Bright Star Studio

The Healthiest You Series

As discussed in the previous article, the Emotional Body has a digestive system, much similar to the physical body. It just works in the emotional realm.

What this means is that there is a system of evaluation. In a healthy and ideal system, the Emotional body will keep that which is nourishing and release the rest. This is the overall goal and objective.

Many times, when we are unaware of the intake evaluation process, we accept everything that is thrown at us or presented to us, or we do the opposite and reject everything. In the former we take in too much and the later we take in too little, including nourishment. 

So, the first big step is to recognize and start to work with the initial intake evaluation of emotions. This may seem like a difficult concept for some. But, just realize that there is a choice of what we bring in from the outer world into our inner world. If you are already comfortable with this process, you can begin to work deeper with it.  

A basic example would be if someone were to say to me “Leigh, I think these articles are stupid” or if they were to roll their eyes when I tell them what I do. In the past, I probably would have been hurt, upset or at least have felt bad. Now, I’ve learned I can look at the comment/gesture, evaluate it and then decide what to do with it.  This is done before reacting.

Now, who the person is that made that comment, and the situation play a large part in deciding whether to take it in or release it and not bring it in (therefore not being hurt by it). If this is a stranger, it’s easier to give it no value. If other reasons followed the comment or if this is my spiritual teacher, then that will take further work.

The idea, at least in the beginning, is to slow things down to understand all of the elements at play.

I do not have to feel bad because someone does not like my work. I can discard the comment. Another way to look at this would be choosing not to participate. Or I can choose to evaluate my work on a different level. I can digest the comment further and decide if changes do need to be made or if this is helping me identify something I need to address or heal.

When we recognize something within that feels bad, we are presented an opportunity to heal it.

This whole work on spiritual development is microscopic management and understanding of the inner world and how to make your inner world healthy and beautiful.

The two parts here are identifying what is being presented to you and what is in your inner world, and then deciding what to do with it.

Exercise:

The next time you have a noticeable emotional reaction (big or small), take a few minutes to look at it a little deeper. Ask yourself to describe what you were feeling and why. It is very important to remain extremely neutral with this. Give yourself permission to be as honest as you can. Do not judge, just notice.

Deep self honesty is the foundation of spiritual health and the ability to heal.

Practice consciously making the decision to take in or release (discard) different things presented to you.  

If the item is unpleasant then you can choose to discard it. You can even take it a step further and replace it with a thought or emotion that is nourishing, which would be a deeper skill.  You can also deem it for the highest good or send it love.

The ability to release that which is no longer needed, that which is harmful and that which no longer serves is very important and vital to a healthy system.

Take some time to think about what it is you no longer need that you can release. Send it away with love. A deep or forced exhalation can help.

This also gets us looking at the inner self and thinking about what it needs for nourishment. This can be a deeper exercise to play around with.  Take some time to think about what it is you need and how you can give it to yourself.

Doing this type of exercise will help you further be able to identify what is being presented and also what is in your inner world. Both are huge and valuable skills.

And always, give yourself lots of loving credit for engaging in practices to make you happier and healthier!

-L. Leigh Meriweather

The Emotional Body: Part 1, The Basics

The Emotional Body: Part 2, Intake and Releasing

The Emotional Body: Part 3, Nourishing

The Emotional Body: Part 4, Developing Intuition

Mental Body and Spiritual Body series to follow.

Copyright © 2012  Honoring, llc

The Healthiest You Series

Many of us understand how to achieve better physical health: exercise, eat well and get enough rest…plus or minus a few other rules. However, how many of us are aware of the other bodies we need to take care of? These include an Emotional body, a Mental Body and a Spiritual body.

The focus of this article is on the Emotional Body and what it needs for optimum health. The first step is to understand that we do, in fact, have an emotional body, what its purpose is and how it works. The second is to gain some basic information on how we can connect and communicate with it for optimal emotional health.

To start, emotions serve the purpose of helping us guide our life, align with our inner purpose and help us make right choice for us. Just as our physical body manages the aspects of the physical body, the emotional body manages the functions of our emotions in relation to ourselves and our lives.

The Emotional body even has a digestive system, similar to the physical body. This is where intake is ‘digested’, items are broken down and it is decided what to keep (nourishment) and what to discard. When we are not consciously aware of this, it can seem like emotions are something that happen to us and even get in situations where we feel we are on a roller coaster ride or overwhelmed with emotion. This is because we are not connected to the fact that we are doing the digestion, that we have communication and influence in the digestion. We are not getting the message the emotions are trying to give us and we are not using emotions wisely.

Emotions can also help us access and create more of what we want in our inner world, which helps us do the same in our outer world. In addition, emotions can help us heal and develop our intuition and inner knowing.

Keep in mind that emotions and feelings are different. Emotions are temporal expressions of a certain type of energy. Feelings are in the inner world and are related to our core self. I can experience anger (emotion) at being fired because in my inner world I feel hurt. The joy (emotion) I experience with my dog is because I feel deep love for her. The fear (emotion) I experience is because of unsafety or insecurity I feel inside.

It is not as important to make the distinction every time and detail this out. It is more important to generally realize there is a separation and that emotions are here to guide us to better understanding our inner world. Emotions are meant to be a tool. We do not have to be attached to them, over whelmed by them or hurt by them. Fully grasping this distinction can be a huge step in emotional health.

So, just start to notice and feel what you are experiencing on a very average everyday experience.

Emotions serve as a way to guide us to know how we are feeling.  Often, we process this without realizing it. How many times do we leave a room or make an odd decision just based on a ‘feeling.’ Our emotions and feelings are here to help us and we are in constant communication with them, whether we realize it or not and whether we pay attention to them or not.

Once we start to pay attention to our emotions and see how they are related to our inner self and inner feelings, we can work with them better, and make choices that more align us with our highest self and even help the emotional body discard that which is not needed. This can be done for small, every day decisions to larger, life direction changing decisions.

When we have the skill and ability to know what we are feeling and why, we can be clear in our intention, communication and be better balanced emotionally.  It can also lead us to develop our intuition deeper.

Exercise:

The first step is to start to pay attention to our emotions and how they are related to how we feel in our inner self. This takes some time. The purpose of this exercise is to get to know your baseline. You need to know where you start. Get familiar with your specific type of feelings and emotions.

Start by taking 5-10 minutes to overview your day and the various emotions that you had.

Sometimes you might be surprised to see where you had a reaction to something that you did not fully understand. It could be a simple as being irritated at a salesperson or a experiencing a sudden sense of sadness you felt during the day. If you look closely, you will find a connection to something. It could be that something in the salesperson reminded you of someone who hurt in the past or a picture of a couple in an ad which reminded you of a certain time and feeling .

Next time you have a strong emotional reaction to something, take the time to look deeper. Ask yourself what you are feeling or what else this reminds you of. Delve deeper with it. Give yourself permission to explore. You can also do this with a past occurence.

One of the most important aspects of doing an exercise like this is to do it objectively. Just observe and look. Try not to attach any judgment, blame or wrongness about it. Truly just try to see it as a messenger.

Once you are able to identify it, it is easier to understand and deal with it. From here you can start to process it or make the decision to discard it.

The first exercise here is just to slow down and notice. Spend some time in reflection about the various emotions you experience and how they are related to your inner feeling and inner self.

Continued posts to follow:

The Emotional Body: Part 1, The Basics

The Emotional Body: Part 2, Intake and Releasing

The Emotional Body: Part 3, Nourishing

The Emotional Body: Part 4, Developing Intuition

Mental Body and Spiritual Body series to follow.