Riding the Wave of Experience is a technique that gives us step-by-step guide to handling challenging experiences and strong emotions skillfully. This process involves focusing on the sensation and energy of the emotion in the body, rather than the thoughts or stories associated with it. The key is to stay anchored in the felt sense of your body, which allows the wave to build and ultimately crest.
The first step is to let your awareness rest on the areas of greatest sensation and breathe into them. The next step is to notice and consciously relax any tense areas. As sensation and emotion flow, focus your attention there, and watch as they shift and change.
As the emotion peaks and subsides, the experience can be integrated through stillness or gentle movement. This is where valuable insights and intuitive understanding often arise. While Riding the Wave often starts out as an uncomfortable or even threatening process, with practice it becomes a powerful tool for personal growth and self-discovery.
BREATHE - RELAX - FEEL - WATCH - ALLOW (BRFWA)
This practice is a self-coaching tool to help us stay present with our experience even as it gets intense:
Breathe
For a few moments focus your attention on the flow of breath in and out of your body
Let the rising and falling of the belly or chest connect you to the ebb and flow of sensation in the body
Allow your breathing take you from fight or flight energy—the sympathetic nervous system—to the parasympathetic nervous system that promotes relaxation
Relax
Scan your body and as you become aware of tension in the body
Consciously soften your muscles and invite the tension to release
Soften the mind and release any tension surrounding you mental activity
Feel
Open yourself to feel everything that is present in your experience
Notice the sensations that arise in your body
Give yourself permission to feel whatever comes and let the experience move through you
Watch
Observe your experience without judgment
Let go of the story about this experience
Become the silent witness and notice if the quality of your experience changes in any way
Allow
Allow yourself and your experience to be exactly as it is dropping the need to change it in any way
Let your experience happen
Say yes to this moment