Does it happen to you to be angry with someone for days? Feeling sad for a whole day? Do you sometimes feel some shame for being afraid to do something?
Of course, there may be root causes for which this happens, however there is a dynamic that is common to all and understand which can make a difference in our daily lives. This is the emotion-thought spiral. In fact, an emotion as a chemical process has a very short duration, it lasts a quarter of a second. So why do we happen to carry an emotional state with us for longer? It happens to us because we hook a thought. For example, if something my husband says made me angry, I might think “He never takes responsibility!” Or “He doesn’t care enough about me!” or more. This thought will make me feel angrier and lead me to think even worse things, in a spiral that will envelop me towards increasing negativity. Obviously the same happens also for joy, but in this case the dynamics do not create any problems to us! While with fear, sadness and anger it is a whole other story, just think of how often in anger we say things to the other that “we don’t think” and then having to apologize and somehow leave indelible marks.
All of this can be overcome: how? We offer you something that we have successfully experienced in the ” In the footsteps of emotions” workshop. The idea came to us inspired by the Italian dance called “Pizzica pizzica” which was traditionally danced by women to free themselves from the bite of the tarantula (more an excuse than a real fact) and consists of lively movements that, in our case, allow us to letting emotions pass through the body so as to get used to not crystallizing them with thoughts.
The exercise we propose can be done alone or with someone you have a strong bond with and are familiar with. It can be done at home or wherever you feel comfortable (on a beach at the end of the day, for example). You will need comfortable clothing and recorded music tracks or the ability to access them on youtube. The first is a preparation phase: you have to choose 4 pieces of music or songs that respectively inspire fear, anger, sadness, joy (the stereomood site can help you). Each track must last at least 2 minutes. At this point, you can get to the heart of the exercise. Put the 4 tracks leaving a small space of 30 seconds between one and the other and move your body. Let yourself be carried away by the music and tune in to the emotional wave you perceive. You can move through dancing steps you know or randomly (the exercise works the same). Once the tracks are finished, stop and listen to what emerges for you. If you have been able to connect with the music and let go of your body, you should feel a great sense of release. In this case, the music served as an emotional catalyst and helped us to let them pass through without engaging any thoughts. The Zen sage says “You will be truly free when instead of saying I am angry you will be able to say the anger is coming to me”, like a summer storm that runs its course and goes away.
If you have tried the exercise, tell us how it went, if you are eager to achieve more complete and lasting results, contact us for a personalized offer.
Giulia Imbastoni and Elisa Anzellotti