Awareness and the Body as an Emotional Vessel
Awareness and the Body as an Emotional Vessel
There are times in our lives when certain themes appear. When we discuss the same things with different groups of people, or we read an article about something we were just thinking about, or a song comes on the radio with lyrics that relate to this theme. If you pay attention to these themes when they show up, they can offer a lot of insight. They can direct your attention to something specific. An area of your life that you should sit with.
For me, recently a theme like this has come up. A theme of fears and phobia that always ends up transitioning into a talk about the things we love as well. Almost as if the conversation is trying to seek balance with our words.
After visiting with a friend recently, on the drive home, I became lost in thought about this theme. During our visit, my friend, my husband, and I spoke about the relationship between emotions and bodily organs. How each organ processes different emotions and how this can manifest into symptoms within the body. Although I already knew this to be true, for some reason, on this specific day, driving home through the Oregon woods, testing different emotions within my own body, I validated this mind-body relationship even further.
As we drove, I began subtly bringing to mind my own fears. With these thoughts, I noticed how my posture changed and how I tensed up by simply thinking of them. Then, I continued to vaguely let my mind shift to how good things make me feel and witnessed the ease in my body and my posture became more relaxed. This validation really showed me how strong emotions can be and how hard it can be to face our fears and other strong emotions at times. How staying present with life and rooted in reality can be a key to a healthier mindset. That although this seems like a simple solution, it is hard for each and every one of us to do, even the people we know who are more advanced in their meditation in mindfulness techniques. But what if we can learn a happy medium with our emotions? By observing them and how we react to them, instead of seeking perfection.
In alchemy, we hear of different vessels. This is where things are mixed, stored, heated, cooled, and manipulated. Processes happen within these vessels and just like these glass containers, we go through many shifts and changes within our lifetime. We are very much a part of this process and just like different elements are added to these vessels, we experience different emotions that can shift our bodies significantly. We are the glass vessel within an organic body. A place for these emotions to be stored and processed. But where are these emotions stored, and how do the things we live through each day mutate within these vessels? That shows up differently for each of us.
In Classic Chinese Medicine, seven emotions affect the five internal organs. These emotions are grief, melancholy, fear, fright, anger, joy, and worry. They are stored within the heart, spleen, lung, kidney, and liver. The higher frequencies are stored in our heart as love and happiness, our spleen as trust and openness, our lungs as courage and righteousness, our kidneys as gentleness and tranquility, and our liver as kindness and generosity. And the lower frequency emotions are stored in our heart as hate and impatience, our spleen as worry and anxiety, our lungs as sadness and depression, our kidneys as fear and fright, and our liver as anger and frustration.
Chinese Medicine is just one way this relationship has been explored, but what if we could understand this relationship better on our own? With a more layman's view. Just through simple observance of how we feel in a situation, and how that shifts our body. Similar to how I did in the car when I tested how my body felt thinking about my own emotions
We can do this by staying more present and allowing ourselves to feel emotions as they show up. This may seem like an obvious answer, but it is not as easy as you may think. Within stillness, within nothing to do, within quiet, thoughts come up. Personally, guided meditation has been great for me as it helps me slow the mind, but it is guided. I know where to go next and I am keeping my mind busy. It is when my mind is slow and my body idle that I have trouble. The past bubbles up, and my body speaks to me more clearly. This can be hard for me, and I share because I know it is something that often comes up within sessions with clients too. All things take time, and being present with your thoughts can happen when you slowly relearn to listen to your body. It's better than any book you’ll ever read, it is a language of your own.
The meditation I am sharing below is a great way to access that presence. This is a meditation you can do outdoors, preferably somewhere in nature, and is a great way to practice full body awareness within the present moment. If going outside into nature isn’t accessible for you, you can use any way that works. Even if this meditation isn’t for you, try to take a minute to connect with yourself and your surroundings each day. A few moments to truly check in and see how you feel and what your body may be telling you. When we can connect to the present moment, we can begin to slowly connect inwards and check in with our bodies. Knowing we are safe and that we have set this time to specifically do so.
I hope this meditation finds you well and offers you stillness and connection to your mind and body by connecting with nature.
Until next time,
Annie
This week, I reached out to those of you who follow my artwork on Instagram reminding you that my weekly collective channelings and readings will now be on this platform in a private section. You can subscribe to this through a monthly or yearly rate at $5 a month or $50 a year. It is a more private part of the work that I do and will give you a better idea of how I work within sessions. I will send out this email each Friday unless otherwise noted. This is open to all, and I greatly appreciate everyone who has signed up already. Substack can be a bit confusing at first so if you have any questions about this, please email me at hello@annierosenberg.com.