Part 1 Emotional Intelligence ...
Borrowing Emotional Wisdom by Lisa Baas
Feellings are mercurial qualities of awareness in us human beings. They are very primitive, instinctual and can be very reliable messages from our sensory perception body. Feelings are basic to our ability to know our selves. But feelings have long been a mysterious and misunderstood part of our senses. Feelings have been over looked, avoided, and judged by our mental, scientific and patriarchal culture. Emotions have been relegated to children’s naivete, women’s hysteria and intellectual weakness. But I have learned that feelings are a highly complex and often instantaneous information mechanism revealing the true, deeper parts of our being. Feelings give us data from our heart and soul.
I can't say that I am a master of emotional wisdom but here are some ideas I have gathered from various traditions on emotional intelligence.
Classically trained psycho-therapists would say our commonly repeated emotions are rooted in our unresolved childhood traumas. In crisis or times of stress we repeat these emotions that are buried in our primitive brain where they are stored. Our primitive brain has no concept of time or logic and emotions get repeated because they are old patterns of survival. Through analysis and understanding of our original trauma we can hope to be aware of our old patterns enough to break free of them.
Traditional healing of emotions doesn’t focus on revealing the origin of the problem through analysis, but rather the gaining of awareness and the training of the heart and mind and one’s actions in everyday life through positive practices. Here are a few examples of emotional intelligence from the holistic point of view.
Chinese Medicine would say some emotions have physiological roots in our body. Dysfunction in an organ system can cause an unhealthy emotion. Anger and frustration come from the liver. Joy or the lack of joy comes from the heart. Grief comes from the lungs. Worry comes from the spleen and fear comes from the kidneys. Emotional balance comes from making balance within the body through diet, acupuncture, herbs, meditation, qi gong and massage or just good balanced living! This theory has correlations with physiology, as the adrenal glands regulate cortisol which governs the fight and flight response. Bile which is a product of the liver gall bladder system is known to cause emotional irritation when found in high quantities circulating in the blood, and so forth.
The Taoist’s goal is to cleanse the body of negative emotions by circulating energy through out the body and by staying grounded and centered focused in the energy of the dan tien or lower body energy center. Qi Gong, Meditation and breathing exercises calm the mind, soothe emotions and redirect energy from the hot headed upper body to the calm strength of the cooler, yin aspect of the lower body. Practicing these exercises bring health, vitality, strength and inner peace. Mantak Chia’s microcosmic orbit is a great meditation exercise to circulate one’s vital qi force and to bring one’s energy down. Here are some links to some Qi Gong masters’ work:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6BuvZRIDmI4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U3bDCu3NEoA
to be continued...
