Accept your emotions

Activity type:
Mindfulness – Reappraisal of emotional stimulus/ perspective taking

Learning goal:
It sounds strange, but the act of accepting that someone is feeling emotions s/he would rather not feel can be the key to letting go of them. When individuals accept that they are suffering, they stop running from the difficult emotions and turn to face them—and when they do, they might see that it wasn’t the big bad monster they thought it was, but a smaller and more manageable beast. This activity is based on reappraisal of emotional stimulus technique, aiming at assisting trainees into accepting their emotions, so as to be able to deal with them more effectively.

Specificities:
The activity can be implemented either individually or in a group. In both cases after the mindfulness technique, trainees will discuss in group their experience.

Duration:
30 minutes

Material needed:
Accept your emotions meditation audio file (mp3)

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Instructions

Listen to the script and try to follow the given instructions (audio file in all languages)

Questions for reflection:

• How was your experience?
• Did you notice any change in the emotion when you observed it carefully and without judging it? What about changes in your reactions to the emotion?
• Did the emotion feel different in some way once the exercise was finished?