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Greetings from the Institute of HeartMath,
Notice and Ease™—A Tool for Emotional Renewal
The interconnectivity we experience through cell phones, television and the internet keeps us apprised of stressful events almost as they occur – in our families, at work and school and in the world. This "instant messaging" can tax our emotional systems. Ongoing emotional reactivity to stress can lead to uneasiness and anxiety.
We can’t transform draining emotions until we learn to admit what we are feeling and how our bodies are responding. By admitting a feeling, whatever it is – worry, anxiety, frustration, anger, hurt, resistance, numbness or even a vague disturbance we can’t put our finger on – we slow down the emotional energy running through our system. Being honest about naming what we are feeling helps regulate our emotional energy and gives us more power. We can then redirect emotional energy to work for us instead leaving us feeling drained throughout the day.
Use Notice and Ease as soon as you start to feel anxious, tense, worried or sad. It’s important to notice – become emotionally aware and acknowledge what you feel – and ease – befriend the reaction by holding it in your heart, then letting the feeling ease out of your system. If you try fighting your feelings or pushing them away, they will only gain energy. Befriending your feelings with the Notice and Ease tool takes the intensity or steam out and helps you clear the passing energy. Keep using this tool for one minute or longer, until you feel something lighten up, even if you don’t get an immediate complete release.
Notice and Ease is the basic tool for identifying and neutralizing unwanted emotions. You can learn to release a lot of disturbed feelings and stop their energy drain by doing the following simple steps:
- Notice and admit what you are feeling.
(In the first step, noticing and admitting what you are feeling requires slowing down and taking stock.)
- Try to name the feeling.
(In the second step, try to name the feeling – like anxiousness, Depression, frustration, a vague discomfort and so on. Just naming the feeling to yourself helps you admit what you are feeling.)
- Tell yourself to e-a-s-e as you gently focus in the heart, relax as you breathe, and e-a-s-e the stress out.
(In the third and final step, as you tell yourself to ease in your heart, relax and ease the stressful emotion out, just feel as if the unwanted emotion is leaving your system. Don’t force it out; ease it out.)
I hope you find Notice and Ease a useful tool. Please feel free to share this message with a friend.
Heartfully,
Brian Kabaker
P.S. The above has been adapted from the e-booklet The Power of Emotion and the soon-to-be-published (September 2007) Transforming Depression, by Doc Childre and Deborah Rozman – New Harbinger Publications.
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