My favorite meditation for just about any situation goes like this:
I unfocus my eyes, look slightly downward. I take a deep, slow breath. I close my eyes on the exhale.
Whatever I am feeling or thinking, I watch it, listen to it. There are usually many thoughts and feelings, so I take the strongest first.
I take note of whether it’s a feeling or a thought. That’s all. I don’t judge it, or try to NOT think it. I just label it what it is.
This one’s a thought.
Coming out of the top of my head, slightly left of center, is a deflated red balloon waiting to be filled. I exhale, and push the thought into the balloon, filling it and letting go at the same moment. I watch it trail into the air, until I can’t see it anymore.
I still have the thought. Same one. I fill up another balloon and send it off. I send off as many as needed to get the thought out of my head and into the atmosphere.
Ok, I have a feeling here too.
Same thing. Fill up the balloon (this time it’s from the crown of my head) with the feeling. Send it off.
Keep filling up balloons and sending them off until you have a little more peace.
At times, it looks like a machine gun firing off balloons, one after the other in rapid succession. Those are the bad days. Sometimes I have to stop a couple of times a day and do this for 5-10 minutes until I get a sense of release.
I send off the thoughts and feelings because I know they’ll come back at some point. The point is that I get to choose when I want to deal with those thoughts and feelings, and if I don’t choose that particular time, this tool gives me a little more power over them.
Part-Time Mother Teresa 