Thanks to Beth for stepping up and leading DPX last Sunday. She led us in an Equanimity Meditation and talked about how these meditations can help with emotional regulation. We subconsciously use conditioned maladaptive ways to cope with stressful situations. Equanimity Meditation will replace our hard-wired coping strategies with new thought patterns which gradually become more automatic the more we practice. In group discussion David commented that “Parts of ourselves, such as guilt and shame can overwhelm us and feel like that is all there is, when in reality it doesn’t define who we are.” By repeating “I love you, I will take care of you. I will provide for you what you need”. We generate a feeling of safety and compassion for ourselves. Of course, that lead us to a discussion of exactly what are our basic needs and Maslow’s Hierarchy or Needs. This led to the inevitable the question “Is a cell phone a basic need?”! It is often to painful to recognize your emotional needs because so often they are not being met. I that case we need to practice soaking in the very small ways they are being met. Sometimes we don’t even know what we are feeling. It’s just a knot of confusion. Then we need to care about that confusion without trying to sort it out. Other times our pain is greater than our practice can hold. That is when we need to practice compassion for ourselves without judgement.