Handling Sadness

Hi, and welcome to the sadness bank, and to day one of part one. Over the next 30 days we're gonna look at how you can begin to shift your perspective. To the way in which you view the thoughts and feelings that arise in your mind. I think when we feel sad it can be a very lonely place, very isolating. And so we often feel very stuck. So it can feel very frustrating. We don't want to feel the way we feel and yet it's as though we just can't help it. But just to be clear, these 30 days are not about trying to stop these thoughts. It's not about trying to get rid of the feelings. It's about how we can shift our perspective. How we can see them in a different way, so that we no longer engage with them in the same way. And instead we can begin to let go of them. So in these first 10 days we're gonna focus on a technique called noting. The approach is very, very simple, and yet it very quickly helps to create a little more space between ourselves and our thoughts, ourselves and the feeling. If you haven't done noting before, be sure to check out the noting technique. But either way I'll lead you through this exercise as we go. And we're gonna begin today in the usual way. So just take a moment to make sure that you're sitting comfortably. Whether it's on a chair, on the floor, eyes open, a nice soft focus. And just aware of the space around you. And when you're ready, just starting with some big deep breaths. Breathing in through the nose, and out through the mouth. And with the next out breath just gently closing the eyes and just feeling the weight sink down into the chair or into the floor. And just taking a moment to notice the different sounds around you as you just settle in to that space now. And just slowly now starting to become more aware how the body feels. First, just in a very general way. So where there's a sense of heaviness, tiredness in the body, or a sense of lightness of energy. Either way starting off at the top of the head, just gently scanning down through the body. Just noticing where it feels comfortable, where it perhaps might feel uncomfortable. Just scanning evenly down towards your toes. If you haven't done already, just starting now to become more aware of the breath and rising and falling sensation. So to begin with not focusing too intently, just aware of where you feel the movement in the body. And just noticing how the breath feels, whether the breasts are long or short, equal shallow. As you continue to follow the breath, we're gonna maintain that sense, that gentle focus on the breath. But each time you realize that the mind's wandered off, rather than simply coming straight back to...