Today’s courageous heart practice is how to navigate challenging emotions with a body storm. Woot!
The Body Storm is an embodied spiritual practice to explore and express a spectrum of emotions. This movement and breath practice helps to reduce stress and clear trauma in times of uncertainty and challenge.
Emotions are often classified as pleasant, neutral, or challenging emotions.
In times of uncertainty and challenge (like the current 2020-21 global pandemic) you can be resistant to feel extremes on either side. You may have a story in our head that says, “Oh, I can’t feel happy because terrible things are happening in the world.” Or “I don’t want to feel afraid or angry because that isn’t productive. I don’t want to feel those emotions.”
Embodied Practice to Navigate Challenging Emotions
Your mind can make up stories about why you can’t or shouldn’t feel what you feel. But when you resist your emotions, the emotions get stuck in our body, mind and heart and can cause physical, mental, emotional or spiritual problems.
The courageous heart body storm practice is about moving your emotions, to feel more comfortable, or at least more familiar with uncomfortable emotions and stop resisting feeling what you feel.
I practice first thing in the morning to get moving it only takes 5 minutes and makes a world of difference.
Body Storm Practice emotions example: anger, joy, sadness, love, fear, compassion, disgust and wonder.
You can try the practice with these emotions, or you can make your own list. Be sure to practice with a variety of emotions, including some you are uncomfortable expressing. Pick at least five or six emotions and practice within a broad spectrum, pleasant emotions to challenging emotions, ok?
Notice which ones that make you feel uncomfortable, because that’s the practice, is to move the energy of all emotions.
Emotions are energy in motion = e-motions.
Moving the energy of emotions is the focus of this practice. With regular practice moving the energy of emotions through our body, you won’t get stuck, act out or hurt yourself or other people when you feel intense emotions.
The Body Storm Practice is Clearing your Body and Mind of stuck or difficult emotions to enjoy open-hearted soul expression
For example: if you feel angry with a friend, during the body storm you can feel and move the energy, journal to clarify what you want to express and then have a clear and powerful conversation with the person you’re angry with instead of saying something hurtful which is much harder to repair later.
Try this practice out and let me know how it goes in the comments below and add questions there too!
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