Feelings With Registration In The Body - The Quality Of Life

We have all come across more than once how any acute experience is reflected in the state of our body. Fear paralyzes, love causes the urge to touch, stress "burns from the inside", and success gives a feeling of weightlessness. At such moments, we physically feel emotions, our soul.

FLOWS AND SUBSTANCES

The body in our inner perception is not "bones" or "meat", it is uniform light, lightness, coolness in case of good health. In the case of a bad one - lumps of heaviness, heat, compaction, darkening at the level of the head, chest or abdomen and the zone of desolation, cooling, rarefaction at the level of the arms and legs.

If the mind ("new psyche") operates with ideas and images, then the vegetative level of our being ("ancient psyche") operates with sensations: here flows, substances, objects. It is no coincidence that my first book was called Things in the Body. Of course, we are not talking about literal understanding of words. "A stone in the soul" is an image of the habitual tension of the autonomic nervous system during anxiety, "dust" in the solar plexus area during fear is an image of a danger signal. Etc. But if for the brain it is just "associations", then for the ancient part of our psyche it is a reality experienced literally, and you can work with it.

TERRITORIES OF EXPERIENCE

Sensations in the body say a lot about the mental states that we experience, and each experience is related to a specific level of the body. Experiences, such as anger, irritation, anger, differ in that they occupy different “territories”. Irritation occupies the temples, anger occupies the chest, anger occupies the stomach.

Or here's another group of experiences of the same direction, but on different "registers" of our being: anxiety, anxiety, fear. These seem to be synonyms. But this is not the case. In somatopsychology, these states differ according to the levels of the body: fear is felt at the level of the abdomen, anxiety at the level of the chest, anxiety at the level of the forehead. Is this not the origin of their names: anxiety "in thoughts", "heart" anxiety, "animal" fear?

RELATIONSHIP NOTES

Even small things could appear in the register of marks on the body, such as the consequences of unrevealed gratitude to the abandoned walls (say, a school) or discarded containers (boxes, bottles, bags). In particular, these areas are located on the sternum below the level of the nipples. Hands from shoulders to fingertips are carriers of relationships with trees, grasses, amphibians, birds. I used a tree on the farm without a feeling of gratitude to it - my shoulder broke. Once upon a time he burned grass - a lesion in the "shoulder girdle". Sins before birds are recorded below - in the area of the forearms, but in front of animals - in the area of the legs.

The consequences of mental trauma and stagnant stress tend to "sit down" on the body and accumulate. Each of them corresponds to the configuration of sensations and the levels of the body that they strike. In response to a feeling of insufficient competence - uncertainty; an unresolved problem - anxiety; the uncertainty of the future - anxiety; to fear - fear. To annoying lectures - irritation; disappointment, deception of expectations - resentment; aggression, insult - anger, anger; betrayal, treason - thirst for revenge, jealousy, etc.

THE BOOK OF LIFE

As a result, the thought arises that our body is a book from which you can read everything about our life experience, about those experiences that we constantly carry in ourselves, not finding the strength to properly process them. Each person is sometimes a bearer of tens and even hundreds of "unfinished experiences". There are usually three to five "massive" experiences that noticeably affect the circuit of self-awareness. They are laid down at critical periods of life.

Such periods often include "normal" and even joyful, at first glance, events: a trip to the first grade of school or a change of residence. However, any change in life can cause significant stress.

AIRBAG

The property of both adaptive stresses and injuries is to accumulate. Once they arise in order to save a person in a difficult situation, they do not pass on their own, just as a self-activated airbag in a car does not remove itself. Maintenance is essential.

The accumulation of stress and trauma has a bad effect on the mental state, on health in general, on success and a person's feeling of happiness. If you neglect the signals of the body, then it suffers for a long time, but not indefinitely. At some point, sometimes after 20-25 years, a person may be "covered" by depression, "burnout syndrome", and illness may occur.

But there is good news: the book of our experiences can be read and even rewritten.

Where do emotions live?

