Coaching practices for Sitting with Difficult Feelings Meditation
Describe almost anything you are working through and IX Coach finds the practices whose real-world fit is closest. For Sitting with Difficult Feelings Meditation, these are the strongest matches in the current practice library.
Does this sound like the set of challenges you might be facing?
- I sit down to meditate and instead I just stew
- The moment a hard feeling rises in me, I instinctively clench away from it or bolt for a distraction
- Sitting alone with my own mind tends to dredge up self-criticism and uncomfortable stuff, and I come out of meditation feeling more turned-against-myself and isolated than when I started
- I’m stuck at one of two extremes with hard feelings
- A feeling shows up and I’m instantly grabbing at it or shoving it away
Practices that may help
- Working with ill will (byapada)
When aversion, irritation, or resentment enters meditation, meet it with loving-kindness for the person or thing triggering it.
The Five Hindrances: Diagnosing and Working with Meditation Obstacles - Meeting emotion in open presence
When a difficult emotion arises during open monitoring, stay in the witnessing position rather than contracting or escaping.
Open Monitoring Meditation, Made Practical - Metta at the close — sharing merit and goodwill
End each sitting by radiating goodwill outward, softening any self-critical edge the practice surfaces.
Vipassana Meditation, Made Practical - Mindful awareness of suffering
Hold painful feelings in balanced awareness — neither suppressing them nor being swept away by them.
Self-Compassion, Made Practical - Non-grasping awareness: letting arise and pass
Watch thoughts, sensations, and emotions arise and dissolve without grabbing or pushing.
Shikantaza: Just Sitting - Compassion meditation for widening the circle
Extend deliberate well-wishing to people you find difficult, building non-aversion before you encounter them.
Ahimsa: Non-Violence as a Daily Practice - Precise hindrance identification before applying antidotes
Before doing anything about a meditation obstacle, name which of the five hindrances is actually present.
The Five Hindrances: Diagnosing and Working with Meditation Obstacles - N — Nurture with self-compassion
Offer the part that is suffering what it most needs — care, acknowledgment, reassurance — as you would a dear friend.
RAIN Meditation: Tara Brach’s Four-Step Practice - Practicing with a sangha (community sitting)
Sit with others regularly — group practice stabilizes individual practice in ways solitude cannot.
Shikantaza: Just Sitting - Weekly hindrance-pattern review
Track which hindrances appear most in your practice to identify life-condition causes, not just in-session antidotes.
The Five Hindrances: Diagnosing and Working with Meditation Obstacles
Related concerns
- Non Avoidance Meditation
When a difficult emotion arises during open monitoring, stay in the witnessing position rather than contracting or escaping.
Meeting emotion in open presence
- Ahimsa Meditation
Ahimsa — the principle of non-harming held across Jain, Hindu, and Patanjalian traditions — extends far beyond avoiding physical violence. As a daily practice it means bringing deliberate non-aggression to thought, speech, and action toward oneself and others. The practices are grounded in real psychological mechanisms: non-judgement reduces reactivity, compassion training builds prosocial capacity, and self-compassion buffers the shame that drives self-attack.
- How Do I Start Meditating When Facing Tough Times In Life Given I Have Never Practiced Before
Count breaths from one to ten and start over, a traditional on-ramp to a steady mind.
Counting the breath (susokukan)
- No Self Meditation
End each sitting by radiating goodwill outward, softening any self-critical edge the practice surfaces.
Metta at the close — sharing merit and goodwill
- Vipassana Meditation After A Setback
Briefly imagine losing what you have, so you stop taking it for granted and brace for setbacks.
Negative visualization (premeditatio malorum)
- Welcoming Experience Meditation
End each sitting by radiating goodwill outward, softening any self-critical edge the practice surfaces.
Describe your situation in your own words to search the complete practice library.