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Emotional regulation w. the Attunement Process Mindfulness Meditation by Dr Andrea Pennington #cptsd - YouTube
Channel: PenningtonMedia
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Hello, beautiful soul.
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Have you ever heard the expression that emotions
are like children?
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You don't want them driving the car, but you
also don't lock them in the trunk.
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Well, one of my specialties is helping people
feel comfortable with those uncomfortable
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emotions.
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In Traditional Chinese Medicine we look at
emotion as energy in motion.
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And if we try to stuff them away or block
them away,
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or eat them away, or numb out that energy
still has to go somewhere
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and we need to release it.
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And that doesn't mean that you get to blow
up and go off on people,
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but you can move the energy in healthy ways.
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The first thing that we have to be willing
to do is to actually face and accept the emotions,
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including the things like anger or rage or
resentment.
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Because that is our first step toward healing.
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One of the ways that I help people do that
is with a five-step
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mindfulness meditation called The Attunement
Process.
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It allows you to bring calm to the body and
the brain,
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it allows you to decrease the stress hormones,
tune into your heart, tune into a field of
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loving-kindness
and compassion so that you can get the message
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from those emotions.
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Because,
typically our feelings, whether physical or
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emotional,
are usually messengers.
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Feelings want to give us a message just like
a little indicator on your car
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wants to tell you to get gas or change the
oil or check your tire pressure.
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Our body is really a mirror of the subconscious
mind.
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So if we've tried to deny our feelings if
we stuff them away eventually that energy
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will
erupt in some form often in the body in In
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the form of pain aches
and pains or or actual disease processes.
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And, of course, we know that those blocked
emotions can affect us,
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mentally and emotionally with anxiety,
with brain fog, and confusion or depression.
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So I'm going to walk you through the five
steps of The Attunement Process.
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Step One is Allow.
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We allow ourselves to get into the present
moment without resistance.
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Now again most of us if we're on this spiritual
path,
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we often don't want to admit that we have
anger or jealousy or anything
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quote-unquote negative.
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But we have to face these emotions.
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And for some people who have complex PTSD,
they may have a history of trauma being in
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touch with those feelings,
can sometimes become so overwhelming.
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It can trigger the nervous system in such
a way that they either start having flashbacks
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or memories or emotional eruptions that are
uncomfortable,
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but the only way to heal from them is to go
through them.
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Now for some, it may be that you need to do
this with a therapist or a coach in a safe
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container,
but I'm going to walk you through what you
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can do on your own and if something strong
comes up,
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I've got some recommendations for you as well.
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So,
in Step One, when we say Allow, we allow ourselves
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to take five deep breaths.
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It's to get into the present moment.
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Usually breathing in to the count of four,
holding it for two to four seconds,
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and then exhaling to the count of four and
it again,
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if you can pause again before your next inhale,
that would be great when we take those slow,
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gentle breaths in and out.
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It brings down the stress response and it
activates the relaxation response.
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This tells our brain, that there is no Tiger,
there is no major threat.
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So of course,
you want to get to a place where you could
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actually benefit from this.
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So many of my clients tell me that the only
place they can get rest from the family,
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is to go to the bathroom.
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So yes,
you could do this in the bathroom or in the
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closet or in your car.
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Sometimes I used to do these in meetings,
nobody has to know you're doing it.
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So in Step 1,
we allow ourselves to take five deep breaths
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to get into the present moment
and then allow your mind, or your awareness
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to focus on whatever comes up.
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What comes up in your mind?
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Are there thoughts?
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Maybe judgments like oh I shouldn't be doing
this.
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I'm not doing it right.
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But wait I need to go return that email.
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Oh, I forgot to pick up the…
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Just allow it to be there
and see if you can become the witness that
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just says,
oh there's a lot of thoughts,
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mind chatter, turbulence without judging
it.
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Because mindfulness is about being aware of
what is without the Judgment, without rejecting
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it and without rejecting yourself for having
these thoughts.
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Next, allow yourself to become aware of what's
going on in the body.
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Here's a good time to do a body scan where
you start at the top of your head,
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and imagine that there's like a light, scanning
your head,
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and your neck.
