We’ve learnt to attach a meaning to how we experience things within ourselves and even more so since self development is on trend.
Let me give you an example. If someone is telling me that I am far too sensitive/too intense/too much or whatever, I might get upset or feel hurt. I therefore have a mental and emotional reaction to these words and start creating a story about what it means about me, my relationships and so on.
Your mind is taking over by making you think “why have they said that about me?” or “They shouldn’t have said that, it isn’t a nice thing to say”. After digesting the first reaction, you may start asking yourself “why was I so upset by them telling me I am too sensitive?”.
You might even start torturing yourself trying to find an explanation to what happened and how you felt. Why can’t you just get over this?
Well, you can’t just get over this because your mind wants to understand and create a story out of what you felt. The mind’s inability to process your feelings on certain occasions is a trigger - it’s a way to show you that there’s something within you that wants to be healed, a part of self that wants to be re-integrated so you can embody your authentic self more fully.
Once you reintegrate that little missing piece of yourself, you may experience it as a Ah-Ah moment. Your energy shifts and the story you had created in your mind changes. You make peace with the event and move on with a greater self awareness.
Triggers help you grow but there’s another way to process them and investigate these clues than through the stories we create in our minds.
Instead of focusing on “why did a painful story happen?”, we can start by noticing the energy shift the event has created within ourselves. In other words, feel rather than think by bringing your awareness to the body rather than the mind.
By remaining on the physical level, you let your energy flow and the body heals itself - which is what it does best.
In every situation we experience, we have a mental reaction, an emotional reaction and a physical reaction. By choosing to focus on the physical reaction rather than focusing on the story created in our mind or the emotion we’re experiencing, we simply experience a cellular sensation, an energy shift.
We’ve now scientifically established the body-mind connection and we understand how intense or repressed emotions may create psychosomatic reactions. As an example, we see a very close relationship between the way we digest thought and emotions with the way we digest our food.
As a highly sensitive person, experiencing very intense emotions, I know I am subject to digestive issues when I’m going through challenging times emotionally.
As much as repressed emotions can cause problems on a physical level, you may support yourself emotionally by concentrating on the physical level.
You no longer have to get caught up in ruminating thoughts but rather rely on your physical sensations to help your energy flow. You will prevent energy blocks from being created in your energy field and fasten the integrations of your missing pieces when noticing a trigger.
How can you go about it?
Get back into your body
Your body knows before your mind does. The nervous system, your somatic body, doesn’t think. It simply sends signals to react and help you live a happier life.
You can physically sense when someone is watching you, when something is off, someone is angry, when you’re in your element…
Practice mindfulness and start noticing what happens on the physical level.
Start asking yourself, where am I feeling this instead of why.
Restore the energy flow
As you notice a physical shift in your body, try and locate it. Where am I sensing it? Where is my energy moving?
When this person said something, where did my body response manifest? Is it in the chest? Is it in my gut? Is it a tension in my shoulders?...
Then, ask yourself which primary chakra is the closest: I sensed a reaction in my chest so it will be associated with the heart chakra.
You may then decide to take a few deep breaths focusing on that area and allowing your energy to circulate more freely. You may also decide to focus your yoga practice, your reiki treatment or your meditation on opening the heart chakra to release any stagnant energy there and peacefully integrate the new information into your system.
Keep practicing !
Although this might feel unnatural at first, as you deepen your practice your intuitive nature will get stronger and you will feel more and more confident in your authentic self knowing where your path is. You will also strengthen your overall energy flow and therefore be healthier, stronger and at peace with yourself and your environment.
These are some of the things we learn through our holistic programmes. Let’s chat?
Recommended books : “the energy codes” by Dr Sue Morter; “the body keeps the score” by Bessel van der Kolk