Recently, a close friend got very ill. She was taken to the hospital and she stayed there for quite some time. The doctors could find no physical reason for her illness, even after multiple tests, one seeming more complicated than the other. After two painful weeks of acute anxiety and fleeting hope for healing, she was dismissed from the hospital. Much debating went on in her household until she finally agreed to alternative medicine. She opted for energy healing and called a wonderfully wise woman to her home. Before Angela (as the wise woman shall be called) even took a look at her patient, she perceived “dirty” energy flowing through the room. My friend was instructed to cleanse the room before energy work could take place. The necessary steps were taken and both the room and my friend were made ready for healing. Angela attempted several different forms of energy work before she concluded that the illness was not energy based. She advised my friend to seek professional help, mainly a councillor or a psychologist. My friend went through several sessions of counselling before she noticed that her symptoms started disappearing. The problem seems to have been emotional in origin. And this is but one of countless examples of how emotional well being influences the overall well being of an individual.

I would like to share several wonderful tips that can help prevent the deterioration of health due to emotional imbalance:

Be aware of your emotional processes.

Each individual has different ways of reacting and different way of experiencing emotions. It is important for all to know how these processes work. By understanding these processes, one may be able to ensure balanced emotional life and promote health on different levels of being.

Questions:
What are the emotions I most frequently feel?
Is there a flow to my emotions?
Am I holding back on any emotions?
Are there any emotions that are linked and often come together (like anger and sadness)?
Are there situations, places, or words that inspire intense emotions? What are they?

Emotional association

Emotional association means associating an image, a sound, or a smell to a particular emotion. The following is an exercise that can help choose personalised associations:

Chose a comfortable environment. It is preferable that this exercise be done alone, as some empathetically or telepathically individuals may be influenced by another presence in their near environment.

If you are familiar with meditation, get yourself into alpha state. If not, then simply calm your body and your mind. Let go of all worries and enjoy the relaxed state for several minutes.

Visualise (or imagine) a completely white space. There are no walls or boundaries. This will be your canvas.

Evoke an emotion without evoking an image of the situation where the particular emotion occurred. Let that feeling flow away from you and shape the canvas. It may take an image, a sound, or a smell. Or perhaps it may take a combination of several of the latter. The important thing is not to force anything (especially images of what you would like a certain emotion to look like).

Write down your observations.

Note that some people may find free association more successful. If this is the case, then write your associations down and keep the paper for future reference.

Emotional association may be useful when an individual feels that a particular emotion should be evoked (such as the emotion of calmness and peace to counter stress). Remember to practice the associations in order to reinforce the connection between the emotion and it’s representation(s).

Questions:
What are the most powerful representations of an emotion that I have felt?
Were there any surprises in the representation of an emotion?
What method of emotional association was the most comfortable for me?
Are there any emotions that had no representation?

Keep a diary

Many people keep a diary of the events in their life. If you are one of these people, then simply expand on this idea by adding a sentence or two about the emotions the particular event brought to you.

Here’s an example from my diary:
“I went shopping today in an attempt to brighten up my mood. I had been feeling a little sad since I came back from my vacation. Shopping made me feel a little better. Although I only bought two small items, trying on different clothes made me feel like I was trying on different personalities. That’s always an interesting way to tackle sadness.”

The entries in the diary need not contain countless sentences of emotional exploration (although they might if you desire so); a simple sentence such as “It made me feel _____” might suffice.

Questions:
Do I keep a record of my emotional processes?
Does writing down my emotional processes help me understand them better?
Does writing down emotions help me deal with them?

Externalise your emotions in a healthy way

I often hear about “letting emotions flow” and “externalising emotions” but sometimes such a thing may be destructive on the person or their environment. Anger, for example, if expressed externally, may result in self-harm or destruction of the objects near the person. Occasionally, the angered individual may also let his/her anger “flow” by harming another person, animal, or plant. Such behaviour is not only frowned upon by the society, or members of the society, but also by the individual’s higher self (as reflected in the “conscience” of the individual in question).

There are alternatives to externalisation of the emotion:
Arts: be it music, drawing, poetry or dance, a creative artist may certainly find a way to portray the emotion in a healthy way without taking from its integrity.

Sports: besides wonderful stress and energy release, sports may also help externalise emotions (example: yoga may help with calmness while aerobics might help with anger).

Meditation and relaxation: inner exploration is of big help as it shows the root of the emotion and possible ways of dealing with it.

Questions:
What are other healthy ways of expressing emotions?

How can I integrate the previous steps into healthily expressing my emotions? Can a better understanding of my emotions lead to the understanding of myself and others?

I’m concluding this article with hopes that these tips have inspired you to help yourself and others to reach an emotional balance. Remember that a healthy lifestyle means balance on many levels and remember that positivity and optimism are the key to well being.

Lunar1

©2002 Lunar1