Meditations

Guided Meditation & Script for Difficult Emotions

The container meditation is a helpful meditation to use any time we are struck in rumination. When we are having difficulty with our thoughts wandering or we can’t stop thinking, problem solving or playing what ifs in our mind. 

The container meditation is also helpful for difficult emotions. Sadness, fear, pain, depression, anxiety. Sometimes we become overwhelmed with our emotions and we can’t seem to rest, function, or stop feeling them so intensely. 

The purpose of this meditation is to be able to put these difficult thoughts and emotional aside for a while. We don’t need to feel everything all the time. 

Although, we are not suggesting one avoid their emotions or feelings, sometimes we have to be able to put things aside for a little while to function, work, sleep, or concentrate. The container meditation is helpful tool to be able to resource within our body using mindfulness. 

Here is a script of the meditation for you to use with your loved one, friend or client. If you’re using for yourself, you can listen to the audio below if you prefer. 

We hope you enjoy. Namaste. 

Container Meditation Script:

We're going to start the container meditation by beginning to focus on our breath. The breath that has arising right now. The in breath the out breath, the rising and the falling. (reader breathes audibly in and out a few times, with an extended out breath). 

There is no need to change your breath in any way—  just breathe in a way that fills natural to you. There's nothing else you have to do right now, nothing else you have to think about. 
Just start to settle in to the breath. 

The breath is like a faithful friend or a current always flowing within us. We can always ground ourselves in our breath. 
Next, start to do a little body scan. Notice if you are holding anything anywhere. Any tension, any tightening, and just begin to consciously let those places go. Begin to let go of the tension, the clenching, and tightness. And with your out breath, just begin to release that tension down and out of you and into the floor or into the surface that you're sitting or laying upon. (Pause) 

Imagine all of this tension flowing down and out of you through your breath. breathing into those spaces and intentionally letting go. (Reader breathes out loud with an extended out breath). 


Next, I would invite you to begin the process of creating a container. Imagine a container of any kind, one that is big enough to hold difficult thoughts, emotions, memories, body sensations or images. And with this container and invite you to imagine that there is a lid, a lid that conceal off these difficulties a way to keep the difficulties in without them getting out but also a way for you to open them and open the container so that you can access them in the future if you need to. 


Some people have the idea of a chest or a safe or a Tupperware or a box that they can imagine putting their difficulties inside. (Pause) So, once you have this container in your mind's eye, I'd like you to practice seeing yourself opening the container and closing the container. just to get used to this imagery in your mind.  

Next, I would invite you to imagine a swimming pool, and on top of this swimming pool a lot of debris has been collected. Maybe there was a storm and trash or leaves blew in peppering the surface of the water. 
I'd invite you to imagine taking a pool skimmer and skimming the top of the pool, collecting all of this debris. You may have to skim through a few times. (Pause)

I invite you to imagine emptying that debris into your container… shaking it off, then closing the lid and just setting the container to the side. (Pause) 

And now I invite you to imagine it is the end of the day… or any other point that this might be useful and you would take a moment to allow all the disturbances that happened throughout the day to bubble to the surface of your mind. whether it was traffic, an argument, difficulty with a child, a stressful event at work, or any particular challenge that you had throughout the day I'd invite you to imagine as if it's just like the debris that he humiliates at the top of the pool. 
It's kind of like that for the difficulty that is accumulated at the end of each day. 

And I'd invite you to imagine taking that same pool skimmer and skimming up all of that difficulty any difficult emotions, sensations, images, memories, conversations, difficult emotions, and just skim through the surface of your mind collecting all of that difficulty and shaking it off into your container. (Pause). You may have to skim through a few times. and then shaking it off into your container and setting the container aside, and knowing that in the morning or at another time or during your next session, you can come back and pull the disturbing things out of the container if you need them. But if you don't, you can also leave them in there for a later time. 


Taking a moment to notice how good it feels to ground in this way, connecting back to the sensation of your breath. (Pause) Lets take a few deep breaths here in through the nose, out through the mouth. (Reader breathes several times audibly with extended out breath each time). 

Giving yourselves some appreciation for taking the time to ground and meditate in this way. It's a wonderful act of self care for your emotional and mental health. 
Scan your body again, noticing any ten areas of tension. noticing how lighter and more at ease you feel taking this ease and this relaxation with you, knowing that you can come back to this meditation at any time you are feeling overwhelmed or stressed, or you can't sleep, or you can't concentrate on the things that you want to do. That we can use meditation and our mind to our advantage. 

We can set things aside. We don't have to feel everything all of the time. 
We don't need to think about anything and everything all of the time. Sometimes we just need to rest.