The MindBody Collective

🌿 From Reaction to Response

### Working with Feeling Tone and the Klesha of Aversion (Dvesha)

👉 RSVP Reminder: Please RSVP if you plan to attend so we can size the room well for discussion. 🌿

Part of the Relational Capacities Series

Why do certain moments trigger such quick reactions in us — criticism, embarrassment, discomfort, tension? 🤔

Classical contemplative psychology offers a helpful model.

Every experience first arrives as a feeling tone.

Feeling tone is the mind’s immediate internal signal about an experience — usually one of three qualities:

• pleasant 🙂
• unpleasant 😬
• neutral 😐

This happens before thoughts, stories, or analysis begin.

In mindfulness training, learning to recognize this early signal is a foundational skill.

### 🧠 Mindfulness Skill:

### Noticing Feeling Tone

This practice involves gently recognizing the pleasant, unpleasant, or neutral quality of an experience as it arises. 🌱

When we are unaware of this moment, reactive mental patterns — known as Kleshas — quickly attach themselves to the feeling tone and drive our reactions.

One of the most common is:

Dvesha — Aversion

The instinct to push away what feels unpleasant.

The pattern often looks like this:

Stimulus → Feeling Tone → Klesha → Reaction

Example:
Criticism
→ unpleasant feeling tone
→ Dvesha (aversion)
→ defensiveness ⚡

Embarrassment
→ unpleasant tone
→ Dvesha
→ withdrawal 🚪

Mindfulness helps us interrupt this chain.

When we learn to notice the feeling tone early, the pattern begins to change:

Stimulus → Feeling Tone → Awareness → Response ✨

This small moment of awareness can soften automatic reactions and expand our capacity for non-reactivity, emotional regulation, and thoughtful response.

During tonight’s gathering we will:

• briefly review the five Kleshas
• focus on Dvesha (aversion) as a major driver of reactivity
• introduce the mindfulness skill Noticing Feeling Tone
• practice a short meditation to observe this process in real time 🧘
• discuss how this awareness applies to everyday interactions and relationships 💬

The goal is not to suppress emotions.

It is simply to see the moment of activation clearly enough that choice becomes possible.

***

🗓 Tonight
⏰ 6:00 PM EST
💻 Online on Zoom

👉 Please RSVP if you plan to attend so we can prepare the room appropriately for discussion.

Looking forward to a thoughtful exploration together. 🌿✨

🧡 The Yamas & Niyamas Book Club
Exploring Yoga’s Ethical Practice by Deborah Adele

Join us for a thoughtful and structured exploration of the 10 foundational ethical principles of yoga — and it’s first two limbs - the Yamas and Niyamas — not as abstract philosophy, but as living practices for modern relational life.

We will move through the book slowly and deliberately, allowing time for reflection, discussion, and maximal comprehension. This is not a race — it is a deep dive.

Throughout the series, we will explore each principle through multiple lenses:

• The Eight Limbs of Yoga — how ethical foundations support meditation and integration
• The Attributes of Companionship — what creates steadiness, warmth, and repair in relationships
• The Framework of Relational Capacities — curiosity, regulation, empathy, attunement, meta-awareness, and expansion
• Attachment Patterns — how early bonding shapes adult connection
• Childhood Development — how adaptive strategies and nervous system learning influence behavior
• Psychological Integration — movement from fragmentation toward coherence
• Contemporary Neuroscience — including the role of left-dominant Default Mode Network activity, overthinking loops, narrative selfing, and how deeper mindfulness practices soften reactivity

We will examine feeling tone, subtle reactive pulses, and stimulus-independent thought — learning to notice the micro-movements of the mind before they crystallize into behavior. This adds a modern layer of contemplative science to the ethical foundations of yoga.

Meetings will also include guest speakers from a variety of disciplines — psychology, neuroscience, contemplative practice, somatics, and relational development — offering cross-disciplinary insight and practical application.

This is not about perfection.
It is about expansion.

Expect:
📖 deep reading
🧠 psychological insight
🧘 contemplative grounding
🤝 relational skill-building
✨ reflective dialogue

If you are interested in expanding awareness, strengthening companionship, and cultivating steadier presence in your relationships, we invite you to join us.

Meeting Day & Time: To Be Determined
Details coming soon.

Come curious.
Come reflective.
Come willing to grow.