A systems view of biological health

Section 4: Practical exercises

8.2 : Miscellaneous notes 2: Emotions

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Emotions are also physical sensations – they are not just thoughts. So appreciation is a "positive" emotion, just as curiosity is a positive mental state. When we feel appreciation or become genuinely curious about the world, then the message that is detected by our primitive brain - is that we are safe.

Emotions are supposed to move freely through our body and awareness, and then go, once their message has been "heard". This is how a baby or a child or an animal will handle emotions – they feel them 100%, and then the emotion (like all other sensations in the body) eventually changes. Emotions are also sensations. Every emotion has a very specific set of sensations that occur in very specific parts of the body... always it is several parts of the body, and always there is quite a complex set of changes in sensation.

So emotions may be experienced as a mental-emotional reaction, in which case we are usually taken over by the emotion, and we are 100% caught up in the meaning that the emotion conveys to us. It is also possible to perceive emotion as a set of sensations – in which case it is far easier to not be taken over by the emotion, and also it is much easier to carry out a reality check to test whether the emotion is in proportion to what is happening. Obviously this is very complex when we are in a social interaction – but if we are alone, the situation is far simpler, and it is easier to unpick the emotion by observing its somatic detail. Then we have a choice of whether to react or not to the emotion. And we also have a choice as to whether to pay it attention.

If (e.g.) anxiety is being felt, then forget the mental storyline, and experience what it feels like in your body. Smile at it. Welcome it. Acknowledge it, and notice if it is a real and proportionate response to what is happening around you. If it is – then the anxiety was there for a purpose – to bring your attention to danger. If it is not proportionate to your surroundings, then what you are feeling is a memory, in which case, just ask "what else is there? ... where in my body am I NOT feeling this?"

You will find that there are parts of your body that are not anxious at all. In this way, it is possible to manage emotions, so that the body and deeper parts of the brain are not receiving a message that you are in immediate danger of death. Safety is always relative, and as long a we are relatively safe, then life can go on. If we let our primitive survival alarms know that we are safe enough, then they will become calm, and well calibrated to reality.

If for some unfortunate reason you end up in pain through an injury or illness – if you apply the above rules, then the pain will not escalate into central sensitisation. And it is far more likely that (as a result of applying those rules) your body will be more able to heal itself