Dr Itai Ivtzan
When I teach the topic of emotions and meditation I discuss the fact that meditation is very helpful when it comes to engaging with negative emotions. These emotions are a natural part of our human experience: waves of sadness, pain, jealousy, and anger are there to remind us that we are alive, and that we still have unresolved questions to address. At that point, meditation becomes a valuable tool to engage with these emotions. There are many psychological studies supporting that relationship between mediation and negative emotions. Meditation offers us a healthy way to engage with our negative emotions by allowing us to “be with the emotion” or “sit with it”. What exactly does it mean to be or sit with the negative emotion? Imagine a storm is coming and it carries some meaningful truth for you. It might be the storm of anger/pain/frustration/vulnerability/sadness. You stand at the door of your house, in the middle of the desert, and you have three potential ways to approach the experience:
But before you continue, you might like to consider our free worksheet on exploring “Why Do I Feel Like This Workbook”. Please download this worksheet here.
- Remaining outside, letting the storm sweep you away with its powerful wind.
- Hiding inside your house, shutting all doors and windows, ensuring that the storm won’t have any access.
- Standing in your own house while opening the door – connecting with the storm while being in a safe space – letting your fingers touch the rain, skin feel the wind, nose smell the wet earth that is carried with the storm – and knowing, throughout the experience, that you are safe in your own home and you could partially close the door (or shut it completely) if the storm becomes too wild at some point.
Option 1 refers to getting lost in the negative emotion (sadness, for example). Option 2 refers to repressing sadness, pushing it away and avoiding it. Disowning a negative emotion means that you can’t observe it, release it, and learn from it. Option 3 is the experience of Meditation, which allows us to strike a healthy balance between two unhealthy extremes. As part of the meditative experience you find your internal home, the space where you feel connected to yourself, balanced, and from that place you have the psychological resilience to engage with your sadness. An engagement where you could observe it, feel it, learn from it, accept it, and let it gradually dissipate. This isn’t always easy or fun – and yet it is an incredible gift of growth and transformation.
Dr Itai Ivtzan is passionate about the combination of psychology and spirituality. It makes his heart sing. He is convinced that if we befriend both psychology and spirituality, and succeed in introducing them into our lives, we will all become super-heroes, and gain super-strengths of awareness, courage, resilience, and compassion. Isn’t this an amazing prospect? His main areas of research are mindfulness, spirituality, and wellbeing.
Dr. Ivtzan is confident that mindfulness meditation has the power to change individuals negative emotions – in fact, whole societies – for the better. Accordingly, he has been investing much time in studying mindfulness academically, writing books about it, teaching it, and running meditation teacher certification courses. Offering the gift of mindfulness to others is a deeply rewarding experience; would you like to learn how to become a meditation teacher? Check out his online training to become a meditation teacher.
If you’re interested in further exploring the power of meditation and mindfulness, especially in managing negative emotions, check out our “Why Do I Feel Like This Workbook” to deepen your practice. This resource will help you engage with emotions in a healthy and transformative way.
