Accessing Emotions – The Most Important Skill

Figuring out how to feel an emotion (the absolute #1 skill for your mind-body healing journey) is not as easy as it sounds.  Most of us suppress and repress emotions without having any idea we’re doing so, and our bodies suffer as a result.  We might think we’re feeling emotions, but often what we’re feeling is actually our own resistance to feeling an emotion (which can feel like anxiety and fear).

When you just feel an emotion as nature intended, it is not overwhelming.  It might feel uncomfortable, but it passes from your body, usually within about 20 minutes.  To get started, you’ll need to pay attention to your body, which holds all the keys to emotional wisdom.

It’s easy to spot emotional suppression.  It shows up as physical tension somewhere in your body.  If you are hoping and trying to access emotions but don’t know where to start, here’s a formula for you:

1)   Scan your body, starting with your hands and feet.  Spend a few minutes really focusing on them.  Describe them to yourself.  You might use temperature words, descriptive words, or sensation words.
2)   Finish scanning the rest of your body.  Where do you notice the most tension?  What does it feel like?  Describe it to yourself.
3)   Ask yourself what emotion is being held in this place of physical tension.  Sit with that question as you pay attention to the physical tension, and just wait.  If no answer comes, no big deal.  Try again later.  Just check in with that tension and be present with it.  Eventually, you will discover an emotion rising up within you.  The only way to keep an emotion out of your awareness is to tense or tighten muscles in your body (which we do without even realizing, so no worries!).  Therefore, it makes perfect sense that paying attention to that place of tension will help you access the emotion.

Stay tuned for more about emotions next week.  In the meantime, keep practicing these steps toward emotional awareness, as you’ll need this skill daily on your journey to health.

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