions, and this practice can help us to really experience that truth more directly
- Saying something like “There is sadness” instead of “I see you fear” helps us to clearly see what we are experiencing in the moment
Scott Rogers
A hurricane metaphor to help us recognize the qualities and impermanence of even our stormiest emotions
Get to know your monster
Take a real interest in what your monster looks like, not just in superficial ways like color, size, and shape.
- How is it moving in the parade? What kind of energy does it have?
- Check in with your body. What else is happening in your body now?