Negative emotion is something that we all experience. It is a part of being human and it is an okay part. Your negative emotion actually serves the purpose of protecting you. It shines a light on the fact that something is not quite right in your life. However, your emotions do not define you. They are simply a temporary expression of what is going on in your life right now.
The problem arises when you don’t honor your emotions and allow them to be heard, felt and experienced. When you try to squelch your feelings, it causes them to become “louder” so that you will pay attention. For this reason it is good to thank your negative emotion before you work to clear it.
It is important to understand that mind and body are inextricably linked. Therefore, you cannot effectively address one without addressing the other. That said, you are going to work with the emotion and how it is expressing in your body and your mind. I am not a proponent of slapping a “happy face” on an emotion and calling it healed. You must do the work to release the emotion where it has become locked into your body. After that you can work more effectively at changing your mind or thoughts.
It may be beneficial to read through the entire exercise before you actually do the steps. This will allow you to understand why you are doing each step and therefore be more receptive.
Begin by grounding your body. You need a calm and receptive place in which to work.
Take a deep breath. Hold it. And, let it out.
Check to see where your shoulders are. Are they riding up near your ears? Gently let go and relax them. Relax your facial muscles. Let your belly soften as you slowly breathe in and out.
It is best to work on your emotions from a very grounded, centered place. Therefore, it is helpful to anchor into the earth.
Imagine a monkey tail extending from your tailbone down into the center of the earth. Try to really feel it reaching down to the earth’s core and then wrapping around the core of the earth. Notice how solid that anchor makes you feel. Maybe you feel a bit stronger and more centered. You have established a little more control over your emotions.
This is going to be about empowering yourself to deal with your emotions. You can always control them, they do not have to control you.
Now, I want you to think of an emotion that is throwing you off balance. It may be fear, guilt, anger, hurt… whatever the emotion you are feeling is okay ( if you have several, let’s work with them one at a time ).
Next, do a body scan and just notice what you feel in your body. Maybe your jaw is tense or your head throbs, it could be tightness in your chest or a queasy feeling in your stomach. Does your back ache? Maybe your lungs feel constricted and your breathing is tight. It can be anything. There are no rights and wrongs here. It is very individual and whatever you feel is right for you.
Experience the emotion and the physical manifestation, of the emotion, in your body. Allow the feeling to grow, to become larger in your awareness. You are letting the emotion know that you have heard it.
While you are feeling this emotion, you do not have to re-experience what upset you and caused the emotion in the first place. In fact, it is unnecessary and usually counterproductive to re-live the trauma or upsetting moment. You are simply working with the resulting feeling.
Okay, can you really feel the emotion and the linked body sensation? Seriously concentrate on feeling it as much as you possibly can.
Once you are really feeling it, send your breath into the area of your body that is tense, sore, aching, or whatever. The breath begins to dissolve the emotion and the body symptoms. Imagine that when you breathe in, the breath goes straight to that feeling of discomfort, wherever it is.
I bet you are feeling calmer, that the emotion has begun to dissipate, to dissolve a bit. Now, see if you can take the remaining emotion and body sensation and draw in a deep breath, with the out breath let the emotion and body sensation wash down the monkey tail into the center of the earth.Know that once in the center of the earth the emotion and body sensation are neutralized.
Now, take in a few slow, deep breaths. Check in with your body and see how you feel. Is the emotion reduced in power or, better yet, gone?
The goal is to become self-empowered so that you can be in control of your body and mind versus it controlling you. Be gentle and patient with yourself because this is a learning process. The more you practice it the better you will become at identifying negative emotion and releasing it before it can move deeply into your body and cause physical trouble.
We aren’t quite finished. Now you have opened up some space by releasing the negative emotion; or you at least have softened it substantially. It is time to put something in its place. Positive self talk is perfect here. This is when you want to reach for a better feeling thought to replace the negative emotion that was just dissolved.
Please do not try to jump all the way to ecstasy. Leaps like that usually don’t work. But, if you were feeling fear then maybe you can let in a little hope. If guilt was your emotion then let in a little peace. If you were angry then maybe you can move to just frustration. You want to walk up the emotional ladder one rung at a time.
On each rung of the ladder, you can repeat the above exercise until you feel complete peace around your previous negative emotion.
Serious Note: Neutralizing your negative emotion does not mean that you are condoning a wrong that was done to you. This really has nothing to do with the original upsetting event or person that upset you. You are releasing this emotion so that you will feel better. When you do feel better you can make smarter choices from a grounded, self-empowered place; a place of strength, not weakness.
Have an empowered day!
