When the body speaks, listen

Foto: Giulia Squillace on Unsplash

Sunday Morning. I am sitting on the sofa, ready to write something meaningful for my blog. Everything is prepared, my double Espresso waits on the table, topics are lined up, notepad on my lap, fingers and mind eager to write. The coffee tastes bad!  Is this the moment to change my mind? Can I stop and do something else? Do the washing? Go for a walk?

I am feeling urge to do just that. But I pause, savoring my grumpiness.  I feel my face cringing in disgust, tastebuds are firing bitterly with the experience, a heavy feeling in the stomach, I can't believe it. So much drama for nothing! Just a sip of something and the body shoots while the mind wants to go somewhere else.  

There is communication happening all the time. Something occurs, spurring a reaction. If the reaction is uncomfortable, we want "reality" to change: the coffee should taste amazing, the noise should stop, the sun should not shine so hot!

We might get into blame, even anger; there might be stress, impatience... maybe the stomach starts to hurt, we want to move, distract. We start to tell ourselves stories, how bad it all is, how this should be different or that. And all the time we are ignoring the true message:

"Just stop for a moment and feel! Feel what is going on in your body. All of it. Just for a moment!!”  

Thousands of stories might be underlying this reaction, and they can all be valuable, interesting, fascinating to tell and indulge in. Each story could be a whole book to be written. But why not just feel?

This body of yours is telling you a story in its own words. Feel it like music. Listen and listen more, listen deeper. There is the vibration of music, there is emotion, let yourself be in tune and present to the sensations.

Give yourself space, this is serious! You are not telling yourself a story, you are not making this up. This is happening and it is for you, a gift, an epic tale of unprocessed experiences. Listen to the symphony. There is a beginning and an end, savor it .... and then -

LET IT GO."

It is a simple process but not necessarily that easy. It can hurt; it takes time and patience. It is not about memories, projections, tales about our life but just the sensations in our body.

The Value of processing emotions

Supposedly emotions are leaving our body within approximately 90 seconds. But this is not my experience. In my experience sensations are all over the body, some leave quickly, others don't. They can feel like stabs, or tight pressure, there can be a choking sensation, or nervous twitches. It can be intense. They are our physical response to about anything, a sound, a taste, a thought... So, it is no wonder that we are distracting ourselves as much as we do. Experiencing can be distressing.

Isn't it somewhat interesting that we don't want to feel our own emotional drama but are ready to indulge a big range of sensations when watching a movie, reading a novel, or following the news. Unfortunately, our heavy emotions don't leave our system in those ways. While we could process the emotions whenever they come up, we usually prefer to surf on the emotional wave. The cocktail our body produces can even make us addicted to the rush. Why else would some people love horror movies or indulge shocking news so much?

We can remind ourselves from time to time that our lives could be much more balanced and peaceful if we would process our hurts and pains just by witnessing the passionate requiem playing out in our bodies and letting it lovingly go. We learn to be patient, we learn to understand, we learn to be compassionate, we learn to let go - finally.