start monday with gratitude

This week we were reminded that emotions at different ends of the spectrum, such as laughter and anger, cannot exist and arise at the same time.

We’re going to play with this through focusing on two different emotions, today and on a few subsequent days, and then observe how we feel and change as we move from one of those emotions to the other. This gives us practice recognising quickly when our vibration drops to a low level and enables us to find ways to raise our vibration to a higher level, one more attuned to that of gratitude.

Today we’re going to consider the emotion of anger and the emotion of joy.

Sit for a moment and think of something that makes you feel really angry, something that rubs you up the wrong way, something that really bothers you.

Let the emotion of anger really build within you and observe it.

Where do you feel anger in your body? How does it feel in your body? What happens to your mind and your thoughts when you focus on anger? Does anger have a temperature?

Make note of everything you observe about the emotion of anger.

And when you have taken note of everything you feel and sense, begin to think of something or someone that has brought you so much joy.

Remember that scenario, that situation, that person in great detail. Relive the joy you experienced.

As you feel the joy, notice what’s happening in your body. Notice how you feel, what thoughts are coming and going in your mind, what sensations you associate with joy.

Try to register and record as much detail around joy as you can.

How do the sensations and feelings related to anger differ from those related to joy? Do you experience a stark difference between the two?

In the few minutes it’s taken to do this exercise you’ve travelled from one end of the emotional spectrum to the other.

Which end do you feel most comfortable in? Which end of the spectrum feels more familiar to you? Which of the two emotions do you experience more frequently?

Today we’re going to focus on two emotional actions: stamping your feet and dancing.

If you have a child or have been around a child when they’re going through the “terrible twos” inevitably you’ll have experienced how they experience the emotion of frustration.

Because they’re still learning to deal with emotions, often they’re outwardly express them. And when they experience the emotion of frustration and struggle to release it, they will often literally stamp their feet.

Today I invite you to let your two-year-old inner child rise to the surface.

Today I invite you to focus on something that makes you feel really frustrated and act out that frustration like a child by stamping your feet.

How does it feel? Is it an effective way to display your emotion? Does it hurt in anyway, such as hurting your feet if you stamp for too long? Does your emotion of frustration lapse further and fall lower to an emotion of anger the longer you stamp your feet?

Notice everything you feel and sense through this experience and then I invite you to turn on some high vibe music.

Turn up the volume and dance.

How do you feel dancing compared with how you felt stamping your feet? How quickly did you feel the change in your body, emotionally, as you stopped stamping your feet and started to dance? Can you understand how different the two actions were for your body and, also, how different the two associated emotions were?

Today I’m inviting you to primarily look inward and focus solely on your thoughts.

Each of us has a light side to us, a positive side, and each of us has a shadow side to us, a more negative side.

Often when you look inward to ourselves, it’s difficult to honestly see the shadow side because none of us wants to admit that we have a darker side, a more negative side. It’s so much easier to see the shadow side in others around us.

So, today, we’ll keep it easy because the objective of this week is to become used to the how our body changes, depending on which side of the emotional spectrum we’re on. This week we’re learning to understand and tune into our bodies.

So, today, I invite you to choose someone you know well. It could be a friend or family member. It could even be a close colleague.

To start with think of anything hurtful they may have said or done to you or someone else.

As you think of one thing, think of more. Really start to see this person in a dark, negative light.

Did they let you down once or lie to you about something? Did they not support you in something important to you or did they remain silent when you feel they should have spoke up for you? What negative things have they done to you and to others?

Once you’ve thought up as many negative and dark things about them as you can, change your stance and begin to think of positive things about them. Like times when they were there for you when you needed a shoulder or just sat silently and listen as you opened your heart to them. What about times when you overheard them saying something wonderful and complimentary about you to another or the time when they backed you up in a conversation.

Looking back at this exercise, how quickly were you able to go from thinking negatively about someone to thinking positively about them? Could you move quickly, or did the negative thoughts linger for a while as you tried to focus on the positive? And how did you feel when you thought negatively about them versus how you felt when you thought positively about them?

Today I invite you to repeat yesterday’s exercise. Only today we’re going to reverse what we did.

So, focus on someone close to, someone different from yesterday.

When you have your chosen person in your mind, think positive things about that person. How they supported you in a trying time or lent a listening ear. How they stood up for you in an argument or told you how wonderful you are when you were feeling low.

Think as many positive thoughts about this person as you can.

And when you are finished, turn your focus to their dark, shadow side and focus on things they did that, perhaps, hurt you, that made you feel let down. Focus your thoughts on the negative and find fault in this person.

As you do so, take note of how quickly you could change your thinking about that person, moving from the positives to the negatives. Was it easy for you to move your thinking or did you struggle to move away from finding the positives to finding the negatives?

