How to Feel your Emotions - a rough guide (which I will most probably refine further): I'll start by a bit of a dissection of what an emotion is:  If you look at it closely, there are 3 components:  A physical sensation A link/pattern A thought When an emotion - usually perceived as negative - appears, this is what is meant by "sitting with it" (in my current view anyway)  Acknowledge the bodily sensation that occurs: tingling, hotness, itchiness, hardness, bloating, burning, shaking etc. You might want to find a name for the sensation BUT naming the sensation ONLY serves to isolate it so that it is not missed/blocked. If you cannot find a name for it, that's OK, don't go into mind mode to search for words. Here comes the second part - the link or pattern that you have adopted. The association between this physical component and the THOUGHT that is coming right after. This link is mostly unconscious and here is where awareness needs to be applied. This link is deeply personal and induced by your own experiences in life. So broken down it looks like: (e.g.) "tingling in legs (physical sensation) >>> THIS MEANS THAT (unconscious link/pattern/association)>>>>I feel fear (thought)"  If you pull them apart from each other, there's no logical way to assume that a tingling in legs means fear... (void in heart area means sadness, tension in head means anger...etc) So first part of the sitting with the emotion is acknowledging/isolating the PHYSICAL Sensation:  what is it that I physically feel? which areas of body?  which one is most prevalent/intense? BECOME AWARE that there is a LINK >>> an unconscious association of the particular physical sensation with a thought. Mindfulness and presence is essential here.  The thought that follows is complete illusion and needs no attention to it at all. Just leave it aside for now. ( I'm scared, hurt, sad, mad, angry.....)  Once you are in this phase, the real work begins.  Put all of your attention on the physical sensation. Yes, thought will try to come back over and over. Once you acknowledge the LINK, you can drop the thought. Gently be aware of the fact that the feeling does not mean anything, it is just a feeling in body. Focusing on feeling body resembles that of enjoyment of a piece of quality chocolate (or whatever else you enjoy deeply). There is no pain in a tingling, or hot, or cold... what hurts is the ASSOCIATION with the thought that you perceive negative. I'm not going to lie though, it does not feel comfortable at all but the only reason for that is because it is a physical sensation that you have avoided all your life (because it has been associated with negative thoughts). Keep your mind occupied with gently discarding the thoughts - I personally use a gentle "shhhh" to help me keep thought away. The understanding/knowing that the trouble is the LINK between physical sensations and thoughts will come gradually with experience, and will become the KEY to this process. Keep feeling the sensation. No judgement. No interpretation. Just the physicality of it. Anything that comes mentally has no relevance whatsoever. During this, some images can come up, some memories, usually very short and powerful, like a flash. Do not bother about them, they will remain there. Where even "experienced feelers" go "wrong" with this is that they start building on the story that comes up and lose the focus on feeling the body. That's why most of the times, same thing has to be worked with over and over again, until sensation is fully felt and released.  The images or memories that come up can be "worked with" after the feeling process. Just bring back the image that came up - this is also a way to recognize it as something else than mind chatter: it is short and powerful and remains there even after process of feeling is done. It will have some form of a revelation about the implications in your life of what it is you just felt. It will usually reveal the pattern. That is not essential though. No need to do that or build a story. What is ESSENTIAL is the feeling. Last point I want to make for now, is a bit of an explanation as to why...:  When something happens that we perceive uncomfortable, we usually tend to block it. Example:  Your mom calls you stupid. You cannot contradict mom - she's your lifeline. But her tone, energy, words, look, makes your body react a certain way. You block that from your conscious response, but energetically, it remains there until you expose it. It is a bit similar to a dog that gets scared: it will shake like crazy until he feels safe again. When was the last time when you let yourself shake in front of your boss telling you off?   Hope this makes sense and helps some people........