*READ FIRST

I do not recommend using this video for emotions tied to traumatic experiences, though you can absolutely discuss this concept with your licensed mental healthcare professional.

Studies in psychology and neuroscience have shown that the initial chemical “dump” that comes with an emotional reaction take about 90 seconds to complete their cycle from initial dump to flushing out. Other studies show that this can be a bit of an oversimplification, as many factors come into play when dealing with experiences that may be more traumatic.

The commonality across all these studies though, is that suppressing emotion often leads to a much longer emotional experience. They all also show that naming the feeling or emotion in the moment and allowing the discomfort of the emotion to exist without pushing it down, can break the loop of suppression and rumination, increase your capacity to manage daily stressors and increase your own emotional intelligence and presence.

For this session, my intention is to guide you through how you can sit with feelings from average daily stressors; feeling overwhelmed by tasks, frustration with circumstances or anger or frustration with work, just to name some general triggers. We take a moment to get quiet, listen to our bodies and name the sensation or name the exact emotion, then allow it to simply exist for 90 seconds.

You do not have to feel and acknowledge everything all at once, this is the beauty of somatic work to me. If you can focus on the body sensation first and allow that to guide you, you can often build your stress tolerance and emotional attunement, without feeling entirely consumed by the initial trigger.