your body as your guide - s3. · pdf filethe 7 techniques outlined here utilize the body to...

The 7 techniques outlined here utilize the body to one extent or another. While some of them (feel your feet, touch your tips) specifically relate to body parts, the others (flow your feelings, watch your emotions) pertain to the energy that flows through the body’s field. At the end, you’ll find a simple meditation exercise to get more in tune with your body and a worksheet with questions to further explore your body’s signals. Your body as your guide Technique 1: What to do when someone gets in your face and you can't walk away

Technique 2: What to do when you start getting lost in someone else's energy

Technique 3: What to do when your body starts shaking from overstimulation

Technique 4: What to do when emotion overwhelms you (whether it's yours or others)

Technique 5: One weird but powerful technique that can help you release wounded emotions from the past

Technique 6: How to allow your emotions to be there without being controlled by them

Technique 7: What to do if you cry at everything Body Tuning Meditation to help you get in touch with your body Worksheet

YOUR BODY AS YOUR GUIDE Years ago, my family and I visited the Missouri Botanical Gardens. Inside the gardens, there's a hedge maze made of walls of tall hedges creating narrow passages and dead end pits designed to challenge you to find your way out. I love mazes and I love a good challenge so I hurried in blindly to quickly lose myself so I could find my way out again. After a few minutes, I was stuck. It seemed like every turn I made either led to a dead end or to a spot I had been in only moments before. I was so disoriented, I didn't even know how to backtrack and go out the same way I came in. Then I heard someone shouting, "to the left!" I looked up and around and saw my dad in the distance on the top of a perch outside the maze. There was a wooden structure for people to climb on and get a bird's eye view of the entire maze. He was leaning on the handrail watching me, amused by my futile attempts and pointing to my left. I followed his guidance as he continued to lead me, turn after turn, and when I couldn't see him because my view was blocked by the tall hedges, I could still hear him, and eventually made my way out. Imagine having such reliable guidance as you navigate your way through life. In the same way that my dad became my trusted guide as I maneuvered my way through the maze, my body is for me in life. An empath's body is by far her greatest ally and guide. When she veers from her truth, her body points it out and reminds her sometimes gently, sometimes harshly to get back on her path. Her body will never misguide her and it will always be completely honest, even if she doesn't want to hear it. While we may be able to fool our minds, we can never fool our bodies. We can do things our minds disagree with and have toxic thoughts we justify, deny or make excuses for, but if we do something our body disagrees with, like ingesting toxic chemicals, no amount of denying or justifying will keep your body from throwing it up. Your body will expel the waste out of any orifice it can and you won't have a choice about it. Your body speaks truth. Period. It doesn't know anything else.

www.FindYourInnerHappy.com 1

http://www.findyourinnerhappy.com/

WHAT TO DO WHEN SOMEONE GETS IN YOUR FACE OR CRITICIZES YOU AND YOU CAN'T WALK AWAY

Technique 1: Feel your Feet

Image source: Compfight Plant both feet on the ground. Barefoot, if you can. Wiggle your toes, press your feet down into the earth as if you're trying to push through. This creates a psychological feeling of being grounded. When you're in the middle of someone's angry outburst and you can't walk away, it anchors you into the earth and acts as a reminder that you have the power of the earth supporting you so that you don't get carried away in their emotion. Remind yourself that the earth is stronger than any human emotion. Your attention may be on the person in your face, but your focused awareness is on the strength rising up from the earth into your feet. If you’re walking toward an emotionally overbearing person or situation, become acutely aware of each step. As your foot hits the ground, press in harder than usual. Your feet will feel heavier, as if someone wrapped a weight around your ankles. By focusing on your feet, you lessen the importance of the other energy and strengthen your own.



WHAT TO DO WHEN YOU START TO GET LOST IN SOMEONE ELSE'S ENERGY

Technique 2: Touch your Tips

Image source: Wikipedia

Touch the tips of your fingers to themselves or physically touch any object. Some people call this a touchstone or a talisman. It could be a gemstone, a crystal, a coin, a piece of jewelry, anything that you can carry with or on you. I touch the tips of my fingers together because I'm not always wearing clothes with pockets or carrying a purse. My fingertips will always be there (hopefully). When I touch my fingertips, I mentally say "these are my fingers, I'm touching them. No one else. I'm real. My fingers." It reminds me that I'm in control. Often we don't feel real because someone else's emotion has taken over ours and we've lost ourselves in them. We can’t tell the difference between whether it’s their emotion we’re feeling or ours. Touching your touchstone object or your fingertips puts you back in control, reminds you that you are you and the world or whoever is in front of you is not. The image above is a common hand gesture in Buddhism and Hinduism, called the “mudra of knowledge”. Mudras are gestures that in Sanskrit literally mean “seal”. When I make a hand gesture, or simply touch my fingertips together, I’m envisioning “sealing” myself to higher awareness, to the truth of who I am. For more about mudras and the various gestures and their meaning, visit this website.