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your shoulders and you're basically looking
for any tension or pain or tightness,
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So, we just allow ourselves to get in tune
with the body,
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and if something comes up, we just shine a
light of awareness on that tension or pain
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again,
without judgment, without cursing it, without
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wishing it weren't there.
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As soon as we can ease into that we’re often
able to take this next step.
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And that is to ask ask that that pain or that
tension,
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what's your message for me?
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Because often our body is trying to communicate
a message.
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So as we scan the body,
as we allow whatever comes into mind,
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whatever we feel without judging it,
without trying to stuff it away.
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And without judging ourselves for having these
experiences,
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we become better and better able to take the
standpoint of the witness,
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becoming the witness.
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Because that is what's needed for us to recognize
that I am not my body,
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and I'm not my thoughts.
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And I'm not all the judgments that I have
about my body or my thoughts.
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I am the witness.
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I am the essence that animates this body.
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So that is our first step in The Attunement
Process.
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It is Allow.
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And normally once we've acknowledged and allowed
these feelings and things to come up,
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or maybe it's a situation that we're focused
on in that day,
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we move to step two.
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Step, two is Attune.
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So, just like, if we were tuning a piano
and you hit a tuning fork and it creates resonance
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amongst the instruments or strings around
it,
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we are like human antennae.
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And we pick up the vibration,
the frequencies that are all around us.
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Sometimes we're only tuned in to the negative
stuff or maybe we're only emitting negative
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stuff.
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But what if you tuned into the positive?
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Because just like, with radio stations and
TV stations,
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those sound and radio waves are around us
all the time,
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and if you dialed in the antenna of your the
tuner,
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your car radio, for example, or a station,
you would pick up that frequency.
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So now I'm asking you to see what it would
be
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like if you tuned in to the radio station
W-LUV that all day every day,
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just emits positive loving frequencies.
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Very often when we do this.
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We imagine a compassionate figure so that
could be an angel,
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it could be the Buddha, Christ,
Mohammed, Solomon, a saint.
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It could be a grandparent who's passed on
or a beloved pet.
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But you imagine a compassion figure.
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Could be a historical figure like Gandhi,
Mother Teresa.
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You imagine that that being is sending waves
of loving kindness toward you.
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And yes you imagine that you actually receive
and accept those loving wishes.
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This is a time when you can also send that
energy to yourself.
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So, if in Step 1, you had this thought,
come up like “I can't believe I said that,
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I know I hurt my friend's feelings,
I’m such an idiot, right?”
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So maybe you allowed yourself to think those
thoughts,
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well in Step 2, you can direct compassion
toward yourself.
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Like, yeah, that really was a tough tough
conversation.
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Maybe we could have handled it better,
but you know what, I'm here for you.
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And I wish you a peaceful resolution.
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It's my sincere desire that you know true
happiness.
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That you may be free from suffering.
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It is my sincere wish that you be peaceful
and live with ease.
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So, the loving-kindness or Metta meditation
is a practice that we can practice for ourselves.
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We can send out those waves of positivity,
to other people, and we can also receive that.
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So, in Step 2, this is usually, where we’re
tuning into love.
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We may recite those phrases.
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May, I know true happiness.
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May I be free from suffering.
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May I be truly well in body, mind and heart
and may I live peacefully and with ease.
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And if you can, you send those waves out to
other people as well.
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Particularly, if there's been some conflict
and you want to help resolve it on a more
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etheric or spiritual level.
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Then we move to step three of The Attunement
Process.
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And that is Align.
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normally, when we've opened up, we've allowed
ourselves to feel
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what we feel, to look at situations and the
body for what it is.
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We've invited in compassion from higher being
or from our highest self.
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And then, in Step 3, we align the mind with
the mind of the Divine
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or a higher state of consciousness.
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So this is a moment when we consciously choose
to let go of the egos desire to have my way.
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So, instead of saying, it's got to be my way.
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It's like for at least for this moment,
may my mind be aligned with the mind of God,
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or the mind of peace, or let my mind be guided
by love.
