Oakville Zen Meditation
MInd-body connection: how to explore your emotions by reading your body
Oriental and Zen Buddhism consider the Mind and Body as an unbreakable single unit in which each part affects the other one continuously and at different degrees. Body functions, thoughts, and emotions are the jobs of our subconscious and conscious mind. If thinking does not affect our body, our emotions greatly impact it - automatically, continuously at various degrees. Being the material reflection of the subconscious mind, our body becomes also “emotional” even before this emotion becomes conscious. Our body is a great proxy of our mind, and vice versa.
Research has shown that all emotions, still at the subconscious level and therefore not yet perceived consciously modify immediately the biochemistry of our body and induce numerous reactions.
These reactions, acute or chronic, are automatic reflexes, out of our control, and therefore unavoidable. They vary in location and intensity.
Here is the list of most current body manifestations revealing a subliminal emotional imbalance.
Obviously, if these symptoms persist or are recurrent, a medical checkup is required.
Physical signs: frequent & easy to discover.
Pain ( headache, neck, back), muscle stiffness, skin lesions, fast/shallow breathing, constipation,
Changing appetite, fatigue, fast heart rate, stomach upset.
Mental:
Mood swings, irritability, feeling tense, feeling constantly being on the edge, anxiety, depression.
Feeling overwhelmed by routine tasks.
Cognitive:
Difficulty of concentration, attention, racing thoughts.
Behavioral:
Irritability, impatience, difficulty sleeping including the well-known insomnia, and appetite changes.
Weakened immune system.
How to find out what is wrong with our emotional status?
Body reading requires good practice if you want to assess your subliminal emotions that have yet to be perceived mentally. There are several methods to “read” our bodies, such as scanning and yoga, but meditation is one of the most effective.
Discovering our emotions at the onset is important because being aware and observing our emotional status is the first step to controlling it.
Again, our body is a great proxy of our emotional mind. Once in a while, focus on how your body reacts to these ongoing subliminal emotions. How are you breathing? What about your heart rate? Do you have knots and butterflies in your stomach? Is your skin itching? Is your neck stiff? How is your intestinal transit? your libido? Etc. Observing an emotion in your body is the same principle as observing a thought during meditation. The only difference is that, instead of having a thought appearing in your head while meditating, an emotion is materialized in your body. If you practice body scanning, all that unconscious feeling may/will be brought into the light of consciousness.
Conclusion:
Most of our emotions start in our subconscious mind and then affect our body before reaching our conscious mind. To discover and control your emotions, remember this staging process:
1) Reading the body to search for proxy signs. 2 )Awareness of the possible subliminal emotion if that search is positive, then 3) Acceptance, and finally, 4) Phasing out mindfully. Thanks
