Listening to what our body tells us about emotions

Humans are marvelously adaptable. We are able to tune ourselves to a host of different conditions. There are pictures of explorers in Antarctica shoveling snow in subzero conditions without shirts on because it was a “warm” day.

Have you ever had someone walk into the room you are in and tell you that the TV is blasting? You didn’t realize it until they mentioned it, but they’re right. Looking back, you can see that you had been slowly increasing the volume over the last hour or so.

You simply grew accustomed to it. We adapt the same way with our emotions. If you remain in one state for too long, it ceases to be remarkable and it becomes the new normal. We are hardwired to reach an equilibrium. The problem for some of us is that, it’s not always a good place to be.

If you’re wiring says that you are normally a happy and optimistic person, you will begin to actually think that this is a normal place to be. That can be great, but it can also make it harder to notice when something special comes along. Even more problematic, if you start to feel depressed, this can hit you really hard.

Imagine how hard life can be if we’re in a place where we have grown used to being anxious. Those feelings of anxiety and/or depression can become just background noise. It has become so normal to have those feelings that we forget to imagine life without them constantly making life harder on us than it needs to be.

True emotions require two parts: a portion of them is mental, and the other is physiological. Any emotion you have can be linked to a particular part of your body. For a great many people, their chest or stomach are go to areas to notice what’s going on.

As an exercise: imagine one of your favorite places in the world. Somewhere peaceful. Really take the time to picture it in detail. Breathe in the image. Put yourself in it. Does your chest feel a little lighter? Is it easier to breathe?

This is why we have to pay attention to our bodies. When I get hit in the head hard, I immediately begin to diagnose myself for any kind of internal head trauma. I use my noggin for work and it’s crucial that I keep it in good working order.

If I’m getting frequent headaches without the head trauma, I should consider that the physical pain might be connected to an emotional one as well. If I only get headaches when thinking about work or interacting with another person, it may be the result of a higher than normal level of anxiety (or anger) related to that person.

What we often see in therapy is a heavy weight centered in the chests or stomachs of our clients. The emotional burden materializes as a physical one as well. You should take the time to do an inventory of those physical sensations with an eye towards how your mood is affecting you.

By engaging in this mindfulness exercise, you can work towards preventing and correcting negative emotions rather than having to live with them.

Take the time to close your eyes and go through your inventory of physical sensations.

• Is there a pain in your head?

• Maybe a tightening of your jaw?

• How about your shoulders?

• Back?

• Are your hands aching?

• Chest and stomach?

• Legs? Feet?

Learning to tie those pains to what is happening to you emotionally is an excellent start to reducing the amount of daily pain you live with.