Unprocessed Emotion
Ever have racing thoughts when you're trying to go to sleep? That's likely because you're trapped in your head. If you can bring your awareness down to the level of your emotion, you may be able to release whatever energy is stuck there by emoting. Once that energy is gone, you'll be able to sleep.
One exercise I use to disembark the "train of thought" before falling asleep is to do a progressive muscle relaxation body scan. This is where you relax your mind and body by progressively tensing and relaxing muscle groups throughout your entire body. I usually start with the top of head and work my way down to the bottom of my feet. Sometimes I just bring awareness to each part of my body and purposefully relax it without tensing it- it's really up to you to determine what works best for you. It is a great way for me to focus my thoughts on experiencing the present moment instead of getting stuck mulling over the events of my day or things I need to accomplish tomorrow.
ReplyDeleteHere is link to a script that might be helpful: https://www.law.berkeley.edu/files/Progressive_Muscle_Relaxation.pdf
Sometimes I find that it helps to pop in my earbuds and listen to someone else guiding me through this process. I have a few CDs by Mary Maddux that work well for this. She has a very soothing voice and the music is nice and mellow.
Here is one of her meditations called called "Deep Rest Guided Meditation" on youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H5FQYqF0u24
Tension is who you think you should be. Relaxation is who you are. - Chinese Proverb
Sweet dreams...
Those are both excellent tools and I have used both of them at different times. Thank you for posting them. I'll add the links to the list on the right.
DeleteThat said, I think those tools are for when you are unable to release the energy of emotion, which can happen to anyone. The emotion is still there, pushing your thoughts, but you train or guide your mind to a place of stillness. Incredibly valuable, but different from what I intended. I was attempting to comment on the process of releasing the energy of emotion itself, so as to not need to use these other tools. Mostly what I should have stated more clearly is that there is a direct connection between unreleased emotion and the train of thought/racing thoughts/hyper-intellectualism. I hope that is a little clearer.
Thank you so much for your comment.
Yes, I agree that there is a direct relationship between unreleased emotion and racing thoughts: emotional energy doesn't leave your body (and can wreak havoc) until it is expressed... as emotion. I guess I didn't make the connection to emotional expression in my comment. :)
DeleteAs we live life and fulfill our daily responsibilities, it is inevitable that some emotional repression occurs. The energy from that emotion increases and morphs to be expressed into irritability, tense muscles, racing thoughts, migraine headaches, etc. If left unresolved, the energy may even take the form of addictions or disease.
So I use the body scan as a tool to release excess emotions by working backward through the morphing process. By taking energy from racing thoughts to the present moment; and bringing awareness to physical tension and releasing it through relaxation, I am able to get to the underlying emotions. Once there, I can then give myself compassion and permission to express them at that time.
I also agree that after having used the body scan and other tools over a long period of time, I can sometimes skip it and go straight to expressing, but it took me a long time of practice to get to that point.
Great comment. That's a deep and nuanced understanding of the mechanics of emotion and how emotion interacts with the body and mind. I agree with everything you wrote. I intend to write a post at some point about your second paragraph. That's how emotions affect us all at the societal level and is incredibly important to understand. Thanks for taking the time to write up that comment. I truly appreciate it.
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