What is an emotion?
This is such a beautiful question to ask,
Because it opens the door out of our heads and egoic problems and challenges,
And opens a trailhead down into our bodies that we get to explore and follow as we become embodied leaders.
What is an emotion?
My favorite definition of an emotion came from Dr.
Eve Ekman and her research with the on what do emotions researchers agree on.
And they couldn't even really define what an emotion is,
And so I want to leave space for the mystery.
When it comes to your embodied practice,
An emotion is a physical sensation that's happening on or in the body that the mind is consciously or subconsciously aware of,
That is sending a message from the body up to the brain,
Telling the brain that something important is happening to the body's well-being.
Let's just take a deep,
Long,
Slow breath in our noses and out our mouths.
Let's open to receive our next breath in our nose.
What is an emotion?
An emotion is a physical sensation that is happening on or in our bodies that our mind is consciously or subconsciously aware of,
That is sending a message from the body up to the brain,
Telling the brain that something important is happening to the body's well-being.
What a wonderful,
Wonderful definition of an emotion that we get to explore as we discover tools and skills to get out of our heads the protective patterns that we have developed,
To learn how to get into our bodies so that we can learn how to respond to the challenges in our lives and relationships in more empowering ways so we can thrive and flourish and contribute and collaborate with the world,
With the environment.
And so I'll say it again,
An emotion is a physical sensation.
It's happening in our bodies,
It's not in our head,
That the mind is consciously or subconsciously aware of.
Wait,
What?
The mind is consciously or subconsciously aware of?
So as we learn to slow down,
As we learn to arrive,
As we learn practices after we arrive to get out of our heads and into our bodies,
Full body breathing,
As we learn to bring awareness out of the recent past or out of the potential future and learn how to bring our awareness of our awareness into the body to seek sensation,
We are becoming aware of a sensation that's maybe happening in the body below our conscious awareness before.
Was it happening already?
And now we are getting in touch with it,
We are becoming aware of it.
So just for an example of this,
What's going on in your left earlobe right now?
What's going on in your chin or your right pinky toe?
Do you notice that it takes a second to bring your awareness into your right pinky toe?
And then do you have the interoceptive capacity to feel your right pinky toe?
Or has your awareness been projected out in front of you through your eyes into the environment to stay safe,
To predict what's coming next?
Because this is how we've adapted.
And so an emotion is a physical sensation that's happening on or in the body.
But the mind is consciously or subconsciously aware of.
What is the mind?
Are we the mind?
Are we the body?
What a beautiful question to be asking.
When I first started asking these questions,
What was offered to me was a beautiful phrase.
I am that which is experiencing.
I am that which is experiencing.
I am not my emotions.
I'm experiencing my life through my emotions.
I'm not my thoughts.
I'm experiencing my life through thoughts.
I'm not my body.
I'm experiencing my life through the body.
And discovering that I have been living most of my life through my head.
Disembodied.
Which is adaptive.
Which is constructive for survival.
Which is what we learn to do as we develop language and object orientation.
As we discover and develop a sense of our small self.
Of our identity.
Of who we think we are.
So that we can be a part of relationships in the world.
And jobs and teams.
But we forget.
That we are not just these things.
That we are in fact so much more.
And so emotions are physical sensations that are happening on or in the body.
The mind is consciously or subconsciously aware of.
That they're sending a message from the body up to the brain.
Letting the brain know that something important is happening to the body's well-being.
And so when we get to this and we start to ask well wait.
Are there good emotions and are there bad emotions?
There are no bad or good emotions.
There are only constructive or destructive responses to an emotional experience.
We start to realize that emotions can be suppressed.
Which means I'm aware of the emotion.
And I've actively done something to push it down or away.
Or to move away from it.
Or emotions can be repressed.
Which means I'm not aware that the emotion is there.
The mind is consciously or subconsciously aware of that emotional experience.
Meaning this emotion can be locked on or in the body.
From the process of surviving to get to the place where we are today.
To where we could be discovering this.
And that repression is non-conscious.
And so emotions are physical sensations that are happening on or in the body.
Which means that an emotion starts as a sensation.
The beginning of an emotion being a sensation means that as we come into the body.
As we practice arriving.
Coming into the body.
Connecting down into the earth in our somatic meditation practice or somatic practice.
Then exhaling and breathing.
Inhaling up from the earth.
Unfolding the body's posture.
Becoming a container that can hold.
That can open and relax into something.
Into the ground.
We can start to relax that character armor.
That body armor.
That we've collected in order to be able to survive.
And then we can learn how to rest in that experience.
That something to experience.
That internal pool of peace.
That unconditioned quality.
That can only be felt in the body.
Not thought.
It's named something to experience.
Because if I named that sensation.
With an emotion term.
Somehow I would be identifying with it.
It has this unconditional felt quality.
And so this is one of the reasons why somatic practices.
Learning to develop the felt sense.
Is so incredibly transformative.
We start to develop a seat of awareness.
