How The Body Shows Emotion
The body shows everything.
When people feel shame they stand with their head hanging down. They’re slouched and unable to visualize their surroundings.
Maybe you feel like you can’t take up space. So you make yourself smaller by curling in your shoulders and folding your arms.
When you feel depressed, does your body collapse or tighten up?
We are always displaying how we feel. Usually through our posture or other ways of interacting with the world. And whenever we feel an intense emotion, our state is exaggerated.
Sometimes we lose our ways of interacting with the world physically because of trauma, illness, an accident, or other reasons. Sometimes we become conditioned to move in a certain way. We have to reinvent this.
The more options you have in your movement vocabulary, the more options you have when responding to stressors.
You can literally rewrite history by creating different types of movement. This does not mean that you need to be physically fit or fully mobile to access different ways of moving in the world. We can achieve this despite illness or physical limitations. Sometimes it means getting creative.
I want you to think of ways you can YIELD, PUSH, REACH, GRAB AND PULL.
– Yielding is how you are in contact with the world while resting. It is about the state of being versus doing.
– Pushing separates oneself from the immediate environment. This is how you feel, establish, and maintain boundaries. It can be as simple as raising your hand, walking or turning away, or shaking your head no.
– Reaching is how you extend. It is how you invite others in and can feel vulnerable. You can shake hands, hug, or even reach with your eyes.
– Grabbing & Pulling is how you grasp something in the environment and bring it closer to you. This can be done by extending out a hand or asking for something.
Some of you may have a lot of trouble with pushing. It feels foreign to set up boundaries. Maybe you have trouble with reaching & inviting people in.
Take note of your typical posture when you are resting, pushing, reaching, or grabbing.
Is there a certain type of movement that makes you more uncomfortable?
How can you work on expanding your movement vocab?