Hi, and welcome to your Daily Mindfulness. Today, we're going to talk about some healthy ways that you can vent difficult emotions. So venting emotions is really all about allowing them to move through you when they arise. So instead of bottling them up, pushing them down or suppressing them in any way, we allow them some expression. So venting can obviously be done in unhelpful or unhealthy ways, such as yelling at someone, throwing things, or really beating yourself up with shame and regret.

But there are some really healthy ways that we can vent emotions really so that they can be honoured and that the energy they can hold is able to move through freely instead of being blocked or suppressed in any way. Now, once that happens, once we allow the energy to move we're then in a much better position to respond wisely to whatever is happening in our lives. So the default that I would encourage for any kind of unpleasant emotion arising is to first really bring a sense of compassion and understanding for yourself and for the emotion. So, you know, Zen monk and peace activists Thich Nhat Hahn taught this practice of mentally saying to any painful emotions. "I'm here for you," and then really having an attitude of kindness towards the emotion.

So you might even want to place a hand on your body where you can feel the pain, the discomfort of the emotion and gently breathing with it as you bring it compassion. That can be really helpful. So any way that you can have a sense of bringing kindness or compassion to the emotion as the first place to start is really helpful. So we're going to actually try this in today's meditation practice to just so you can get a sense of it. Self-compassion is an especially powerful response to emotions like shame, sadness, grief, or loneliness.

Now, some other things you can do to vent in a safe and healthy way is writing letters that you never send, yelling, not at someone but just on your own, or hitting something safe, like a pillow or a boxing cushion, or any kind of soft thing. Shaking it out can be great. Going for a run, working out in the gym. These are all really great ways to release energy, especially the energy of anger, anxiety, or fear. I always loved dancing for this as well, just to move energy.

A final thing you can try is the 'name it to tame it' technique where you really name the emotion mentally that you're feeling and then you bring your full focus to it and explore whether there's any underlying, deeper, more tender feelings. Feeling free to let them arise. Let them go when they're ready to go. And as you release negative emotions, so whichever practice you try out of all of these, if there is some kind of release or you're finished punching or yelling or writing, afterwards, see if you can get a sense of connecting to something you're grateful for in the present moment, maybe the warmth of the sun on your skin, the love of the people around you. Whatever it is, just allowing yourself to soak in a feeling of gratitude for a few moments.

So by venting emotions in these healthy ways, you really build a lot more self-awareness, resilience, and mental strength. So I encourage you to give these a try, see how they work for you. And as always, thank you for your practice and your presence here with us. And let's settle in for meditation.