Head:

• forehead - anxiety;
• whiskey - irritation;
• back of the head - responsibility, the need to control the situation;
• crown - osteochondrosis of the spine, "underfilling" of the head (later we will talk about bodily sensations of extrapsychic origin).

Chest:

resentment, anxiety, anger, melancholy, grief.

Abdomen:

solar plexus area - fear, anger.

SOMATOPSYCHOLOGY AND PSYCHOCATALYSIS

Psychocatalysis, a method of work based on sensations, allows you to process experiences not only at the level of the head, but also at the level of the "body" - the autonomic nervous system and deeper. Thanks to this, even severe disorders such as phobias, panic attacks pass quickly and permanently.

There are two main components in the work: working out, disbanding the old, spontaneously formed contour with damage to the autonomic nervous system and the formation of a new one, based on experience and calmness.

For this type of work, patients' complaints: "a lump of resentment in the chest", "a fog of anxiety in the forehead", "a steel plate for controlling the situation in the back of the head", "a medusa of fear in the stomach", "a dagger of betrayal in the back" and others are taken to work with knowledge the fact that for the ancient part of our being these are "diagnoses", and not just turns of speech. How does a person usually describe their feelings? “Cats scratch their hearts,” “tears the tower,” and so on, and stops there. And in psychocatalysis, this is only the first - the diagnostic phase of the psychotherapeutic work itself.

After the story about “cats” and “tower”, the patient can hear clarifying questions: “How many cats? Colour? Dimensions? Did you start to tear your heart at the same time, or did you gradually connect? Are the walls of the tower thick, thin? Is there something gaseous, liquid in it?"

Therapy based on sensations opens up an amazing opportunity through such questions to go to the definition in the space of consciousness of the factor that provokes the experience.

Indian and psychocatalysis

One day an Indian asked his neighbor for some tobacco. He put his hand in his pocket and gave him a handful. The next day the Indian returns to his neighbor with a gold coin, which he found in tobacco. They ask him: "Why didn't you leave this coin with you?" The Indian puts his hand on his chest and answers: “Here, in my heart, there are two spirits: one is good, the other is bad. A good spirit told me: "You must give this coin to the owner, it is not yours." The bad spirit, on the contrary, began to say to me: "It is yours, they gave it to you." I didn't know what to do and went to bed. But the two spirits quarreled with each other all night, and I did not fall asleep for a minute. That's why I don't want to deal with this coin. " In the case of the Indian, three instances figured in his mind: two “horizontal” (“spirits”) at chest level and one “vertical” integrating - wisdom,representing the interests of the organism as a whole. The Indian happily avoided identifying himself with one of the "spirits." It is this position in relation to neurotic, dead-end experiences that psychocatalysis cultivates - the practice of internal work with experiences, based on bodily sensations. In the process of changing sensations in the body, the contour of sensations is aligned, the state of energy completeness is formed. Against the backdrop of a newfound serenity, the patient discovers an amazing ability to be wise, to find everyday solutions like those demonstrated by the Indian in the above story.based on bodily sensations. In the process of changing sensations in the body, the contour of sensations is aligned, the state of energy completeness is formed. Against the backdrop of a newfound serenity, the patient discovers an amazing ability to be wise, to find everyday solutions like those demonstrated by the Indian in the above story.based on bodily sensations. In the process of changing sensations in the body, the contour of sensations is aligned, the state of energy completeness is formed. Against the backdrop of a newfound serenity, the patient discovers an amazing ability to be wise, to find everyday solutions like those demonstrated by the Indian in the above story.

REVERSE SYMPTOMS DEVELOPMENT

Fright most often goes through the crown. In it, a "hatch" is opened for a while, and through it the body leaves everything that unpleasantly struck a person at the moment of temporary loss of stability. Injuries, negative impressions received in the womb leave through the navel, and those inherited through the birth line leave the space of consciousness through the legs. The signals that caused the tension leave in the form of dark energy or some kind of finely dispersed suspension. Sometimes it is obvious rubbish or even stones. There are also "abstract" things - red and yellow triangles, for example. But these associations are insignificant and in no way are an end in itself. The process of letting go of the unnecessary, not serving life, is essential. In all cases, the principle of reverse development of symptoms is used. The work goes on without struggle, due to ever deeper tranquility.

