Using Your Body To Emotionally Process Stress.
USING YOUR BODY TO EMOTIONALLY PROCESS STRESS.
APRIL 6, 2021
BY GRAYSON GILBERT
WORDS AND PHOTOGRAPHY BY GRAYSON
Every emotion has a cycle; a beginning, middle, and end.
I've found that in order to fully move through an emotional experience or stress cycle, I must use the language of my body to move through the discomfort.
A morning practice of stillness followed by movement is the best way to start my day. Like a wave itself, it begins small.
My morning practice:
After a 2-3 minute cold shower (I know, they suck at first but are so worth it), I find a cozy spot to sit in stillness and chant along with a mantra for about 10 minutes. Right now, it’s Deva Premal’s 108 Cycles of the Gayatri Mantra. When we chant, the resonance of our own voice grounds us in our body while stimulating the vagus nerve, which helps moves stress out of the body.
After chanting, I’ll begin a couple of Kundalini Yoga breath-to-movement exercises; these are repetitive movements guided by a powerful breath that usually lasts 2-3 minutes. They help build momentum in my breath and body, harnessing greater energy and power. These movements look very different from day to day, and their intention is to open the energy channel that runs along the spinal column, connecting my physical body to my emotional body. This is usually when my body tells me, “Girl, we’ve got some anger this mornin’,” or “Can we look at this sadness in your heart?” or “Let’s feel joy!”
From then, to allow the wave to break and body surf it to shore - I dance. By “dance,” I mean I am on Season 24 of Drag Race and was just asked to lip sync for my life. Depending on the emotion I connected to during my Kundalini movement, I pick whichever 90’s-00 jam that resonates with the emotion, and I show my living room who's boss. A few mornings ago I tapped into some resentment during my breath to movement exercises and without missing a beat, Alanis Morissette carried me through the next five minutes of fist throwing and headbanging.
After everything, only gratitude was left.
It was gratitude for my body, for music, and my willingness to “go there” in a way that was exhilarating and productive.
Once the energy settles and I don’t feel the need to fling my body around, I’ll come back to stillness, put my hands on my heart and give thanks to God/Spirit/Creator for putting me in this body.
MORE ON OVERCOMING EMOTIONAL DISTRESS
We feel emotional strings pulling us - grabbing our attention to build momentum as we are overcome by them. At this moment, the emotion crescendos higher and louder reaching its crest, and just when we can’t hold it anymore or something trigger us, it breaks over the tipping point, pummeling down and releasing its tension and power. Often leaving us exhausted, it becomes one with the sea again, where another wave has just begun its journey.
Sometimes these emotional waves are too big for us to handle on our own, so we avoid them, look the other way, distract ourselves. Little do we know, our physical bodies are still experiencing them -- waiting to complete the cycle. Because every bodily system reacts differently to stress, suppressed energy can manifest in different physical issues, from IBS to heart disease.
We are never not experiencing emotion. As long as we are living and breathing, we have a current of energy moving through us that our physical bodies respond to on a cellular level. When feeling rage, our bodies tell us to run, throw, kick, scream; when we are moving through deep grief, we surrender to tears; and in moments of great joy, we throw up our hands and spin until we are dizzy.
Emotion is energy in motion, and our bodies are the vessel through which that energy expresses itself.
It's an unconventional, wild way to begin the day, but every now and then it's a damn good time.
Some days feel so challenging and overwhelming that we lose sight of what we are doing here. None of us really Know (big K) anything, we’re just making guesses and doing what feels like the next best thing. Perhaps next time you feel overwhelmed by an emotion, or maybe tomorrow morning, you find time to ground into your body and allow it to communicate to you, through you.
Your body is beautifully intelligent. It is wise beyond what our minds can comprehend.
Keep moving, shaking, singing, and listening.
