Play

PLAY:

 Breathe with awareness... Place your hands on your belly & chest & Tune In to the movement of Breath in your central torso…
Feel sensations of expansion as you Inhale & relaxation as you Exhale…

 Keep your attention with Breath. Notice when your mind wanders & gently return Focus to your Breath & its movement…
Feel sensations of aliveness like movement, warmth, & tingling…
Breathe & Savor…

Include Your Body for the Ride

"The road to emotional health is made much easier when you bring your body along for the ride. Body sensations of your essential self provide the infra-structure that gives you the support necessary to self-regulate your habitual impulses and responses. This makes emotional freedom more than talk or simply an idea. When you engage your body and your mind as a living experience you really get to know the details of your relationships. You learn to better manage the feelings that arise from contact and skillfully guide yourself towards emotional health and well-being."  

 

Dr Zeb & Dakini Candance

Chakra Garden of Ashland

Emotional Freedom

 

Emotional Freedom

    Emotional freedom from the influence of overwhelming emotions and lingering anxiety is what we cultivate at Chakra Garden of Ashland.

       You experience emotional freedom when your behaviors and responses to contact with others are not based upon fears that your needs for connection and breathing room will not be met by them. What you need for emotional health is a body experience of your essential self and a home base of inner support.

       A reliable home base of inner support interrupts the anxiety that interferes with your choices.  When you feel supported, you base your relationship decisions on experiences and emotions that have personal meaning and fulfillment for you. You make personal choices free from the fear of loss or invasion.

       Reliable inner support nurtures a healthy quality of contact with your essential self. Your essential self is the feelings and sensations of “This is me, Alive.” It is the elemental feeling of You-ness, the kernel of life that distinguishes feelings of you as distinct from everyone else.

       When you cultivate awareness of your essential self, you find yourself empowered to step back from overwhelming feelings, or from unpleasant situations that you can’t change.  You can view life from a broader perspective, recognize more options, and wisely pick alternatives.  Inner support provides healthy emotional strength so you can express and act upon your needs and wants. This is a primary step towards emotional health.

       With a supported essential self, you can become autonomous from your body-mind’s habitual reactions to stress and relationship conflicts. Expressing this emotional independence keeps anxiety from catching you like “a deer in the headlights” of the moment.  You can feel a tangible sense of your essential self, free from the influence of others (people, situation, emotion, ideology). Your inner wisdom guides your responses to life so your choices are not determined by fears of too-much or not-enough contact. You are able to self-regulate your emotions and your relationship decisions for well-being.

       Free yourself from the tyranny of unmanageable emotions, and you’ll still experience your desires and aversions (as well as other’s) but you won’t be captured or overwhelmed by the intensity of experience or emotions. Your mind won’t fixate on thoughts and feelings. Instead, you’ll orient yourself towards honest emotional responses based upon a body experience of your essential self and a home base of inner support.

      Learn how at Chakra Garden of Ashland.

 

 

 

Life is Only an Idea Until you Feel It In Your Body

You don’t have a single feeling, thought, or behavior that is not processed at some point by both your body and your mind. Emotions generate a force like a physical event. You just may not be as aware of their impact in the same way you feel pain when you touch something too hot or too cold.

Every emotion has a corresponding "felt sense" in the body. When you feel anger you get ready for action by tensing your jaw and limbs. As fear strikes you tighten your stomach, chest and throat. When joy or pleasure arises, you can breathe and move freely and expansively.

Often your body’s response to emotion is subtle. You may notice impulses such as a slight change in your breathing rate and/or depth, or your chest, neck and shoulders may get a bit tighter, or your hands and feet feel cold or hot. All these sensations are your body-mind and nervous system communicating the vocabulary of your feelings. Attention to these body language impulses will help you secure your essential self in the present moment and determine the kind of inner support you need right now.

     Your rational mind can limit your ability to feel inner support. Thoughts can easily get in the way of skillful behavior or the best intentions. In times of crisis, some people find it tough to think clearly when feeling anxious and the body is tense or braced. For others, rational thought can be a way to grasp control of overwhelming feelings and deny they even exist.

     When feeling emotional disharmony, and especially for persistent conflicts, your mind only gives you half the story of how to deal with your emotions. You need to listen to your body for full disclosure.

Alive and Well