http://mesosyn.com/hb3.html


WHAT TO DO WHEN YOUR BODY STARTS SHAKING FROM OVERSTIMULATION

Technique 3: Exercise your Emotions

Move your body. Do jumping jacks, yoga, run, kickbox. Anything that gets your body moving and your blood pumping. Emotions are nothing more than energy. For those of us who feel so deeply, it affects our bodies in stronger ways. We may start shaking when we're scared, anxious or upset. Sometimes there's so much energy (emotion) running through us, our bodies don't know what to do, so it shakes, trembles or cries. It's the body's way of releasing the energy. Help your body out by exercising when you feel strong emotion. It could be something as simple as 10 seconds of jumping up and down in one place, or as intensive as a complete hour long workout. When you move your body on purpose, you give the energy a conduit through which to release itself freely. I have a heavy bag in my garage and when I’m feeling too much, or even sometimes too little, I put on the boxing gloves, blast the classic rock and go to town on the bag. No mercy. I always feel intensely better, lighter and free after.



WHAT TO DO WHEN EMOTION OVERWHELMS YOU (whether it's yours or other's)

Technique 4: Flow Your Feelings

Let it flow, let it flow, let it flow. Most of us have learned to build a protective invisible shield around us. We visualize a bubble of white light surrounding us or we've learned to toughen up by creating a hard shell so that nothing can penetrate us. This may have been necessary when we didn't know our own strength, but as we come to recognize our sensitive traits as gifts, we learn to let go of this shield. We learn to embrace our emotions and instead of resisting, pushing against and firing at them with invisible mind missiles, we welcome them and let them flow through us. The next time you feel a wave of powerful emotion come at you, take a deep breath, close your eyes and let it flow through you. Think of yourself as a portal or a channel through which energy flows. If there's no resistance, the emotion flows freely, unobstructed, and will wash over you and be gone in minutes, even seconds. Don't think about the emotion, don't dissect, analyze, judge or criticize it. Just let it flow.



ONE WEIRD BUT POWERFUL TECHNIQUE THAT CAN HELP YOU RELEASE WOUNDED EMOTIONS FROM THE PAST

Technique 5: Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT), aka Tapping

Click on the image above to go to a video interview on YouTube with Jade Le, a certified EFT practitioner and Reiki energy healer. I interviewed her specifically for this guide, to offer insight into Emotional Freedom Techniques, also known as Tapping. In this video, you’ll learn:

What EFT is (3:53) Why it’s difficult sometimes to be in relationships with others (7:19) How EFT can help if you have bad memories from the past, like being attacked by a dog (7:50) How positive thinking can work against you and block emotional release (9:00) One quick exercise to do in a moment of stress such as when you’re nervous at a party, about

to give a speech or going on a first date (9:25) How EFT can help even if you feel too much and don’t want to feel anymore (12:50) How to deal with having dark thoughts about others when you’re supposed to be spiritual and all

loving (20:26) (OK, so I did admit to having homicidal tendencies, but the important thing is I didn’t act on them!)

A minitapping session with exact scripts and tapping points that you can do when dealing with an angry spouse or partner (29:00)


https://youtu.be/1n-x9dOqSUs


ECKHART TOLLE’S TECHNIQUE: HOW TO ALLOW YOUR EMOTIONS TO BE THERE WITHOUT BEING CONTROLLED BY THEM

Technique 6: Observe Your Emotions

This is an excerpt taken from one of my favorite books, The Power of Now, by one of my favorite authors, Eckhart Tolle.

“Conflict between surface thoughts and unconscious mental processes is certainly common. You may not yet be able to bring your unconscious mind activity into awareness as thoughts, but it will always be reflected in the body as an emotion, and of this you can become aware. To watch an emotion in this way is basically the same as listening to or watching a thought... The only difference is that, while a thought is in your head, an emotion has a strong physical component and so is primarily felt in the body. You can then allow the emotion to be there without being controlled by it. You no longer are the emotion; you are the watcher, the observing presence. If you practice this, all that is unconscious in you will be brought into the light of consciousness.