Negative emotion is something that we all experience. It is a part of being human and it is an okay part. Your negative emotion actually serves the purpose of protecting you. It shines a light on the fact that something is not quite right in your life. However, your emotions do not define you. They are simply a temporary expression of what is going on in your life right now.
The problem arises when you don’t honor your emotions and allow them to be heard, felt and experienced. When you try to squelch your feelings, it causes them to become “louder” so that you will pay attention. For this reason it is good to thank your negative emotion before you work to clear it.
It is important to understand that mind and body are inextricably linked. Therefore, you cannot effectively address one without addressing the other. That said, you are going to work with the emotion and how it is expressing in your body and your mind. I am not a proponent of slapping a “happy face” on an emotion and calling it healed. You must do the work to release the emotion where it has become locked into your body. After that you can work more effectively at changing your mind or thoughts.
It may be beneficial to read through the entire exercise before you actually do the steps. This will allow you to understand why you are doing each step and therefore be more receptive.
Begin by grounding your body. You need a calm and receptive place in which to work.
Take a deep breath. Hold it. And, let it out.
Check to see where your shoulders are. Are they riding up near your ears? Gently let go and relax them. Relax your facial muscles. Let your belly soften as you slowly breathe in and out.
It is best to work on your emotions from a very grounded, centered place. Therefore, it is helpful to anchor into the earth.
Imagine a monkey tail extending from your tailbone down into the center of the earth. Try to really feel it reaching down to the earth’s core and then wrapping around the core of the earth. Notice how solid that anchor makes you feel. Maybe you feel a bit stronger and more centered. You have established a little more control over your emotions.
This is going to be about empowering yourself to deal with your emotions. You can always control them, they do not have to control you.
Now, I want you to think of an emotion that is throwing you off balance. It may be fear, guilt, anger, hurt… whatever the emotion you are feeling is okay ( if you have several, let’s work with them one at a time ).
Next, do a body scan and just notice what you feel in your body. Maybe your jaw is tense or your head throbs, it could be tightness in your chest or a queasy feeling in your stomach. Does your back ache? Maybe your lungs feel constricted and your breathing is tight. It can be anything. There are no rights and wrongs here. It is very individual and whatever you feel is right for you.
Experience the emotion and the physical manifestation, of the emotion, in your body. Allow the feeling to grow, to become larger in your awareness. You are letting the emotion know that you have heard it.
While you are feeling this emotion, you do not have to re-experience what upset you and caused the emotion in the first place. In fact, it is unnecessary and usually counterproductive to re-live the trauma or upsetting moment. You are simply working with the resulting feeling.
Okay, can you really feel the emotion and the linked body sensation? Seriously concentrate on feeling it as much as you possibly can.
Once you are really feeling it, send your breath into the area of your body that is tense, sore, aching, or whatever. The breath begins to dissolve the emotion and the body symptoms. Imagine that when you breathe in, the breath goes straight to that feeling of discomfort, wherever it is.
I bet you are feeling calmer, that the emotion has begun to dissipate, to dissolve a bit. Now, see if you can take the remaining emotion and body sensation and draw in a deep breath, with the out breath let the emotion and body sensation wash down the monkey tail into the center of the earth.Know that once in the center of the earth the emotion and body sensation are neutralized.
Now, take in a few slow, deep breaths. Check in with your body and see how you feel. Is the emotion reduced in power or, better yet, gone?
The goal is to become self-empowered so that you can be in control of your body and mind versus it controlling you. Be gentle and patient with yourself because this is a learning process. The more you practice it the better you will become at identifying negative emotion and releasing it before it can move deeply into your body and cause physical trouble.
We aren’t quite finished. Now you have opened up some space by releasing the negative emotion; or you at least have softened it substantially. It is time to put something in its place. Positive self talk is perfect here. This is when you want to reach for a better feeling thought to replace the negative emotion that was just dissolved.
Please do not try to jump all the way to ecstasy. Leaps like that usually don’t work. But, if you were feeling fear then maybe you can let in a little hope. If guilt was your emotion then let in a little peace. If you were angry then maybe you can move to just frustration. You want to walk up the emotional ladder one rung at a time.
On each rung of the ladder, you can repeat the above exercise until you feel complete peace around your previous negative emotion.
Serious Note: Neutralizing your negative emotion does not mean that you are condoning a wrong that was done to you. This really has nothing to do with the original upsetting event or person that upset you. You are releasing this emotion so that you will feel better. When you do feel better you can make smarter choices from a grounded, self-empowered place; a place of strength, not weakness.
Have an empowered day!