Emotion: a force of nature

Emotions and the body and movement are all part of the same system. Emotion is just energy in motion. Thoughts are energy, once they are energized by continual attention, resonation in the body, or both, they become emotions.

I think of emotions as forces of nature. They transfer between people, create environments, and are extremely powerful. Sometimes they are too powerful to control and cause people to do crazy stuff such as crimes of passion. Usually when someone has a very strong opinion on something, it is because they have emotions associate with them. Someone who has faced cancer themselves or in their families are much more likely to take an interest in finding a cure than someone who has no emotional investment. In social interactions, eliciting emotional investment is one of the most important things you can do to keep people’s interest. If you have emotions driving you towards a goal, you are more likely to work hard.

There are endless examples of how emotions can impact us. If we could intentionally harness this power, it could change lives.

Harnessing the Power of Emotions Through Movement

As previously stated, emotions are just energy in motion. The key to harnessing emotion is controlling the focus of your mind and circulating the energy through your mody. The mindbody system is called to action. If you want to create an environment of comfort, first you think something comforting. This could be a time someone made you feel comfortable, cats, cozy blankets, etc. Really experience this, try using techniques from my visualization article. What are the smells, sights, feelings? What was the person wearing, where were you? Then you take those thoughts and begin to move it through your body. I learned how to move the thought through my body in a movement improvisation class. No specific movement has to be taken, but for this example it shouldn’t be something to completely exhaust you. Try power poses, dancing to music, or doing yoga with the intention of bringing you goal into existence. Once you feel the energy circulating, bask in the power and learn what you can from it. Be the conduit for action.

A classic power pose

If you are trying to use an emotion right away in a social situation, you have to make yourself experience the emotion. This is basically the same as the last paragraph, but executed in a shorter time span. For example, creating trust. Visualize a time when someone confided in you. Make sure you gesticulate. It is necessary. Move through your hands, arms, facial expressions, make physical contact, if something is funny walk away when you laugh and return to the interaction space. When you interact, allow this energy to be the filter for all of your actions. The subtle movements which humans pick up on will all appear genuine. If you can engage with others in this state, do so. When you show this warmth to someone like a waiter or a random person on the street through a good natured joke or comment, the person you are with will gain a reference experience of your good nature and trust you more. Once you lay the foundation, continue to build. Your emotions will cause their emotions and they will come to associate you with those feelings.

Alex Grey

This technique will cause you to create an aura of comfort around yourself. If you do this for manipulative reasons, it can work, but the facade will inevitably crumble. If you do it because this is a genuine expression of yourself, then it will integrate into your being and change the way people respond to you indefinitely. You will attract more warm, trustworthy people into your life and eventually change your entire lifestyle. Simple little mentality shifts can change everything. Based on my understanding, this is the idea behind the yoga of knowledge/wisdom in the bhagavad gita. The more you know, the more you can change your perception of the world for your benefit. The more you change your perception of the world for your benefit, the easier it is to create the life you want for yourself. Everything is opinion, who we are depends on the story we tell ourselves. Never forget, the universe works mentally.

Krishna showing God's true form

Refrences:

• -Bhagavid Gita: https://www.amazon.com/Bhagavad-Easwarans-Classics-Indian-Spirituality/dp/1586380192
• -Yoga sutras of Patanjali: https://www.amazon.com/Yoga-Sutras-Patanjali-Swami-Satchidananda/dp/1938477073/ref=pd_sbs_14_t_1?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=P7PYGMVDGM9NQBYHWX2X
• -The mental Universe: http://henry.pha.jhu.edu/The.mental.universe.pdf
• The yoga of wisdom: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jnana_yoga
• -The Power of Now: https://www.amazon.com/Power-Now-Guide-Spiritual-Enlightenment/dp/1577314808

- -Power Poses: https://www.ted.com/talks/amy_cuddy_your_body_language_shapes_who_you_are