Make it a habit to ask yourself: What's going on inside me at this moment? That question will point you in the right direction. But don't analyze, just watch. Focus your attention within. Feel the energy of the emotion. If there is no emotion present, take your attention more deeply into the inner energy field of your body. It is the doorway into Being.


http://eckharttolle.com/


An emotion usually represents an amplified and energized thought pattern, and because of its often overpowering energetic charge, it is not easy initially to stay present enough to be able to watch it. It wants to take you over, and it usually succeeds unless there is enough presence in you. If you are pulled into unconscious identification with the emotion through lack of presence, which is normal, the emotion temporarily becomes "you." Often a vicious circle builds up between your thinking and the emotion: they feed each other. The thought pattern creates a magnified reflection of itself in the form of an emotion, and the vibrational frequency of the emotion keeps feeding the original thought pattern. By dwelling mentally on the situation, event, or person that is the perceived cause of the emotion, the thought feeds energy to the emotion, which in turn energizes the thought pattern, and so on.” Practice looking inside yourself without judgment. In the same way that we can learn to watch our thoughts without getting caught up in them, we can learn to watch our emotions too.



WHAT TO DO IF YOU CRY AT EVERYTHING Technique 7: Be a Cry Baby

“Heaven knows we need never be ashamed of our tears, for they are rain upon the blinding dust of earth, overlying our hard hearts.” Charles Dickens, Great Expectations Go ahead, be a cry baby. It’s OK. If you’re anything like me (and if you’re still reading, you probably are), you cry all the time. I cry when I’m happy, when I’m sad, when I’m moved, when I’m still. Sometimes I feel like my tears are waiting on the edge of my tear ducts for something, anything to give them just the slightest gentle nudge they need to burst forth through the surface and flow freely. Crying is your body’s way of releasing emotion. I love crying, whether it’s sad or happy tears. I love the feeling of release and flow. I honestly don’t understand people who don’t cry. I can watch a 2 second clip of an abused or neglected dog and cry straight for 5 minutes. My boyfriend watches the same clip, shakes his head in a brief moment of disdain and keeps scrolling down his Facebook feed, not a second thought. That makes no sense to me. I strongly endorse crying as a means to release energy from your body and your energetic field. Give yourself a crying session every once in a while. Don’t try to “suck it up”, as we’ve all been taught, instead let it flow. Listen to your body’s needs, if you feel like crying, cry.



BODY TUNING MEDITATION This meditation will help lock in and deepen your practice of the techniques above. The more in tune you are with your own body, the more meaning those techniques will have and the better results you'll get from using them. I recommend reading through this entire meditation exercise and worksheet questions before you start the meditation so you have an idea of what to do first and aren't interrupted during the meditation by looking over at the steps to see what's next. Then put it away, do the exercise and come back when you're done to fill in the worksheets. If, while doing the worksheets, you've forgotten how you felt at certain parts of your body, close your eyes right where you are and breathe into that body part again. The thoughts and memory often come back with your conscious intention. If it doesn't, that's OK. The more you do this exercise, the deeper you will go. You may notice that there are some parts of your body that you continually resist tuning into. Whether you feel nothing when you get to it, feel the urge to skip over it or start to get bored or impatient during that section, these are all signs of an unconscious resistance. Be gentle with yourself. Give yourself permission to feel however you feel as you go through the process. Trust that the answers will come and the healing will take place in perfect divine time. There's nothing serious going on here, we're just doing an exercise. Let yourself off the hook from having to resolve all your issues and find all the answers in this one exercise. Don't force yourself to feel something different than what you're feeling. I used to take my meditation so seriously. I wanted results and I wanted them fast. When I didn't feel anything happening, I'd get frustrated and try to amp up the mindfulness even more. My mind got so busy thinking about how I could do it better, what more I could do, why I couldn't get it right, and on and on. I eventually learned that I was trying too hard. I was defeating the purpose of my meditations which is to quiet the incessant mental chatter in order to go deeper into Being. I was actually creating more chatter and staying surfaced by putting expectations and demands on my meditation practice. I learned to accept whatever was happening, even if it was nothing, during my meditation and breathe through it all. So be easy about it. Maybe you'll feel something, maybe you won't. Maybe you'll have answers to the questions in the worksheets, maybe you won't. You can't do anything wrong here. There are no right or wrong answers. There's only the experience.



