But How Does It Make You FEEL?
Last week I wrote about the Manomaya Kosha or mental, emotional and sensory sheath of our beings. I wanted to shed a little more light on this layer of our being since it tends to be the most dominant layer of the five Koshas recognized by the ancient yogis. It's such a big part of how most of us operate in the world that I thought there was a bit more interesting stuff to share (at least to me).
Most of us know Maya Angelou's famous quote, "I've learned people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but they will always remember how you made them feel." Maybe, like me, you sense some truth in this idea. But did you know that this idea that feelings trump thoughts or actions actually has proven to be a useful and powerful scientific theory? It's called the feeling tone theory.
Developed back in 1986, feeling tone theory suggests that our amazing brains file our many thoughts away as feeling tones or emotions on which we rely to make our primary decisions. Basically, it suggests that if we process our world as feelings process thoughts through feelings, we need to understand these feelings to make good decisions or change or grow.
Feelings shape every memorable experience or event in our lives. Emotions are the body's physiological reactions to our thoughts and external sensory stimulus. These emotions then create what we call feelings. This is a fascinating process scientifically and if you want to geek out on that simply check this article out. Most of us consider ourselves to be fairly logical and rational, but the same thoughts can feel very different for me and can generate completely different feelings for someone else. Have you spoken about politics with someone who feels very differently from you lately? It’s a frustrating experience and gets to the root of a big polarization in our country right now. We all just feel very differently about the information we are receiving.
Do you know anyone who tries to intellectualize every situation instead of feeling their feelings? This is very common in our society which values the intellect and reasoning so highly. But, what would our world look like if everyone felt what they were feeling and were able to process their feelings healthfully without supressing (consciously) or repressing (unconsciously) these feelings or try to explain them away for logic and reasoning? And what does all this feeling mumbo jumbo have to do with yoga?
Well, as the great Dr. David Hawkins surmises in his book The Pathway of Surrender, "consequently there is a scientific basis for the observation that self-awareness is increased far more rapidly by observing feelings rather than thoughts. The thoughts associated with even one feeling made literally run into the thousands. The understanding of the underlying emotion and its correct handling is therefore, more rewarding and less time-consuming than dealing with one’s thoughts.“
In short, we expand consciousness by feeling our feelings.
Dr. Lori Desautels says it well in her article about How Emotions Affect Learning, Behaviors, and Relationships:
"We need all of our emotions for thinking, problem solving, and focused attention. We are neuro-biologically wired, and to learn anything, our minds must be focused and our emotions need to "feel" in balance. Emotional regulation is necessary so that we can remember, retrieve, transfer, and connect all new information to what we already know. When a continuous stream of negative emotions hijacks our frontal lobes, our brain's architecture changes, leaving us in a heightened stress-response state where fear, anger, anxiety, frustration, and sadness take over our thinking, logical brains."
The field of somatic therapy has confirmed that the path to healing trauma lies in our ability and willingness to work with our layers of feelings and emotions around any past trauma in order to unwind and ultimately release this stored pain to create lasting healing. Sometimes in a crisis there are so many overwhelming feelings that keep getting triggered by habitual thoughts that it might take quite a bit of self-awareness (or a skillful somatic therapist) to unwind all of the layers of emotions that might be keeping a stuck in mental patterns that don’t serve us. My research around somatic therapy seems to point to the work of Peter A. Levine for a proficient exploration of this large body of work.
As we look back in our lives, we can witness the residue of past crises that shape our view of the world and trigger us into reacting in ways that are serving us. For example, people who know me well know that I'm afraid of all dogs. No matter the size or age or the purported friendliness or your dog- my traumatized brain has a hard time believing this dog is not a threat. This is because I hold deep within me the residue of this trauma from my several experiences with surprisingly aggressive dogs. Trust me when I tell you that this is something I wish to rid myself of and I constantly work to bring conscious awareness to this often irrational fear when I'm around your cute dogs so that I can release these emotions and be free.
It's working. I'm slowly starting to lay my fear down and enjoy the company of many dogs to the point that I honestly consider my friend Piper's dog Poncho to be my spirit animal. He's so awesome. I hope that some day I can offer even half of the joy that Poncho gives out on the daily. ; )
I know that yoga can give us a great work out and stretch. But if you’re ready to practice something greater than a good sweat or a good stretch then this practice also offers us an opportunity to bring some awareness not just to the physical body, but also to our feelings.
We can also practice lifting consciousness by releasing old emotions. We can find freedom. One of my favorite teachers, Donna Farhi takes this idea one step further when she says,
"The world doesn't really need more people who can bend their bodies into amazing positions. What it needs are kinder, more connected, compassionate, and generous people."
When we work on releasing negative emotions and building a higher awareness, we become more more of what we want to see in the world and it all comes from within each of us.
