Being an emotionally balanced person is important in all aspects of life. Work, relationships, and personal happiness all depend on internal strength and stability. However, we all know that the external world doesn’t always encourage the best habits for inner peace. That’s why it’s up to us to cultivate a practice that supports and nourishes us throughout the journey of life.
Today, our blog post will explore our understanding of emotions, as well as how Qi Gong can be an amazing practice for emotional balance and healing.
What Is an Emotion?
We all talk about emotions, but what is an emotion at its deepest level? Furthermore, how can we define what it means to be emotionally balanced? As the word “emotion” suggests, an emotion is energy that is in motion. Being emotionally balanced means that all of our different energies (Qi) are moving and flowing together with full integration and balance.
Emotions are often expressed as feelings, although we’re sometimes not aware of them. Love, anger, and sadness are all words we use to describe the feelings that we experience within our body. Often, our chest, neck, and shoulders carry our strongest emotions, although all of our organs and body parts hold emotional energy.
When the movement and shifting of energy escalates to a certain point, we can usually identify it as a feeling. Feelings are our conscious experience of energy, and they allow us to realize what is taking place within. Feelings also provide insight into what our needs are, allowing us to take the actions that are best for our well-being. However, sometimes our emotions don’t make it to the surface, and we can say we feel “fine” when really there is a lot of energy in motion.
At other times, we may be very conscious of our feeling of one emotion (such as lust or greed for example) but not be conscious of other emotions (perhaps love or compassion). This limited understanding of our emotions can lead us to take actions that don’t consider all of our needs. When this happens, our emotions can easily become unbalanced and unpleasant.
Emotional Awareness
The first step to finding emotional balance is to become fully aware of what is really going on inside. Instead of hiding from some emotions and overindulging in others, we must take a step back and pay attention to the subtlest movements of energy within us. Just like our experience of a Qi Gong practice, subtle doesn’t mean “unimportant.” Often, when we hold space for a small seed of feeling that lives within us, we can see it blossom into one our most important emotions.
How do you become more aware of your emotions? Well, what is it that usually makes you unaware of what is going on inside? For most of us, our mind wanders (or runs) away from feelings that aren’t pleasant. When emotions are difficult, we seek to be somewhere other than where we really are.
Of course, when it comes it our emotions, there’s nowhere you can run away to. Therefore, the only way to get beyond an unresolved emotion is to become present with it. In Qi Gong, this means becoming present with the experience of energy and feeling within our body and mind.
Once we’re able to dedicate one-hundred percent of our energy to our emotion, we’re able to start making progress in accepting the feelings we experience. Accepting the emotions allows us to move past our previous barriers and integrate all parts of who we are.
Accepting an emotion is not the same thing as accepting what the emotion tells us. For example, if we realize we feel unworthy of something, we don’t accept the story of our unworthiness as our reality. Rather, we seek to let go of the story that the emotion tells us and accept that the emotion exists. By accepting the emotion and taking responsibility for it, we can stop misdirecting our energy in unhealthy ways, and start working with to find peace and harmony.
Being emotionally balanced doesn’t mean you’re always happy and positive. Rather, it means you’re present with what is really taking place with your emotions in the present moment. When you do this, painful emotions find a way to heal, and positive emotions flourish.
Qi Gong for Emotional Balance
Emotional balance is a state in which we have looked honestly at all of our feelings, and found a way to come to acceptance and integration. However, many of us tend to turn to our intellect to help us understand the feelings that live within us. Although our quick wit may be helpful for many tasks in life, logic and thought are very limited in their ability to work with most of our emotions.
As discussed, emotions are energy that is in motion within our body. Therefore, there is no better practice than Qi Gong to work with the energetic experiences that flow within us.
At Holden QiGong, we’ve put together a special online workshop called Qi Gong for Emotional Balance. It’s a program that you can watch whenever you want from the comfort of your own home. During the workshop, Lee teaches the practices and techniques that are most helpful for working with our emotions for positive change.
The practices that Lee shares are an excellent resource for any time you need a little extra support and grounding. Whether dealing with conflict, experiencing life-changes, or just trying to feel more positive, we all have struggles and journeys that require balance and support.
Our emotions are our foundation for all of life’s experiences, so check out the page below to learn more and start the workshop today.