Emotions are often referred to as ‘energy in motion’. They are reactions we have to an external event happening to us. They rise, they peak and then they dissipate. During this process psychologists believe we have a subjective experience, a physiological response, and a behavioural response. The depth of the emotion felt on any of those levels depends on what triggers the emotion. For example, we might receive good news so will experience high states of joy or happiness. Or, we might be told to do something we don’t want to do by the boss and might become mildly irritated at one end of the scale or anger at the other end. Depending on how we regulate those emotions will determine how we feel inside and how we react.

Not being able to express our emotions in a healthy way, is unhealthy for mind, body and soul. Yet for many of us the reality is that we are not in ‘safe spaces’ – whether at home or at work – that we can release our emotional feelings in an authentic way. So how can meditation help? Meditation is effectively mind training. A solid meditation practice encourages you to:

1. Develop a deep awareness of your mind.

I have a trauma background. I had never known emotional stability in my ‘Self’ until I started meditating. Hand on heart, the greatest thing meditation has taught me is to simply witness and observe my thoughts, from a distance without letting my mind spiral out of control. For example, when a memory from a toxic relationship pops into my consciousness, instead of letting it take me on an emotional rollercoaster, I simply let the thought go.

In taking a step back from the mind, you can stay cool, calm and collected in all situations. This takes practice, I don’t always succeed, but I am significantly less emotionally reactive that I was and laugh out loud now when people tell me I am the ‘cool, calm, easy going one’. Or my colleagues ask ‘how do you stay calm and keep smiling through the chaos?’. It’s because I am learning to ‘master my mind’ and raise my Emotional Intelligence Levels (EQ). I am effectively re-wiring my circuits.

2. Meditation can help you read the room and emotions of other people.

A consistent meditation practice will raise your self awareness and ability to stay in the present moment. This means you can recognise other people’s vibes, energy, facial expressions and body language. You will feel the subtler changes around you. This is because you will have raised your EQ and developed your empathetic qualities. On a personal and professional level, this has helped me create good boundaries and improve the quality of my life. The world is full of idiots, but they don’t need to be in your energy space! Again, the result is a higher EQ.

3. Meditation dissipates the emotional baggage.

We all carry emotional baggage and we are all emotionally injured in some way. And yes, we all lose our cool and emotional control at times. This could be displayed as an angry outburst, anxiety, panic attack etc.

However, these types of episodes don’t take place in a vacuum. There may be unresolved trauma from childhood, or a serious life event going on, or crazy amounts of stress being experienced. In the fast paced world we live in we often don’t get the space to deal with this so the mind and body subconsciously stores it all up and ‘BANG’, something innocuous happens and out it all comes – often in the most inappropriate way. However, meditation is a great way of letting out all that pent-up emotional baggage we hold on to.

It is thought that we have around 60,000 thoughts a day (most of them useless by the way!) and while it is not possible to stop the thoughts, what a consistent meditation practice can do is ‘declutter’ the crap that sits in your subconscious to create space for a different way of being. What more motivation – meditate and declutter your mind, want to improve your stress levels and relationships with others with self regulation and self control – meditate and declutter your mind. Want high level problem solving skills and more creativity – meditate and declutter your mind. What to become bulletproof to stress – meditate and declutter your mind.

The overall result – exponentially high levels of EQ.

If you are interested in learning more, please explore my offerings on my website and get in touch to discuss your needs.

With love, light and a little Ayama Magic.

Nikki x