“Everything you experience becomes a part of you”
Christopher “Hareesh” Wallis
Mind and Body; 2 Sides of the Same Coin:
On the last page I gave you a few common examples of how the physical body affects your thoughts and emotions; here I will give you a few examples of how your thoughts and emotions affect your physical body:
- Have you ever felt physically drained and fatigued after a high stress day even though you didn’t actually do a lot?
- Have you noticed that when you feel “down,” depressed, bored, or unfulfilled that you also lack the energy to get up and do something physical?
- The feeling of extreme exhaustion after expressing grief or sadness such as after the dead of a loved one.
- The feeling of energy, vitality, and mental clarity that comes along with excitement and joy.
Thoughts and Emotions and Their Effect on the Physical Body:
Your thoughts and emotions effect the physical body in a similar way as do your choices in food and lifestyle. They do this primarily by using resources needed elsewhere and they can also inhibit the bodys ability to detox itself by stopping the flow of energy.
All thoughts, feelings, and emotions can drain away Yin and Blood as well as contribute to the creation of excess Heat, however in chronic anxiety there are some emotions that are more likely to cause problems than others.
Let’s start with those that drain the body:
- Unexpressed, repressed, or buried grief or sadness is the most common emotional “drainer.”
- It is important to note here that there are no “bad” emotions, the way that sadness and grief “drain” the body is by absorbing energy that could be circulating elsewhere. Once the emotion is “resolved” that energy is released and kickstarts the healing process.
- This emotion most often presents physically with a feeling of emptyness or hollowness in the chest.
- Sadness also includes feelings of regret, such as regretting a certain action or decision you made in the past.
- This emotion is commonly seen in break ups of relationships or marriage, death or loss of a loved one. In other words sadness and grief are primarily about a sense of loss.
- Another common “drainer” comes from a constant state of worry.
- This emotion most often presents with feelings of tension in the body, typically in the solar plexus or in the neck and shoulders.
- Worry is often experienced as a state of thought; excessively worrying about and thinking of trivial everyday activities, feeling often in a hurry to get things done and pressed for time.
- This emotion is often also seen with digestive symptoms such as bloating, loose stools, and fatigue.
Emotions that create excess “Heat”:
- ANY emotion that is constantly avoided, repressed, or ignored will overtime create Heat. This is actually the most common cause of chronic Heat in the body with symptoms such as insomnia, anxiety, dry mouth, and thirst.
- There are 2 specific emotions that can cause Heat quickly and directly without being repressed, avoided, or ignored.
- Pensiveness
- This is most easily understood as being over-identified with the thoughts generated by the mind. This is another HUGE topic that I will delve into in future posts in this category.
- Feelings of being “lost in thought”, constantly thinking and planning, replaying stories over and over again in your mind are all examples of this “emotion.”
- Many people struggling with this “emotion” are generally thinking intensely about life rather than living it. I see it most often in people who are more Type A personality with a great deal of mental work put into their job or study.
- This “emotion” tends to cause feelings of tension especially in the solar plexus and is often also at the root of digestive symptoms such as constipation or acid reflux.
- Pensiveness
- Craving, Desire, or Grasping
- This is perhaps the most overlooked emotion I find in my office and also one of the most prolific. This is a HUGE topic that I will delve into in future posts in this category.
- Craving is simply a desire for more or a tendency to grasp after pleasurable experiences. Common thoughts here would be:
- I can’t wait until…
- I’ll feel better when…
- I just need to get some more…then i’ll feel safe…
- You may find yourself frequently wanting new objects, new recognition, or new experiences. Finding yourself wanting more is a sign of craving.
- This is perhaps the most important mental state to learn to recognize and “process.” It both directly creates Heat and simultaneously drains the body of energy. It is the most common emotion I see especially when someone has confusing symptoms such as cold hands and feet but feeling hot in the face and chest or restlessness combined with fatigue and exhaustion.
Last but not least…fear:
As you would likely suspect the emotion of fear is ALWAYS present in anxiety. This is yet another HUGE topic that I will delve into in future posts in this category but there is 1 very important aspect of fear I would like you to become aware of today because it has tremendous potential to radically change your relationship with anxiety.
Fear is tied very closely with avoidance. Whenever we experience something uncomfortable we have a tendency to push it away or avoid it. It could be another emotion or feeling, a particular place or person, a food or situation, there are so many possibilities. When people avoid things in “unhealthy” ways they might smoke, drink, or stress eat and when people avoid things in “healthy” ways they become addicted to therapies such as EFT, EMDR, Emotional Release, Counseling, and others.
Here is the deal; avoidance is still avoidance, and the more you avoid something the stronger the fear response becomes. Almost every person I have ever worked with in the clinic who is struggling with chronic anxiety is in a state of constant avoidance.
Up Last: How to Use This New Found Knowledge of Your Emotions to Move Towards a Better “State of Mind”