1) Find a quiet spot where you’ll be uninterrupted. This is best done alone in a private space so there are no distractions. I like to do this in the bathtub because I can lock myself in (my family usually leave me alone when I’m in the bathroom), put the back part of my head underwater so my ears are just below the surface (you can hear your heartbeat and stomach noises when you do this). It helps to cocoon your sense of hearing and the sensation of water on your skin. 2) Sit or lie down in a comfortable position. It doesn’t have to be in the traditional lotus pose with your legs crossed. You can sit on the floor with a pillow underneath you, lean with your back straight against a wall, or use a chair. It doesn’t matter. We’re not trying to become meditation gurus, we’re simply tuning in to our bodies. If you lie down, lay face up with your arms by your sides, palms up, if that’s comfortable for you. 3) Breathe in to the count of 10 and out to the count of 10. Close your eyes and do this until your breathing naturally becomes deep. Depending on your level of mindfulness and whether you regularly meditate, do yoga or any other activity that requires breath awareness, you may need to repeat the 1010 count only once or several times or even for 10 minutes or more. In either case, you’ll feel more relaxed and calm. Once your breathing slows, you can stop counting and continue breathing from this deeper place. 4) Move through your body, limb by limb, starting with your feet (toes first) and ending with your head (top of crown last). You’re not physically moving, you’re mentally and energetically moving. Have you ever watched Star Trek? When the Enterprise ship has encountered an alien ship, they’re often scanned by the alien ship, looking for life forms, weapons, anything that strikes their alien fancy. This appears as a colored laser beam kind of sweep that moves slowly through every inch, crack and crevice of the ship. Often, the suspense builds as someone tries to outrun the sweep so they’re not scanned. Imagine that you’re doing a laser beam kind of sweep in your body. If you're an alien scanning a new encounter, you'll want to learn everything you can about it. You'll get curious and observe closely as you perform your methodical sweep. In the same way, you can get curious about your own body, treat it as a new encounter. You may think you know your own body after having had it your entire life, but be open to the idea of seeing it with fresh vision. You’ll start with your toes and move through the rest of your body slowly. Breathe deeply into your feet. Of course, your breath physically can't go to your feet, but you can imagine your breath traveling down your body and going to your feet, just like the blood flows throughout your body, so too can you imagine



your breath doing the same. Wiggle your toes if it helps to connect you to that part of your body. I often imagine my blood carrying oxygen molecules for me, to the part I'm breathing into. Just be aware of your feet for a few seconds. Feel them before you move on to your ankles and calves, then knees and thighs and so forth until you end with the top of your head. Breathe into each body part as you move through them. If you notice tension in any part, breathe deeper into it and let it go. Feel it drop heavier into the surface on which it rests, whether it's the bed, the floor or the tub. Trust the surface to completely support you if you let it all go. Sometimes we've been so disconnected from our bodies that we're not sure if there's any tension, or we're so used to it being tense, we don't even know it's tense. If you're unsure at any given body part, tense it up on purpose for a few seconds and then release. For example, if you make a fist and clench as hard as you can and then release, you'll have let go of any tension that may have been there in your hand before you clenched. This is a muscle relaxation technique that you can do anytime when you need a bit of relief. Go up through your body squeezing as tight as you can and holding the tension in a body part for 1020 seconds. Then let go. You'll feel the immediate sense of release and flow. Relax your muscles in your neck, jaw, lips, forehead and anywhere else you feel a tightening. You may feel a tingling sensation or warmth through each body part as you focus on them. Continue breathing through whatever sensations come up. When you finish your sweep, you'll feel a greater connection with your body. If you don't, it's OK. Try the meditation a few more times on different days and different times before you give up on it or yourself. The more you do this exercise, the deeper you'll go. And remember, like learning to play a musical instrument, it takes regular practice. Don't expect to "get it" in one attempt. There's nothing to "get", really. It's a process, a journey, an experience.



WORKSHEET Take a few minutes to write down any thoughts and feelings you had during the meditation. Each part of your body has 3 vital questions to answer in this worksheet. 1) How often do you think about your [body part] on a regular basis? 2) What do you think and feel when you think about it/them? 3) What can you do to love and accept your [body part] more?

Use the introspection questions as a guideline, an exploratory tool to get the conversation going with yourself. You don't have to answer all of them, instead allow them to spark a curiosity within you to help you explore your own personal energy about your body. I've sectioned the body off into four quadrants to make it easier.



Feet/Legs How often do you think about your feet and legs on a regular basis? What do you think and feel when you think about them?

Introspection Questions: Have you ever really thought about your toes and feet, other than to get a pedicure and bemoan that second toe that’s longer than the big one? Are your feet merely tools at the ends of your legs to help you get from one place to another? Could you, or would you want to, continue the rest of your life without them? How often do you thank your feet for doing everything it does? Have you ever? What about your legs? Do you moisturize them with oil or lotion when they cry out to you in dryness?

What can you do to love and accept your feet and legs more?



Feet/Legs (continued)



Hands/Arms How often do you think about your hands and arms on a regular basis? What do you think and feel when you think about them?

