Imagine yourself as a musical instrument.
Photo by Wonderlane on Unsplash
Pretend for a moment that you’re a piano, or a guitar, or a drum.
Imagine the edges of your body being the walls of the instrument, and imagine feeling the hollowness inside. Your body as a resonance chamber for the sound the instrument will emit.
Imagine now the music being played, and imagine the waves of sound moving through the instrument. Invisible vibrations that are nonetheless absolutely real. The walls of the instrument feel the sound and move at the frequency of the vibrations from the keys being struck, the strings being pulled, or the hyde of the drum being tapped.
That is exactly what happens with your emotions.
Emotions are not too different from sound. They are very real vibrations even though we can’t see them. But we do perceive them with different sensory organs. Our ears, in the case of sound; and our kinesthetic, and chemical receptors throughout every cell in our bodies, in the case of emotions.
Each emotion carries a specific frequency that is measurable in Hertz. The highest frequency emotions being peace, joy and love; and the lowest frequency emotions being shame, guilt and apathy.
Just as you would hear the sound moving through space, the vibrations of your emotions are not only clearly felt within your body, but they too are projected into the space around you.
That’s why if someone in a really bad mood or “vibe” walks into a room, you will notice the change in the room. The person doesn’t need to say anything in order for you to know that they’re not feeling joyful or at peace.
So what’s the point?
The point is that your emotions are not only real, they are very powerful.
They are powerful because they touch every single cell in your body. And just as the guy with the bad vibes affected the energy in the room, your emotions will affect the chemistry inside each cell.
This can be a really good thing, and of course it also has some not-so-great implications for your health.
My favorite example of the negative impact of emotions on our physical health is the one famously told by Anita Moorjani in her book, Dying To Be Me. Anita shares her story of her near death experience (NDE), when she was in full organ failure, dying from stage IV lymphoma. In her NDE, she became acutely aware that it was her fear that had fueled her cancer all along. The enormity of the experience she had during her NDE allowed her to come back to life without any fear (of death, cancer or anything) and within days her tumors started to disappear. She walked out of the hospital several weeks later and has never had cancer again.
Fear is a powerfully low vibration. So is guilt and shame. Those low vibrations will lower the vibration of your cells and negatively impact your health.
So why did I label this article “the gifts and messages” from your emotions.
How is this a gift?
The gift is that you can feel your emotions. You can pay attention to the “vibe” you are emitting. You can listen and receive the messages they’re carrying.
Let’s go back to the musical instrument analogy.
The sound that you hear is the output from a cord being struck. Emotions, like the audible sound wave, are also an output.
Where is the guitar string in our body that generates our emotional “sounds”?
The equivalent of the guitar string or piano key in your body is your thoughts and beliefs.
When you strike the cord of a specific thought (regardless of whether it’s a conscious thought or a subconscious one) an emotional vibration is created. Exactly as with the instrument.
We can’t always know the exact content of our thoughts, especially not the subconscious ones, but we can always feel our emotional state. Just like we may not see the piano in the neighbor’s house, but we can hear the music she’s playing.
When you tune in to listen to the background music of your emotions (which is ever-present by the way,) you become aware of the quality of vibrations you’re emitting from moment to moment, for the benefit or harm to your cells and the world around you.
That’s the first gift: the opportunity to become aware of where you are vibrationally.
The second gift is the opportunity to do something about it and become the master of your emotional and creative state.
That’s when you can begin to truly and profoundly master your health, your relationships and the experiences you have on a daily basis.
So let me lay out what might be some steps to follow:
Pay attention to the “sound” of your emotions in your body
Become fully aware and own the experience of the emotion (rather than trying to push it away)
Be curious and explore what’s underneath it. Can you identify the thoughts or beliefs that gave rise to it?
Respond with mastery: if you notice positive feelings and positive thoughts, then bask in them. If you notice that the feelings and thoughts are not positive, here are three different ways to move through the emotion:
Move into compassion for the younger version of yourself that created the thought or belief that shows up in these feelings
Become aware of the story of origin of the emotion, and discern whether it is something that needs deeper work, as in the case of painful or traumatic past experiences
Notice that perhaps the thought doesn’t belong to you and replace it with a more life-affirming, positive thought
When you are able to move through these steps, you learn how to profoundly shift your state of being rather than avoiding feeling a certain way, which equates to refusing to receive the message that your feeling brings.
All emotions are perfectly valid and useful.
All of your emotions are great messengers. The more you pay attention, the better you get at receiving these messages and transforming them into the gifts of self-awareness and personal mastery.
Want to develop greater mastery over your health?
Join me on January 29th
…for a free masterclass I’ll be teaching via live webinar:
The Alchemy of Health: Mastering The 5 Principles That Create A Vibrant Body
You can see the details and register here.