embodied ovenbird You tell me you’ve been stressed and having such strong emotions that you’re feeling them in your body. And I say, “Wait? Do you sometimes have emotions that are NOT situated in your body?” You look at me, confused, and say, “Yeah, most of the time.” I quite literally did not know that was possible so I dig into it a little. I say, “When you feel joy or awe do you feel it in your chest? For instance, when I see the ocean throwing all its power at a cliff face or eggs in a nest or moss living out its ancient instructions I feel this surge at the center of me, like a tide rising, like my heart expanding outwards into the universe. An electric rush moves up into my throat and tries to become an exclamation, a sigh, a sound that means wonder. Does that happen to you?” You pause, consider it, but I can tell that I’m describing something you don’t understand. “Sometimes when I’m listening to music, I get chills,” you say. “Okay, that’s a somatic pleasure response so that’s something, but would you say it’s tied to a particular emotion?” You’re not sure. I say, “I feel every single emotion inside my body. I don’t think I’ve ever had an emotion that did not have a physiological component.” You look at me like you’ve never seen me before. “That sounds exhausting,” you say. I watch the moon rising over the distant trees where the eagles make their homes and I feel pressure and heat behind my solar plexus. There’s a slight tingle at my fingertips and an inexplicable weight at the center of my forehead. This is how love lives in me. I can’t explain it to you but it’s the truth—embodied, exposed, eternal. 250903 ... nr this is fascinating to me. i'm also not too adept at feeling emotions in my body and am trying to access that. when my therapist has done body-focused work on me, she'll ask similar things: "where do you feel the anxiety in your body?" but i mostly just feel it in my head. i feel it too much in my head. 250903 ... ovenbird That's fascinating nr! I really had no idea that an emotion could occur only in the head. Do you experience it as kind of an intellectual construct then? I'm so curious as to what an emotion looks like if you experience it in a non-embodied way. 250903 ... nr now that i'm thinking about it more, the more extreme emotions do manifest in physical symptoms. when i'm really nervous or scared, i can get shaky or weak, or my heart will pound. when i'm really stressed or overwhelmed, i can sometimes feel a tightness in my stomach. but with everyday emotions, for lack of a better term, i don't really identify particular corresponding parts of the body. maybe something like contentment or relief, my entire body may loosen up and relax. and sadness may make me tired. but maybe all these are just reactions to the emotions themselves. 250903 ... correction *maybe WITH something like contentment and relief 250903 ... ovenbird I'm finding this extremely interesting! Now I want everyone to tell me if they experience emotions physically or not. 250903 ... raze i definitely do, though it wasn't something i'd thought about until now. exhaustion seems to manifest itself in my feet more than anywhere else. i'll feel like i've walked a hundred miles when i haven't taken a single step. anger feels like someone is trying to extract my soul through my scalp. excitement is almost a full-body tingling sensation. i'm not sure exactly what happiness entails, but i think it might be a warmth that courses through my bushy tail. (that's right — i've spent so much time with my squirrel friends, i've finally become one of them.) 250903 what's it to you? who go blather from