The Ultimate Therapist - Your Body
by Russell Razzaque
art by Neena Alapatt
Recent breakthroughs in the world of psychology and personal development are pointing us in one direction - towards the body. What does the body have to do with your thoughts and emotions? Everything.
As we live our life on a day to day basis, thoughts and emotions pass through us like clouds in the sky. In the same way that clouds are generated by the environment of the time, so are our thoughts and emotions - they represent our reactions to the world around us. But, where do they go once we have experienced them? Well, back to our cloud analogy; when a cloud causes rain, it might ultimately shed its load and disperse and so it is with our mental reactions. If we "act them out" by reacting on the outside, in which ever way we see fit at the time, then they will dissipate. However, we cannot always do this. Sure, as an infant this is feasible, but in later life, we learn to control emotional expressions. When we do this, however, we often end up suppressing those emotions.
No one is immune from the process of emotional suppression, and when it takes place, we have to store them somewhere. Well, the archive containing our entire thought/emotional reaction catalogue is our body. Within it lies every reaction we have ever suppressed. Popular culture reflects the fact that we, in fact, all know this, hence the regular use of terms such as, "getting it off your chest", when we choose to vent something we have "kept inside" up to that point.
This is how the body-mind connection operates. The stored emotions, if left to languish, will start to distort the physical processes within the body and cause illness. Plenty of studies attest to this. Stoical personalities, for example - people who operate by storing their feelings and emotions inside and not demonstrably reacting - have higher rates of cancer than others. Alternatively they seep back into our psychological behaviours in subsequent periods of life. This is when we react out of proportion to something - even when we know we are - when someone, so called, "pushes our buttons". This can have profound effects on our future relationships and working lives.
If we want to lead healthy lives, therefore, physically and mentally, we need to find another way. Not that storage is always a bad thing - some degree of it is inevitable in everyone - but if we're vigilant of it, we can keep it to a minimum. How? Well, going back to our childhood ways and exploding with emotion from time to time is clearly not going to get us very far. There is, however, a third way. This is to actually feel the emotional pain that is building up inside. It takes a bit of practice, but it doesn't take too long to get a hang of. This is, in fact, the main objective of the Sileotherapy personal development program, and it centers around the regular practice of the one exercise we are all capable of; Being still.
When you do this, over time, you will gradually experience yourself on deeper and deeper levels and you will start to realise that this reservoir within is, in fact, a tremendous power source inside you that has the ability to profoundly transform your life...
Dr Russell Razzaque is a practicing psychiatrist based in London, England. He earned his medical degree from the University of London,
he is a member of the UK Royal College of Psychiatrists and in 2009, after several years of development, he launched Sileotherapy - a stillness based online self help program.
art by Neena Alapatt
I am a self taught artist. Born in India but currently living in the US, the colors / subjects i use continue to be indian inspired.
I have been doodling and painting from the time i could hold a pencil in my hand and i hope that this passion stays with me forever.
www.fineartamerica.com