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In that opening, in that allowing, in that
inviting this higher state of consciousness,
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many people will change their whole brain
wave pattern
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and connect to something bigger than them,
this field.
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And that opens up the opportunity for those
aha moments of insight and awareness.
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When we take off the blinders.
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We're we're only we've only got tunnel vision
on having things
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our one way, when we let go of that, suddenly
new opportunities,
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new possibilities come.
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And if it doesn't come right, when you're
doing this meditation process,
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at least by opening up, you will have the
vision to see it maybe later on.
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Then we move to step four.
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Step Four is asking for inspiration or only
taking Inspired Action.
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So if you don't know what to do next in your
life
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then you ask, “may I be guided.”
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And you make a commitment to only take inspired
action instead of what we typically do.
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Most of us is we're just one want to look
busy.
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We want to be in the process of fixing
so sometimes we just do stuff without it really
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necessarily being inspired
or leading us to a peaceful resolution or
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the successful accomplishment of our goals.
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So instead we're saying, I will wait instead
of taking random action,
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I might actually take no action, unless it's
inspired action.
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This is inviting your intuition to kick in
and inviting you to trust it.
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The fifth step of The Attunement Meditation
Process is Appreciation.
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Now we know that the research tells us that
every micro moment of positive emotion,
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builds up psychological capital.
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It's like a positive energy bank account.
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And so, rather than waiting, for positive
things to happen in your environment,
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you can be the conscious creator of positive
emotion and we begin that with Appreciation.
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So before we leave this meditative process,
we look for anything around us or anything
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that's come up that we can truly say
we are grateful for.
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What can you appreciate right now?
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That even though things may be bad, even though
you may be in pain,
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even though you're going through a process
of healing or recovery,
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what is one, two, or three things that you
could say you're truly grateful for?
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If you can leave the process with Appreciation,
and maybe it's a Appreciation for yourself
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like thanking yourself for taking this few
minutes for self-care, for self-love.
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Appreciating the part of you that was courageous
enough to face those emotions.
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Appreciating your inner child for carrying
carrying
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so much of maybe some of the pain through
all these years.
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When we leave this process, we typically have
a little bubble of positivity around us
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and the more that we stayed tuned in and looking
for positivity
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and looking to be of contribution to others
and looking for things that we can appreciate
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or even humor can help.
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Then we end up perpetuating this energy
and what we put out to the world is what we
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tend to tune into and get more of.
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So this is just a quick summary of The Atonement
Process.
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Each month on the second Tuesday of the month,
I lead a live
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guided meditation and the teaching on the
principles of The Real Self Love Handbook.
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The Real Self Love Handbook, includes The
Attunement Process,
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but it also includes a 5- step process for
liberating your authentic self
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building resilience and architecting and epic
life.
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So each second Tuesday of the month I go live,it's
totally free.
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I do a little bit of teaching on a concept
from the book.
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And then I lead you in this Attunement Meditation
and quite often will call forth your inner
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child,
maybe it's your inner critic, that needs some
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attention, so that you can resolve some of
the drama.
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This can help you heal from the past, it can
help you start to rewire your brain
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and reprogram your subconscious mind to let
go of those limiting beliefs and the
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stories of the past that have held you back
and to embrace a more heroic and inspired
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future.
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All based in reality, all based in your Authentic
Self
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and in connection with a Power that is greater
than us all.
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So thank you for watching this video.
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I look forward to seeing you.
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In the Real Self Love Live.
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The link is below this video description and
I welcome your questions.
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If you're curious of how this can work with
complex PTSD or anxiety,
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shoot me a question.
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And all of the answers are also in the Real
Self Love Handbook
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which is also available as an audiobook.
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Many of the guided meditations you can download
for free including the Attunement meditation.
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And our life writing program using journaling
to resolve problems at the past to again,
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reprogram your subconscious mind and start
writing a more empowered future
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all of that comes from the Real Self Love
Handbook
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and I teach it each month in the Real Self
Love Live.
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So thank you again for tuning in.
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I look forward to connecting with you again
soon.
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Much love and many blessings.
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