MWDEP47
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[00:00:00] Welcome to Move With Deb. I'm Deb your friendly neuroplastician. And this is a podcast that explores the relationship between the body and the mind from a health at every size, judgment, free perspective. I teach you how developing a new internal conversation based on curiosity, self friendship and simple neuro-plasticity techniques can rewire your bodymind out of pain and emotional overwhelm to help you build the rich full life that you want to live. Disclaimer, this is not a replacement for medical care.
[00:00:50] Hello, and welcome to Move With Deb, The Podcast. This is a special episode about how to process an emotion. Sometimes I talk about these ideas, but I don't know that I've shown it to you. Maybe it will work and maybe it won't work on a podcast. Sometimes what I like to do is listen to something first before I practice it. So that then when I am practicing it, my mind is more like remembering what it had already heard so it has a sense of familiarity. Sometimes what happens is when I'm trying to do a practice and also listening to something for the first time, my brain is kind of in its thinking mode kind of can't get into the body feeling mode. So that's one strategy I invite you to take with this work is to just listen to it first and then listen to it a second time being ready to practice.
[00:02:05] So let's have you sit or lay down someplace where you feel comfortable, someplace where you feel maybe held by the space that you're in. So maybe be in a place that is quiet. Where you can close your door, or you can have a sense of allowing yourself to just be in the moment with yourself. So maybe that means having a journal with you or some tissues or some water, or your favorite stuffed animal.
[00:02:42] And you can have your eyes open or your eyes closed. And I just want to check into your body. Just go inside your body. How I like to do that is close my eyes, kind of sink into the inside of me. And then if I'm not already working on a thought or feeling or a sensation in my body that I'm trying to get curious with, I might just look for an area of tension. Just let myself sink into that like a comfortable sofa. What we're looking to do is create some relaxed curiosity with the sensations in our body.
[00:03:29] The first thing we can do is just say hello. Maybe say hello, tension in my sternum. Feels like some gurgling, burbling brook of water flowing over rocks. So little bit of a bumpy quality tension along the sides of my sternum where it meets my ribs. It feels slightly constricted and tight. I have the sense of holding and not wanting to let go. The sense of the, it feels like hiding. Maybe it feels just like something rigid. I know earlier when I described it as a brook burbling over rocks. And actually when I think about it that way, it starts to move that tension starts to flow.
[00:04:37] Don't forget to breathe in this this process of looking in. Just want to look in with curiosity and a sense of safety. Feeling held by the chair or the floor or the bed. You're being held by the air and the gravity. Maybe you feel held by my love for you from my voice. I am here and I'm wishing you well.
[00:05:08] So as you sink in to this sensation, just follow it with your attention. Even if it feels scary, can we hang out next to it? Like when you're trying to sit next to an anxious cat, you might just sit next to it and be still. Breathe and then let the cat know that we are safe to be with. So when you meet that sensation or tension or emotion in your body, you can let it know that you are safe to be with. You're curious that you want to know.
[00:05:55] Maybe that sensation or emotion has something that it wants you to know. We can just listen with the sense of openness and an invitation to just be heard. To let ourselves be heard by ourselves.
[00:06:20] So you can follow that sensation or that tension or that emotion in your body. Maybe it moves around. Maybe it has a color.
[00:06:32] When it moves around, we can be curious and say, oh, I noticed that that tension that was in my sternum moved around, oh now it's in my right shoulder. Oh, hello, right shoulder. I feel you.
[00:06:48] It's a little bit of a pinching sensation, a little slight burning. It's moving up the right side towards my neck. And there's a way in which I feel like that's telling me don't move. There's some danger here. And of course I am watching, and I know that I am sitting in a chair or laying on the floor or laying in a bed and there is no danger. I am safe. That I am whole, and I am well. And I can send love to that part of my neck, that is burning to the shoulder that is throbbing and invite it to just relax. I invite the shoulder to finish sending me a message and say message heard. Good job shoulder. Thank you for delivering that to me. I appreciate you. Just smile into that part of my body, sending love and care. I'm just following along any particular sensation. Maybe if it takes on a color, just noticing the color,how does that color make you feel? Does that color change? Does it get brighter or duller? It's not that these things have any particular meaning to them, not trying to understand why it's a particular color.
[00:08:44] There's nothing really to understand. This is the normal process of the mind and body communicating with each other.
[00:08:57] Can this be fun? Can this be curious? Can this be playful? Can this be time for you to be with you without trying to fix anything? Can this be time for you to just say hello to all the parts of you? The parts that are doing well, the parts that are hurting.
[00:09:24] And just let you know that you're listening.
[00:09:37] Spend some time with your breath.
[00:09:40] Just deepening,slowing your breath in.
[00:09:46] And then releasing the breath out
[00:09:52] and again, breathing in, maybe through the nose, the relaxed belly,
[00:10:02] and just releasing the breath out through the mouth.
[00:10:07] Let's come back to the feeling, the sensation of your body, meeting the chair, meeting the floor or the bed that it's on. Maybe start to wiggle a little bit back and forth.
[00:10:24] Just going to start to come out of that experience of processing our emotion and allowing it to be felt . Maybe you felt some anger, maybe you felt sadness or grief.
[00:10:42] All feelings are welcome. All feelings are allowed to be felt.
[00:10:49] If your eyes have been closed, I invite you to open your eyes. To look around the room. To look at something that delights you, that makes you smile. I'm looking at my coat that makes me look like cookie monster that I bought at Ross for $15. I really love that coat. So I'm looking at that coat and remembering how warm and fuzzy I feel in that coat and enjoying the smile that I have when I look at it.
[00:11:39] Allowing myself come back to this present moment, in this room, with my coat and myself and all of my feelings.
[00:11:50] And maybe you want to journal, or if you're feeling activated or agitated, sometimes what's really great to do after this process is just move around. Let your body move, fling your arms around stomp your feet. Be here. Let your eyes find something that is great to look at. Focus on it. Listen to something that you enjoy.
[00:12:21] Choose to feel the life force flowing through you. And you are safe. You are not in danger.
[00:12:30] And so I hope that helps that as a practice, one of many, there are so many different ways to do this. So don't get hung up if this one didn't work for you today.
[00:12:44] And if this didn't do it for you, there are a million body scans or somatic tracking meditations for emotional processing out there. Or if you give me feedback, I can even try to record it in a different way. But my suggestion also is to try to put down the judgment brain, put down the, am I doing it right brain. Put down the, well, last time this happened, I am comparing the different times brain. And just let yourself have a unique experience in this moment. That is also a useful skill to practice. Thank you so much for listening. I am so glad to be here with you. Take care.