Sensations serve as a unique access not only to the diagnosis of a condition that has developed at the level of the autonomic nervous system, but also to a cure. A person's conscious attention helps the wisdom of the body, and even long-term fears are healed in the shortest possible time. Working with feelings can also increase a person's success, for example, help him learn a foreign language quickly and with pleasure.

Our ability to sense the movement of signals in our inner space provides a unique opportunity for self-regulation. It is as if nature has added intrigue to human life. “I will save you automatically, using all your reserves, but I’ll leave it to you to recover from stress. If you find out the answer to how to do this, you will survive, you won’t find out - I’m not to blame,”and looks with interest …

Human constructive drawing

Task ¹: Draw a human figurine from rectangular, round and triangular elements. The total number of elements in the figure is 10. The size of the elements can be any. When you have attached all 10 elements, sign the age of the character.

I have been using this test in my psychotherapy practice for about 25 years. In my opinion, it conveys well the state of the person who drew it. To build a human figurine, you need at least six elements: a head, a torso, two arms, two legs. Where four more elements are heading is the most interesting. It is good if they went to the image of the periphery (hands, feet), worse - when to the elements of the head or body. A large and multi-element head reflects the accumulated tension at the level of the central nervous system, a rounded body reflects the excitement of the autonomic nervous system: fear, anger or other states of tension after injury. The drawing conveys your sense of self. And self-awareness depends on your state, on what level of your being is activated in connection with the events that happened at that age,which you assigned to the character. Such drawings with a large head and small arms and legs are often created by people who are restless, sensitive, emotionally warm, “thin-skinned”. Triangles are elements that appear in the place of nutritional deficiency, content, filling.

^{1 The} authors of the test task are V. V. and A. V. Libin, the author of the interpretation is A. F. Ermoshin, the details of the interpretation of the figures are reflected in the book by A. F.

EXPERT OPINION

Body emotions

Often, human suffering, mental and physical, are combined in the form of negative emotions “frozen” in the body. While these emotional phenomena seem to us to be bodily, they actually arise in the brain and are only reflected in the body. The body serves as a projection "screen" for the brain. Why does the brain play emotional games on the bodily field? Thus, he "communicates" with himself - the subconscious speaks with consciousness, intrapersonal communication takes place. The body turns out to be a "bridge" that connects the two halves of our "I", connected with the cerebral hemispheres - conscious (left) and subconscious (right). We need such a process every time something exciting and not logical happens (the less logic, the more emotions - and vice versa). This mechanism provides a more flexible adaptation to the situation, making optimal decisions.

But why do emotions sometimes "get stuck" in the body, become static? This happens if the decision is not possible and an intrapsychic conflict occurs. In addition to this, emotions are restrained, cannot be expressed due to social prohibitions, taboos.

How to deal with these emotions? To know yourself, to understand what exactly the manifestations of emotions in body language mean. And this language is very individual, intended for intrapersonal use. In addition, it is polysemantic, a bodily statement of the subconscious can contain several layers of meaning, embedded in each other, like a nesting doll. Ready-made, typical interpretations reveal only a superficial meaning. The techniques of dialogue with the body (focusing, body-intuitive introspection, symbolic modeling) are used for a deeper understanding. They rely on associations and age regression, a return to an earlier (usually childhood) age, help to find an answer to the question: "When else was there such a feeling?" When the "translation" from the bodily language into the verbal one is received, it is already possible to "come to an agreement" with the subconscious, to remove the internal conflict. As the well-known maxim says, if it is impossible to change external circumstances, change yourself without changing yourself. Both consciously and subconsciously.

Mark SANDOMIRSKY,

PhD in Medicine, Psychotherapist of the European Registry