When you feel sad, upset, angry......what is your body trying to tell you?

''Can you tell me what that means please?

I'm not sure I understand,'' I asked.

''When we experience something we do so 

cognitively and physiologically.

Cognitively, as in how we think about and interpret

 situations, and physiologically as in how our bodies

respond/react to our emotions,'' he answered.

How our bodies respond?

Being (some say) a ''neurally diverse'' person, my brain

never stops with the thinking so whatever is going in

my body while I'm thinking, usually, I only discover after 

the affect. 

I first heard of Cognitive Behaviour Theory years and years

ago but I was instantly drawn to it and neurally diverse as I

(apparently) am, I found myself devouring book

after book on the subject.

CBT made, and still does make so much sense to me, but

 what I have come to realize recently is that somehow I

seem to have overlooked/forgot about the body

 sensation/physiological aspect.

I've probably read the line ''Be in your body'',

 ''Practice Mindfulness'' and the importance of ''Focusing

attention on what is happening in your body when

you feel xyz'' numerous times without actually

doing any such thing.

''Being in your body'', what does that really mean?

As far as I can ascertain it means that when we

experience anger, sadness, fear, worry, joy, etc. etc.

we don't just experience it with our thoughts but

also with our bodies.

Our heartrate may go up, we may feel weak in the knees,

short of breath, tight in the chest, dizzy, and or an urge to cry,

etc. to mention a few examples.

''Stop, stop. Slow down'', he said. Stay focused on what

is happening internally. Stay with your bodily sensation

right now.''

What was my bodily sensation?

Tears. I was perplexed. 

Why was I crying? It felt as if my mind and

body were out of sync. My mind told me that

tears were unnecessary but my body ignored

 the mind and the tears kept coming.

Have you ever experienced that?

You see something, hear something, remember

something, and then

seemingly out of nowhere tears well up?

What's your kneejerk reaction?

Do you try to suppress the urge to cry or do you allow it?

Personally, I learned very early in life to suppress my

tears and instead use my brain to figure out

how to disguise my true emotions.

According to those in the know, there are many

of us who grew up in social settings in which

tears, sensitivity, gentleness and kindness 

were viewed as signs of weakness and therefore

such expressions of emotions were discouraged.

Insight: Maybe this may be a clue as to why

some of us may at times find it difficult to ''be in

our bodies''?

Emotional experiences, regardless of ''flavour/type'' 

 is believed to consist of three different components:

It is subjective, it is physiological and it is a

behaviour/expressive response.

Some of us may find it trickier than some others

to stay in tune, connected and able to focus on

our internal bodily sensations, but if those in the know

are correct, we can learn how to get better at it.

''Emotions are not set in cement.

They come they, they go, 

they stay only as long 

as we allow them to.''

(Citizen Z) 

about the image: acrylic on large cardboard

Title: ''Mia holds off turbulence''