Start with the Pause
When I was in treatment, they would constantly ask us what emotion we were feeling. Usually on a daily (sometimes hourly) basis, everyone would go around and label the emotion they were feeling in that moment, usually with no deeper context or explanation. I was the one always struggling to say just one label, to put my emotional state into one box and tending to announce or combine several different emotions.
When I really questioned how I was feeling, I could never pin it down to one emotion. So many experiences were swirling around inside of me at all times and when I brought my awareness to them, I was able to understand myself on a much deeper level. While this process sometimes seemed annoying at the time, I’m very grateful for it now. It has helped ingrain in me a deeper process of pause when it comes to how my emotional state interacts with me and my life at any given moment.
This practice of pause is something I still implement daily and I have yet to find someone who does not benefit from this practice. Although treatment and recovery have allowed me to put this into practice, I would not have the ability to do so without the tools Yoga and Yoga Therapy have given me. Whether you observe and label the experience of one emotion or several emotions within you, pausing to do so can change the way you interact with life.
Often we act without thinking. We act in alignment with the emotion we are experiencing in any given moment instead of acting in alignment with our true desires and intentions. We act without the awareness that it is our emotions running the show, and therefore without the ability to understand why we acted in the way that we did, or that we could have acted differently. Without awareness, our emotions are in the driver’s seat of our lives.
When we are able to pause and check in with ourselves before responding, we give ourselves the space for many different processes to be unearthed.
For one, we cultivate connection with ourselves through awareness and presence with our inner world. We also deepen our connection with the outer world because we can see more clearly what is going on around us. Being able to pause and label our emotions is so powerful. Not only does it get us to slow down and tune into what we’re feeling, it can shine light on how that is manifesting outwardly.
Through these true connections, we can understand our needs and are able to go about fulfilling those needs in appropriate ways. And, we can decide with intention how we want to act and be in the world around us.
We can act from a grounded and aligned place, not from an emotional, dysregulated or disconnected state. We are no longer living in autopilot, we are creating our lives with intention.
When we don’t understand our emotions, we may not understand why we are acting the way we are. When we can label our emotions, we can also separate them from us. So, instead of our brain believing - I am sadness, the belief becomes - I am experiencing sadness.
When you check in with yourself and your emotions, you are also given the opportunity to get to the root of the emotion. On some level you may feel and believe that you are experiencing anger, but underneath that anger the root emotion may be fear, or grief… and that is the real emotion running the show.
Ask yourself - what am I feeling? Ask yourself - is that the root emotion or is there something else beneath that? Ask yourself - how is this emotion manifesting in my life? Ask yourself - what does this emotion need?
At first, this process may take conscious effort and time. Slowly though, it becomes more natural and intuitive, something you often do without even realising.
Simply start with the pause. From there, everything else can be discovered.
And if you need help navigating your way through, please reach out!
