The Contracted State

Working from home, I often have a sense of being imprisoned or detained. Under the present circumstances, I suppose this is understandable, but I wonder whether the sense of being stuck at home comes from my tendency to use movement and walking to avoid difficulties and challenges. More to the point, this is very much what makes meditation sometimes uncomfortable: there is a sense that I don't yet know how to related to that feeling of being "contracted" or , perhaps, trapped in some way.
   I am also aware that in those moments, it's best to analyse the sense in which I am too identified with those emotions. It's helpful to ponder, do those emotions of feeling "stuck" linger, or do they pass? Am I bound to those feelings and, if so, how can I even be aware of them if I am stuck to them? These kinds of questions encourage a more lax openness rather than judging these kinds of emotions as terrible or unbearable in some ways.
  Another point I try to tell myself is that each time I am able to tolerate something that is uncomfortable, unfamiliar or hard to manage, it gets easier the next time, because I am more aware of its relative nature. If I simply push away discomfort each time it happens, I will not identify those states as mind, as much as the pleasant states. By identifying both "good" and "bad" as states of mind, I am able to see that they both come from the same source, and there is no fundamental difference. Pleasant or unpleasant, good or bad, all have the same ultimate source.