Introspection Questions: Have you ever really thought about your fingers, hands and arms, other than to get a manicure and make fun of the flappy underarms when you wave hello to someone? Are your hands merely tools at the ends of your arms to help you pick up objects and put on makeup? Could you, or would you want to, continue the rest of your life without them? Without arms, could you hug the ones you cherish the most, feel their bodies cradled within them? Without hands, could you wipe your child's tears off their cheeks and put bandaids tenderly on their wounds?

What can you do to love and accept your hands and arms more?



Hands/Arms (continued)



Torso How often do you think about your torso on a regular basis? What do you think and feel when you think about them?

Introspection Questions: Have you ever really thought about your torso, other than to criticize it for being too round at the belly or hips, or too small in the chest? Is the torso just the part of your body that houses your organs and connects your limbs? Could you, or would you want to, continue the rest of your life without it? Were there parts of your torso that made you uncomfortable to sit with? Did you skip or speed over any part of it? If so, which? How did you feel when you got to that part? Some women feel a lot of discomfort when they sweep the lower part of their torso that contains their first and second chakras and their sexual area. Many times it stems from sexual trauma in the past or unconscious feelings of shame and guilt around sex and sexuality. It could also bring up feelings of insecurity, vulnerability and lack. If this section made you uncomfortable, just notice it. You don't have to fix it right now, simply be aware of the discomfort and keep breathing into it. Allow yourself to be in that discomfort without judgement or placing any demands on yourself to do anything about it or feel any differently.

What can you do to love and accept your torso more?



Torso (continued)



Neck/Head/Face How often do you think about your neck, head and face on a regular basis? What do you think and feel when you think about it?

Introspection Questions: What's the first thought or reaction you have when you see your face in the mirror? Is it about needing to put on more makeup? Is it about the wrinkles or the bags under your eyes? Is it about your looks or about how you can improve your looks? Do you realize that your face serves a greater purpose far beyond appearances? Do you ever thank it for that or even notice? Or are you too busy focusing on the new sunspot that just developed on your cheek? Could you, or would you want to, continue the rest of your life without your lips, eyes, nose, hair, neck, etc.?

What can you do to love and accept your neck, head and face more?



Neck/Head/Face (continued)



The more you do this meditation, the more you'll learn about the subtle and sometimes not so subtle clues your body gives you on a daily basis. All day every day your body sends you signals, expressing what it likes and doesn't like, what's good for it (and you) and what's hurting it (and you). The more in tune you get with your body, the easier it becomes to hear and understand what it's telling you. As you move through your day, going to work, interacting with others, eating meals, etc., tune in every once in a while to your body. Do a quick internal sweep as you sit at the dinner table with friends and feel for any signs of stress, tension or anything that might feel a bit off or even numb, disconnected. This can be done quickly and quietly without anyone even noticing. Just make a mental note of it. Do the tense & release exercise for parts of your body that feel numb or disconnected. I recommend doing this exercise at least once a week. It doesn't take long and the more you do it, the less time you'll need because as you become more in tune with your body, you'll be able to feel its energy easier. It could be a quick 5 minute scan as you lay in your bed about to fall asleep, or in the morning before you get out of bed. Imagine having a friend who tells you every day that you're a big stressball and need to relax and take time for yourself more. If you ignore her, eventually she may shut up about it or even leave the friendship. Your body will never shut up or leave you. Eventually its cries will get louder and bigger and you may end up in a hospital one day wondering why you have cancer. Learn to listen to your body when the signs are still subtle and minor. Your body will never lie to you. Your thoughts will, but not your body. It only reflects truth. Though your body will show you truth on any level as needed, the deeper you go into your body, the deeper the truth. Often what we are able to see at first is the truth about our life situation in that moment and how we're reacting to it. Empaths must learn to rely on their bodies to guide them through the overwhelming sea of emotions that bombard them day after day. It's our greatest ally. If we work with it, embrace its messages as loving guidance and take the actions necessary to follow through and make changes, we become grounded in a way that nothing can ever uproot us. We will always know what's going on inside us by listening to our bodies. By doing this meditation and getting in tune with your body, the next time you practice the "Feel your Feet" or "Touch your Tips" techniques, it will have locked in more for you and have greater effect. You will actually feel the power of your fingertips as you touch them to each other, knowing you have a strong ally with you as you face the circumstance before you. Your body is a living, breathing, selfaware intelligent organism. It beats your heart, digests your food and heals your wounds all on its own. It will only stop when you no longer need it and it's time to move on to a different adventure. Until then, it never takes a day off, never goes on vacation and never slacks off. Knowing you have a loyal friend like this, that will stick with you until the very end, even if you criticize or treat it poorly, you can never feel alone again. And you will always have the power of your body at your fingertips, literally.



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