Emotional Well-Being

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Emotional Well-Being and Self-Awareness

(Estimated reading time: 3 min, 24 sec)

Q: How do we achieve emotional well-being by consciously working on ourselves?

The human body is constantly moving in its environment, searching for the most comfortable position and the greatest possible well-being.

Something unconscious, something instinctive, makes us choose the destination of our trip or the table at the restaurant. It even makes us decide how to put our foot on the ground to keep our balance or to find the least painful position if we have calluses on our feet.

This instinctive part of us “knows” what is good for us at the moment; if we listen to it, we will live a better and healthier life.

But this rarely happens; since childhood, we have learned to subordinate instinct to rationality.

The latter does not tolerate limitations, even if they come from physiological and emotional needs.

The control of the body prevails over its real needs, and it is difficult to find a balance that will allow you to stop before it is too late and you are pushed to excess, to the point of imperfection or, even worse, illness.

Why does this happen?

The Physical Body and Emotionality

Emotionality — made up of more subtle energy — remodels and almost “sculpts” the physical body, which is heavier and denser.

If we look at a small child in whom emotionality is developing rapidly and freely, we notice the elasticity and softness of the tissues. If we look at an old man, he suffers the wear and tear of time, but too often he suffers from ailments that have a different origin. Emotions (and especially emotional blocks) transform the physical body, for the better or for the worse; since it is the machine we need to live at this level, the better it works, the better we live.

We seek, without realizing it, the emotional environment that we like the most — or that reassures us the most — and we try to live in it as long as possible, even at the expense of our inner well-being.

Emotional Malaise

It’s clear that when we want to meet people, we’re drawn to those with similar energy. We tend to avoid those with different energies. But how do we handle the emotions that arise within us? Are they the ones that make us feel uncomfortable or good? We can choose to distance ourselves from people or environments that don’t align with our preferences, but we can’t do that with ourselves.

We protect ourselves by denying emotional malaise, by distracting, and by oversimplifying. But ignored emotional energy accumulates and damages the physical body as well.

Psychophysical Well-Being and Introspection

The problems of the physical body can lead us back to emotional distress.

There are schools that teach how to “read” postures and signs on the physical body like an open book; Chinese medicine itself links the body to the emotional state.

It is possible to bring relief and restore balance with physical exercises, manipulations, and treatments — caring for the physical body.

However, if you do not consciously work on the emotions — the cause of the discomfort — the discomfort will return.

For psychophysical well-being, we should also manage our emotionality. If we let our emotions flow, they help us feel good. If we block them instead, they explode like bombs. We live in constant emotional turmoil, trying to avoid unpleasant emotions, such as fear and dissatisfaction. We divert them to others that are more comforting, but too often take us out of the emotional reality in which we should be living.

We behave self-unconsciously, like desperate alcoholics who tell themselves they’ll stop drinking when they want to.

But the emotional reality dictates, and when we ignore it, we pay the consequences.

You can lose energy by exhausting your body — through exercise or hectic work. This helps to deflate the balloon just enough to keep it from bursting. But you are always at risk, because — as soon as an accident or something else forces you into inactivity — the emotion comes back.

You can take alcohol and drugs, but they weaken you.

Working on Emotional Well-Being

Working on Emotional Well-Being

When Beatrix approached inner research, she had this reaction:

“What I understand about myself makes me feel worse! I contact aspects of myself that I don’t like! And what I want, I can’t get anyway!”

How many people feel this way?

How many introspective seekers have experienced periods of doubt and discouragement?

Sometimes you feel disappointed because you can’t burden others with your discomfort; or because there is still no medicine that can restore our health and vitality without any effort on our part.

One day, I heard my mother muttering: “Is it possible that in the 21st century they still haven’t found a way to make people feel better?”

We try to rely on miraculous intervention from the outside for our well-being; we feel trapped but deny that we also participate in the construction of our cage.

Who admits that the situations they live in depend on their attitudes? That they are where they wanted to be?

Years ago, I read Goddreck’s “Book of the ID.” It says that everything that happens to us — from a slip on the sidewalk to the breakup of our relationship, from illness to the loss of our engagement ring — happens with our silent participation. Something inside us is working to make things happen. This intrigued and angered me at the same time.

I wanted to avoid facing such a responsibility, but I was curious to know more. “Is this possible?”

Introspection — Emotional Exploration for Conscious Living

Emotional exploration is based on the desire to know more, to explore shadow areas.

When you have it, you observe within yourself, and bring to light your innermost intentions — those that set the direction of your life, those that make things “happen”-.

This work for emotional well-being will also improve your health and your whole life.

How does it work?

There is a difference between moving forward in the dark, flapping here and there, and moving forward with an illuminated flashlight in your hand. A flashlight that casts a wide beam of light as you walk.

Sometimes, children refuse a medicine because it’s bitter; or, maybe, they don’t want to hear that it’s good for them. They live, to quote Lowen, on the pleasure principle and not on the reality principle.

Is Health a Right?

It would be nice to be well all the time and to be able to silence any every small or big inconvenience without having to suffer. We believe that health, like life, is a right!

People prefer aspirin to emotional exploration, but if you don’t get to the root of the problem, it will come back in the same form or in a different way. Introspection is an arduous task only if we don’t give up any of our physical habits, thinking habits, or emotional states.

It is not necessary to make great sacrifices or drastic changes to improve our emotional well-being. It is simply a matter of looking at what is boiling in the pot, recognizing our body’s tensions, and considering them as energy blockages. We need to allow the energy to flow instead of blocking it.

Identifying Physical Tension

Is that it?

That’s it. But it’s not as simple as it seems; we’re not used to paying attention to physical tension until it turns into a stiffness or spasm.

What are the benefits of blocking energy and emotions?

There are many: to gain the power that makes you feel important, stronger, and more secure; the power that allows you to stand out or to impose yourself on others, to get ahead by elbowing, to do what you want and to demand that others do what you want.

So, if you have a load of anger, you can attack and scare people; if you have a load of sadness, you can receive compassion and support; if you have hate, you can hit, coerce, and dominate, etc.

The list is endless, and we only need to look around to understand how the mechanism works. But what does this have to do with health?

The energy I accumulate affects me first.
The physical body becomes like a battlefield where war is always raging. This is because blocked energy creates a vicious and unconscious cycle of habits of thought and behavior that are as ironclad as they are harmful. It is like a drop of water falling in the same place over and over again. It is well known what it can do. There is no “good” energy that, when blocked, does not deteriorate and demand to be heard and released.

How Can Mindful Observation Help?

Observation focuses on the issue. People can only choose to maintain or change their habits if they are aware of what is happening inside them.

By observing, I allow the energy to emerge and flow. My attention acts as a catalyst and promotes the transformation.

To observe, we must be neutral; otherwise, we are releasing energy from one cage and putting it into another.

Our energy knows how to achieve emotional well-being.

If allowed, it can free an area of the body from the tension that has prevented it from functioning properly.

Aurora Mazzoldi