How does the body feel emotions?
The body takes the form of our emotions. When you look in the mirror, you can see how your thoughts and emotions have sculpted your body.
If you look at your face in the mirror, relaxed, without make-up or other enhancements, you will see how the face’s expression has taken the form of your disappointments, anger, frustrations, fears or threats. The external angle of the eyes and the corners of the “fallen” lips can signify, for example, disappointment experienced repeatedly, or the emotion of abandonment experienced repeatedly.
A spine curved towards the front, the so-called “hunchback”, can mean a lack of self-confidence, the trauma of abandonment, the perception that “life is hard”. Sagging shoulders can symbolize a pressure of the difficulties of life felt by that person
If you have gained a lot of weight lately, together with the decrease in calorie intake, it is recommended to do an analysis of the inner feelings that made you eat more, be more sedentary, become disinterested in your own body and own healt
Fat, in general, has a protective role in the body, and excess deposition can mean an additional need for protection that you feel.
The area where the fat is deposited can be suggestive of the emotion you are experiencing or the traumas you have gone through. For example, a woman who has been through the trauma of a rape or feels sexually assaulted, may deposit fat in the thigh area to protect herself. Sometimes, certain people gain weight (unconsciously, of course) to command more respect, because they feel ignored, ignored. Some women gain weight and acquire masculine features because they are in an important, leadership position and need to be noticed and command respect.
In the same way, if you have lost a lot of weight, more than the normal weight, it is advisable to analyze the amount of stress you have accumulated and ask yourself what exactly is consuming your vitality.
It is interesting that the reciprocal is also valid: a certain position of the body can generate a specific state of mind. For example, when you feel sad or depressed, do the following exercise: straighten your back, chest forward, head and chin up and breathe deeply. You will feel almost instantly how your mood changes: you become more optimistic, positively oriented, gain confidence in yourself. The spine most easily betrays our weaknesses: if it shows deformities that have appeared and worsened over the years, those are primarily emotional deformities, to which are added other external factors (for example: vicious positions due to the work performed, certain risks related to the profession, accidents, etc.). When we straighten our spine, we also straighten our emotional states, ofte
The funny thing is that I discovered that I can’t be sad and hopeless in a position where I have my spine straight, my head up and my eyes forward. I can only be like that if I look down and lean forward. I played with this posture and I really like the mood it generates. I invite you to play this game and see its effects. You will probably be amazed at how quickly we can turn certain negative emotions into positive ones, just by straightening our backs
I really enjoyed reading Lise Bourbeau’s books, related to the healing of somatized emotional wounds. There they talk about how traumas, our unhealed wounds can be “read” on the body. The body of the person suffering from the wound of abandonment has a certain appearance (basically with relaxed shoulders, the vertebral column curved towards the face, etc.), the body of the person suffering from the wound of betrayal is athletic, he works a lot with physical exercises to become stronger and to counteract in this way the betrayal he suffers from, the body of the one who runs away (“the fugitive”) is thin, so that he can hide easily, and the examples can go on. I warmly recommend this series of books, it is revealing.
It is important to stay connected to our body, because it communicates with us all the time and sends us messages related to how it feels, its state of health, vitality, etc. It also helps us to become more aware of how we produce and maintain our own suffering, as well as how we can manage our emotional states in an effective way. The body externally mirrors our inner states, our traumas and sufferings, but also our optimism, flexibility and ability to adapt to the environment in which we live.
