Befriending Your Pain (Revisited) described a way to create emotional release and freedom. This approach works beautifully with almost all painful emotions, but it requires an additional component when you're facing the most challenging types of hurt, loss, and disappointment. That's where cradling the baby comes in, a practice refined by Buddhist nun Yvonne Rand. It creates a powerful healing bond between the part of ourselves that feels the pain and the part that observes it.
The Practice:
If you find yourself beset by a particularly difficult emotion, begin by opening to it as described in Befriending Your Pain (Revisited). Once you're in direct contact with the emotion's physical presence, regard the sensation in the way a parent does a crying infant. Bring your attention close enough to the pain that it feels safe and nurtured, but not so close that it feels pressured in any way. Maintain this tender orientation to the pain until you become at least a little more calm and peaceful.
This is the act of cradling. It's how we reunite with the parts of ourselves that we like the least and with the experiences that we want the least. Cradling is one of the deepest forms of presence, as well as the epitome of self-love.
— Raphael Cushnir in How Now