Emotional Control: Level 1

updated by: High Priest Zevios Metathronos

Call up the positive emotions at will, feel them fully for 2 minutes, then let them go and return to stillness.

Level: Beginning
Emotions: Positive: happiness, optimism and their kin
Each Emotion: 2 minutes, felt and observed
Imagining: Little: a name and a small memory
After: Void Meditation, 5 minutes
Outcome: You raise a good emotion and release it at will

Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics II.6, 1106b18 to 23
οἷον καὶ φοβηθῆναι καὶ θαρρῆσαι καὶ ἐπιθυμῆσαι καὶ ὀργισθῆναι καὶ ἐλεῆσαι καὶ ὅλως ἡσθῆναι καὶ λυπηθῆναι ἔστι καὶ μᾶλλον καὶ ἧττον, καὶ ἀμφότερα οὐκ εὖ· τὸ δ᾽ ὅτε δεῖ καὶ ἐφ᾽ οἷς καὶ πρὸς οὓς καὶ οὗ ἕνεκα καὶ ὡς δεῖ, μέσον τε καὶ ἄριστον, ὅπερ ἐστὶ τῆς ἀρετῆς.
Fear and confidence, desire, anger and pity, and in general pleasure and pain, can be felt too much and too little, and in both cases not well. To feel them at the right times, about the right things, towards the right people, for the right end and in the right way is the mean and the best, and this belongs to virtue.

Before You Begin
This meditation works with your own feelings. Practice when you're rested, alert and calm, in a quiet place where no one will disturb you.
If a session unsettles you, stop. You might not be ready for it yet: return to it on another day.

I. What This Meditation Trains

An emotion is a force that moves through the body and the mind. Most people are carried by theirs. The Initiate learns to carry them: to call an emotion, feel it in full and set it down at will.

Emotional Control works on the Emotional part of the being, as Physical Exercise works on the Physical. Every session ends in the Void Meditation, so the mind learns to return to stillness after each feeling.

Level 1 trains with the positive emotions. They're the easiest to call and the safest to hold, and they teach the 3 movements the whole practice rests on: summon, feel, release.

II. The 3 Levels

The method is the same at every level. What changes is the emotion, and how deeply you live it in the mind.

Level	Emotions	How They Are Called	Void After
Level 1	Positive: happiness, optimism and their kin	By name and a small memory, with little imagining	5 minutes
Level 2	Strength: bravery, confidence, faith in yourself	Through a scene you imagine clearly, with you in it	10 minutes
Level 3	Uncertainty and the hard emotions: fear, dread and their kin	Through a strong scenario, lived with every sense	15 minutes

III. The Emotions of Level 1

Choose 1 emotion for each session. Any positive emotion you know well may join the list.

Emotion	What It Is	How to Call It at Level 1
Happiness	A bright, open gladness at being alive.	Recall a moment when you laughed freely.
Joy	Happiness at its height, a lift in the chest.	Recall good news that made you want to leap.
Optimism	The sure expectation that things will go well.	Think of a plan of yours and feel that it will succeed.
Gratitude	Thankfulness for what you've been given.	Recall a gift or a kindness you received.
Serenity	A calm that nothing disturbs.	Recall a still morning, a quiet sea or a silent room.
Contentment	The feeling that what you have is enough for now.	Recall an evening when you wanted nothing more.
Love	Warm affection for a person, an animal or a place.	Recall someone you love and the warmth you feel for them.
Hope	The feeling that something good is coming.	Recall waiting for something good you knew would come.
Wonder	Awe before something great and beautiful.	Recall the night sky, a mountain or the open sea.
Enthusiasm	Eager energy for what you're about to do.	Recall the morning of a day you had longed for.

IV. The Method

Settle. Sit upright with your spine straight and close your eyes. Take a few slow breaths. If you like, breathe in for 6, hold for 6 and breathe out for 6, holding only as long as is comfortable.
Choose. Pick 1 emotion from the table.
Summon it. Say the emotion's name inwardly and let a small memory of it rise: a single moment. Then turn your attention from the memory to the feeling itself.
Feel it for 2 minutes. Let it fill you and observe it vividly: where it sits in the body, its warmth or weight, its pace, what it does to your breath. You feel it fully and you watch it at the same time.
Let it go. Observe the emotion one last time, just as it is. Then breathe out slowly and let it go, the way a sound fades in a quiet room.
Do the Void Meditation. Go straight into the Void Meditation for 5 minutes, and let the mind fall completely still.

Step	Time
Settle	About 1 minute
The emotion, summoned and felt	2 minutes
Letting go	About 1 minute
Void Meditation	5 minutes
The whole session	About 9 minutes

V. How Much to Imagine

At Level 1 you imagine little. The emotion's name and a single remembered moment are enough to call it.

Once it stirs, leave the memory and stay with the feeling. If the memory starts to unfold into a story, let it pass and return to what you feel. You're learning to raise the emotion from within. Scenes come at Level 2.

VI. Letting Go

Letting go is half the practice. An emotion you can release is an emotion you command.

At the end of the 2 minutes, observe it one last time, then release it on a long breath out. Stop feeding it and it ebbs on its own. Whatever remains, the Void Meditation clears.

VII. Your Practice Week

Practice	How Often	Duration
Emotional Control session	Daily, or at least 4 times a week	About 9 minutes
Emotions per session	1 for the first 2 weeks, then up to 3	2 minutes each, each let go before the next
Time of day	Morning or early evening	When you're rested and alert

Typical timeframe: 4 to 8 weeks of steady practice.

VIII. Signs You're Ready for Level 2

You call any emotion of the table within a minute. It comes when you ask for it.
You hold it for 2 minutes. Your attention stays on the feeling from start to end.
You let it go cleanly. It doesn't return during the Void.
You've practiced for at least 4 weeks. The session has become a habit.

Call the good in you at will, and let it go at will. What answers to your command is yours.