Hello love,
Today I wanted to teach you method to get into the body to the root cause of emotional issues. This helps to move past the looping mind and gain clarity.
I am going to talk about the mind, a bit about why this process works and how to do it.
Check out the video here for a few more details:
The mind
A lot of times in meditative practices we are trying to disconnect from the mind. I don’t believe the mind is bad, it’s a tool. When the mind has looping thoughts it is trying to protect us in the best way it knows how (think/do x,y,z). It is there as a protective mechanism. It is usually protecting us from a pain we are trying to not feel in the body.
I see this with clients with emotional eating or any emotional issue in life – looping thoughts. The mind wants to distract, suppress or just not deal with “it”. It being the pain that is in the body.
How is this created?
Let’s think about children (I have a young son) and look at 2 situations.
Ideal Situation
As a young child you had supportive parents who allowed you to feel all your emotions. They created a safe container or space for you to be with all the range of emotions. They were not triggered by your emotions, they allowed their expression.
For example, my son throws tantrums and I allow him to feel his anger. I will redirect him if he is hitting me to pillows so he can still feel anger but not hurt me.
Not ideal
Having caregivers that were not able to create a safe space for you.
These caregivers tried to stop the emotion in some way. Perhaps saying things like “anger is bad, don’t feel sad, suck it up”. They could have distracted you, or gave you something to eat to feel better. They tried to make the emotion stop rather than allowing it to process to completion.
Emotions are energy in motion and need to go to completion.
Over time we adopt their strategy or coping mechanism towards our emotion as our strategy.
Pain
We become aware of these strategies when they become painful and are no longer working in our life. We might be overeating, binge eating, angry for “no reason”, or so sad, etc.
The mind is still doing what it did to protect us. If we didn’t do these things as children (the strategies) we wouldn’t receive the support and love we needed.
What can we do?
What I have experienced and seen is that we need to go into the body somatically.
We are essentially going back into the body where these emotions are held and allowing them to be. With an allowing and loving presence the nervous system will relax. This allows the emotions to felt and processed and returns the nervous system to calm.
The process
1.We need to be that safe container: loving, compassionate allowing. Our most solid self. Think of a time, place or person that embodies a loving allowing presence and embody that.
2. Once you have this embodied state in yourself, you can begin a short breath meditation to come into a calm state.
3. Next, you will focus your attention into the body asking it “Where is this looping thought coming from (in the body)?” Let the body “light up”. It might be a specific place or a large area.
4. Always focus your attention into the body, if the mind pulls you out refocus into the place in your body.
5. Once you have the place that the thought is coming from you want to ask it questions. To start ask how big is it, is there a colour, a shape, is it tight, is there an age or image associated with it, a memory.
All of this information is important because it is taking us back to the root cause. When “we” (the loving self) goes into the body we are being that parent that is allowing and lets this part relax and let go.
If a memory or a younger self comes up see what it needs to feel, maybe it is sadness or anger. Allow the emotions to be. We are not fixing anything, just allowing. We can also ask that part what it needs and wait for an answer to arise. (more suggestions in the video)
Once you feel the emotion you will come back to a state of calm and clarity. You may have much more insight. As you do this more and more, you will get more clarity as that stuck energy is released.
The emotion may have been frozen in the nervous system because it was not allowed to be felt. As we bring awareness to this part, the nervous system relaxes and releases the emotion. This completes the process and brings us back to balance and calm.
This has been the most amazing tool for me. I have tried more talking therapy but the missing piece is the body. This process integrates all parts of the brain and body bringing you back to wholeness. I do this with clients so if you need professional help please book a call HERE to see if we are a good fit.
Michelle
To wholeness,
Certified Holistic Nutritionist.