Compare your findings with yesterday. Were you able to move faster from negative thoughts to positive thoughts or from positive thoughts to negative thoughts? Which thoughts came more naturally to you? And what does this tell you about where your mind might feel more comfortable? How did you feel in your body when you were thinking positively about them compared to how you felt when you thought negatively about them? Did you notice a stronger or weaker change in your body moving from the positives to the negatives today or from the negatives to the positives yesterday?

So far, this week, we have been playing with emotions to help us recognise quickly when our vibration drops to a low level and to enable us to find ways to raise our vibration to a higher level, one more attuned to that of gratitude.

Today, rather than concentrate on two emotions at different ends of the spectrum, we’re going to work through a variety of emotions, each subsequent one carrying a higher frequency and vibration than the previous. This should help you tune even more deeply into your vibrational energy, not just so you can tell when your vibration has fallen to one associated with a more negative emotion, but to also notice how it changes subtly between emotions.

Find somewhere quiet to sit, on your own where you won’t be disturbed.

When you are ready, focus on the emotion of shame. Think of something you did in the past that you feel very ashamed about and focus on how that feels in your body.

Shame carries the lowest emotional frequency.

When you feel you’ve experienced shame in your body, then move your focus to the emotion of grief and take note of how that feels in your body and how it feels subtly different to the frequency of shame. If it helps, remember a time when you experienced grief.

When you are ready, move your focus to the emotion of anger. You’re only moving your attention to the emotion of anger. You don’t have to act out the emotion of anger. Simply feel it within your body and notice how subtly different it feels compared to grief.

Is the difference between shame and anger also subtle or a little less subtle?

Now move your attention towards the emotion associated with courage. How do you feel when you’re feeling courageous? Perhaps think of an example of a time when you acted courageously.

Can you feel a subtle difference in your body, in your vibration?

From courage we move our attention to acceptance.

When you accepted something in life, how did it feel? How does acceptance feel in your body? Can you see a clear difference between the emotion of acceptance and the emotion of shame, for example? And what about the other previous emotions; are there subtle differences between them and that of acceptance?

From acceptance, raise your vibration and frequency to that of love.

Think of someone, a person or a pet, whom you love with all your heart. How does that feel in your body? Can you feel your vibration become lighter and brighter as you move up the scale of emotions?

From love we move our attention to gratitude.

Do you notice a very subtle difference between how you feel with regards love and how you feel with regards gratitude?

The vibration of gratitude is equal to the vibration of joy, the 3rd highest vibrational energy, according to emotions recorded on a scale, next only to peace and enlightenment.

It might help to repeat this exercise a few times as the changes in your body may be quite subtle as you move up from one emotion to another.

Yesterday we moved up the scale of emotional frequencies from the lowest, shame, to one of the highest, gratitude.

Today I invite you to play around with the different frequencies to hone, even further, your understanding of how they impact your body and, therefore, your frequency and your impact on others.

Today we going to jump around the scale of emotional frequencies.

See how quickly you can jump from one emotion to another. Notice how each contrasting emotion feels in your body. And understand if you find it easier jumping from a low frequency to a higher one or vice versa.

Let’s start with the frequency of shame. Focus on it, perhaps through a memory, until you can feel shame in your body.

Now turn your attention to gratitude and notice how your body changes. In what way does your body change?

Fall back down, this time to grief. And notice how different that feels in your body compared to gratitude.

And once you feel it and recognise it in your body, jump back up, this time to love. Do you notice the same difference between grief and love that you did between shame and gratitude or is the difference not quite as strong because the gap between the frequencies is not quite so big?

Now focus on the emotion of courage and how that feels in your body.

And when you’ve felt that, move to the emotion of acceptance. Do you notice a big difference between these two emotions? They’re much closer on the emotional scale than, say, grief and love.

Through this exercise and all the exercises this week, are you getting a better feeling for gratitude in your body? And are you seeing how different it feels than one of the lower emotions? Do you prefer how gratitude feels?

This has been quite an intense work out, emotionally and energetically, for you this week. And, at times, some of the differences you will have experienced in your body will have been subtle.

It’s good to keep practising this week’s exercises to help you tune deeper into the frequency of gratitude.

Today, however, will be more gentle.

Today I invite you to simply observe the variety of emotions you experience throughout the day, for we all experience a whole range of emotions in our daily lives.

You don’t have to name the exact emotion, simply tune into its frequency (or heaviness or lightness) when you experience it and observe how your body reacts.

Does your body feel expansive (high emotional frequency) or does it feel like it’s contracting (low emotional frequency)?

Does your body feel light (high emotional frequency) or heavy (low emotional frequency)?

Does your body feel free (high emotional frequency) or tight and restricted (low emotional frequency)?

Anytime you know you’re experiencing a heavier or lower emotion on the scale, turn your thoughts to those of gratitude to, as quickly as you can, raise your vibration. This will begin to train your brain and your body to being in, staying in, and returning to the higher vibration of gratitude.