- Introduction
In the human being, three closely related fields can be located: feelings, thoughts, and behaviors. An adequate treatment implies work on these three lines. However, the work on emotions is decisive because, as will be discussed in the article “emotions and information”, emotions often determine the way of thinking and behavior.
- The principles of emotional therapy
1) Emotions are the main determinant of human thinking and feeling. It is that it depends on how we interpret events and things, that we are going to feel, think and act.
2) dysfunctional thinking is the product of emotional discomfort, but at the same time, thinking causes a feedback process of emotions.
3) It is possible to change the way of thinking. However, this process of change often leaves undisturbed dysfunctional ways of thinking that work in conjunction with the conscious effort to think differently.
This is why it is aimed to work directly with emotions, working with what we identify with, performing concentration and breathing exercises, among other techniques. An emotion, if this disidentification works and these exercises are carried out properly, usually disappears after 20 minutes.
4) There are many factors that cause irrational thinking and negative emotions: genetics, first life experiences, current experiences, and the environment.
5) It is not essential to understand the origin and causes of a phenomenon… As is also mentioned in psychoanalysis, the causes and interpretations are only the surfaces of events.
6) One of the most powerful ways of working on emotions is the demystification and questioning of our usual ways of interpreting reality itself and our human relationships.
Some of the steps to follow in the therapeutic process are:
- Discover the beliefs that cause discomfort. Locate the identifications that sustain us and give us our identity.
- Learn to debate those beliefs and identifications.
- Discriminate and differentiate from beliefs and identifications
that cause discomfort - Implement different concentration, relaxation and
breathing techniques.
- Appropriate and inappropriate negative and positive emotions
Inappropriate negative emotions are those that increase adverse conditions and discomfort, preventing the problem from being resolved. They have usually linked to old unresolved situations that “mix with the present” Among them are anxiety, depression, anger, guilt, etc.
Appropriate negative emotions are those that occur when the desires, needs, and tastes of each person are blocked and frustrated, allowing the location of a real problem and its solution. Some of them:
the concern that leads to the performance of acts, sadness, anger, regret, etc.
- Emotional therapy, therapeutic link, and breathing.
In the East, breathing is a symbol of the vital force of life. In the breath, you can see all the emotional states of a person reflected. When a person is worried it is easy to see that his breathing is blocked, when he is angry his breathing accelerates actors know this very well in order to arouse in themselves the emotions they need to act.
Knowing this is that it is proposed to carry out a series of exercises for the liberation of the breath and of these emotions that bind us.
For these exercises to be done effectively, it is recommended that they be done under the supervision of someone and preferably in a group, that is, not just individually.
The therapeutic link can be an axis of supervision of how these exercises are carried out.
Lastly, in the therapeutic relationship, it is expected that the consultant reproduces old bonding modes, that is, conflicts and relationship modes that are put into play in the relationship with the therapist. It is important to keep this in mind to dispel delusions about what should or should not happen in therapy.
- Emotions and information (Speeds)
Emotions occur in much less time than thoughts. This is what determines that thought is determined by emotions. This is easily observable when a person gets angry: you can see how his features and non-verbal expressions occur long before his anger begins to manifest verbally.
Understanding this is essential to carry out an authentic internal change caused through the observation of oneself, the observation of emotions, and our ways of identifying ourselves that condition us.
