Psychiatrist and award-winning author Neel Burton, M.D explains “The concept of ‘basic’ or ‘primary’ emotions dates back at least to the Book of Rites, a first-century Chinese encyclopedia that identifies seven ‘feelings of men’: joy, anger, sadness, fear, love, disliking, and liking.” Burton adds that “in the 20th century, Paul Ekman identified six basic emotions” which is widely accepted as the most common theory.
Emotions literally are energy in motion and that energy can alter the our energetic frequency and voltage affecting our health and wellness.
Negative emotions do us a great favor by urging us to pay attention and change what we’re doing.
The next time you have emotional pain, or any kind of emotional upset, try the Emotional Freedom Method and notice how it frees you from having to repeat the painful thoughts or memories over and over again.
The Emotional Freedom Method
Bring the feeling up in your mind . Close your eyes and bring the memory or feeling up in your mind. Be very specific and insert as much detail as you can. If the emotion feels overwhelming, you can open your eyes, take a few deep breaths to calm your feelings, and then close your eyes when you are ready.
Embody the emotion. Now notice where you feel your emotion in your body. Stay with the feeling and begin to scan your body until you find it. It might be stress felt in your abdomen, tension in your shoulders, a tight jaw, a heavy heart. Stick with it until you find the feeling in your body.
Name it to tame it. Now name your feeling such as shame, guilt, fear, sadness, anger, grief, rage, panic, anxiety, etc. You cannot tame it unless you can name it.
Express yourself. You must express your emotion. You can do it through journaling, yelling into a pillow, talking to a friend or therapist, hitting a punching bag or pillow, screaming in your car, into a pillow ,or in a private setting. You can write a song and sing it. You can write a story and share it. Be creative in how you express, but make sure you release it from your body.
Give it away. Ayurvedic medicine has a ritual called Tarpana. Tarpana is a ceremony in which you let go of painful memories, thoughts, beliefs, and emotions. You can write your painful memory down on paper and feed it to a fire. You can place the memory or feeling into something you find in nature and set it afloat in water, allowing Mother Nature to wash your pain away. You can plant a tree or any kind of plant in memory of someone you lost. Ritual is a beautiful way of honoring your feelings and allowing them to be honored without having them stored in your body.