The Inner Matrix by Joey Klein

Author:Joey Klein [Klein, Joey]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: BalboaPress
Published: 2014-03-24T04:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 6

Where You Live

Our bodies are our gardens, to which our wills are gardeners.

—WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

The connection between emotion and the body is undeniable. When dealing with intense emotional states, we often get a stomachache. Stomach pain and ulcers are commonly related to stress and the inability to manage our emotions. When we are sad and depressed, the body becomes tired and fatigued. We have little energy for our daily activities and wish only to sleep.

When we become very angry, by contrast, our bodies are flooded with adrenaline. This causes our heart to race, our chest to tighten, our blood pressure to increase, and our digestive system to shut down. Our body temperature can even rise by as much as two or three degrees to 101 degrees Fahrenheit, which is considered a fever. Increased stress is placed on the liver and kidneys, which now must detoxify the adrenaline. All of these physical responses create additional stresses on the body. If we engage anger on a consistent basis, over time the body will break down, significantly decreasing our lifespan.

On the other hand, when we experience states of joy and excitement, we have plenty of energy. When we are in a state of peace, our physical body may experience deep states of relaxation. The body feels flexible and supple in response. Our pulse slows, and our chest may lighten. Our immune system is strengthened, and our ability to fight disease substantially increases. When we step into higher emotional states, we maintain a youthful vitality in the body and aging is slowed.

When we are overwhelmed by strong emotions and don’t know what to do with them, it is common to suppress the emotions and hold them inside the body. We might feel ourselves swallowing the emotion, and experience the emotion living in the pit of our stomach. A common phrase used to describe this phenomenon is stomaching one’s emotions. Stomaching emotion is the “fake it until you make it” approach to emotion. We may smile at the world, when we are on the verge of exploding. We try to put on an appropriate face while we stuff more and more of the emotion down deeper and deeper inside. We even describe uncomfortable situations as making our stomach hurt. As we continue to stomach more and more emotion, we feed the emotion, and the inner sensation of the emotion intensifies. This strategy is a physical way of trying to deal with emotion.

When we suppress our emotion, it continues to build until we cannot hold any more. The pressure becomes unbearable, and at some point, what we have stuffed down erupts like a volcano in an uncontrollable explosion, damaging our relationships and those around us. We do not have any choice over when this force is unleashed. Instead, we burst at the seams.

The emotional intensity expressed in that moment does not match the intensity of the situation in which it is being expressed. Our reaction is just not commensurate with the situation in which the reaction occurs.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.