That's not contingent on these conditioned qualities.
That we have developed in order to fit in.
Or in order to survive.
And then in doing so something is developed.
Something is some type of capacity.
Some skill.
Some ability to respond.
To hold.
To be with the experience of life as it is.
Without aversion.
Or attraction.
Or avoidance.
Or addiction.
The ability to meet the moment.
With skill.
And attunement.
And so an emotion is a physical sensation.
That's happening on or in the body.
The mind is consciously or subconsciously aware of.
And it's sending.
This signal.
From the body up to the brain.
Letting the brain know.
That something important is happening to the body's well-being.
In this signal.
Is neuroception.
And our nervous system is scanning the environment.
Inside of our body and outside of our body.
Looking for subtle cues.
Is this a threat?
Is this a threat?
And if we don't know if it's not a threat.
It's adaptive to predict that it might be a threat.
In order to survive to get to where we are today.
And so this capacity.
To notice sensation or tension.
To realize.
Through an embodied practice.
That there is a subtle non-conscious cue.
Of threat.
In the body.
And this might then trigger an emotion.
And a feeling about that emotion.
And then a judgment.
And then a story or an attitude.
Or a mood.
And then a particular way of seeing the world in a belief system.
From the bottom up.
Sensation.
Emotion.
Feeling.
Thought.
Mood or attitude.
Judgments.
Stories.
And beliefs.
Ways of seeing the world.
From the bottom up.
This cascade of embodied sensation.
Going from the body up to the brain.
And then we.
I am that which is experiencing.
Are coming into awareness.
Of this.
And learning to befriend.
And to attend.
And to shape.
And to integrate.
And to connect.
To befriend.
Those sensations.
And emotions.
And feelings.
And thoughts.
And moods.
Judgments.
Stories.
With the ability to calm.
And to soothe.
And to tend.
And to mend.
To what is happening on or in our bodies.
And so an emotion is this physical sensation.
It's happening on or in our bodies.
The sensations are happening all of the time.
Below our conscious awareness.
And we are learning.
To develop the skill of getting out of our heads.
And to come into the body.
And through the process of survival.
To get to where we are today.
To where we could be having this discussion.
We are learning to come into the body.
And as we do that.
We find out that the body is an entire landscape.
A vast territory.
Of tension.
And that maybe it hasn't been safe.
We haven't realized how to be in the body.
But as we come into the body.
And we start to.
Learn to be with what it is that we are experiencing.
Whether that's.
Sensations.
Or particular emotions.
Or just emotional residue.
Or numbness.
Or emptiness.
Or traumas.
We develop this capacity.
To slowly.
But surely to be able to learn to be with.
That experience.
And when we get to this edge.
Of meeting that moment.
Something really profound happens.
We discover that.
Wanting an experience to be different than it is in the body.
Can be a negative experience.
We maybe move toward it.
Too quickly.
And try to fix it.
Or try to change it.
Or we try to move away from it.
But somehow.
When we practice in an embodied way.
Rather than an intellectual way.
Top down.
We learn to bring awareness.
To something.
Or into something.
Into the sensation.
And when this happens.
We realize that.
This.
Discovery of there are no good or bad emotions.
There are only constructive or destructive responses to an emotional experience.
Opens us up.
To this profound shift.
Where being able to be with that experience as it is.
Turns into a positive experience.
And this is where we start to realize that.
Love.
Is not an emotion.
Because love is the ability or the capacity to be with any and all emotions as they are.
And in one way.
One.
Particular situated view of this.
Is that self.
The qualities of the embodied self.
The capacity to come into the body.
And to befriend.
And to attend.
And to shape.
And to integrate.
And to connect out into the world.
The qualities of the embodied self.
Which are developed through this process.
Of attunement.
And responsiveness.
How similar.
Are those to the qualities.
Of love.
I am.
That which is experiencing.
I am.
Loving awareness.
But then we realize.
That we have all of these ideas.
Of what love is.
Love is attraction.
Love is getting our needs met.
Love is how we were nurtured.
Whether.
It was good for us.
Or not.
It's what we know.
Because that's what feels safe.
Because anything new.
Can be unsafe.
So as we discover.
That emotions are physical sensations.
That are happening on or in the body.
That are sending a message.
From the body up to the brain.
Letting the brain know.
That something important is happening.
To the body's well-being.
And that we are experiencing our life.
Through.
The body.
That we.
Have to practice.
We have to learn.
To turn toward the body.
Because the first part of our life.
We develop language.
And our attention is outside of the body.
To survive.
It's not something that needs to be fixed.
It's incredible.
This.
Is a wonderful question.
To be asking.
What.
Is an emotion?
Thank you so much.
For.
Following along in this journey today.
My name is Chris Wilson.
I'm a somatic psychology master's degree student.
At California Institute of Integral Studies.
And an integral development coach.
May your practice continue.
For the good of yourself.
And all things.
And may you get what you're looking for.
Thank you.
