Exploring Your 'Emotional Map'

When we are faced with a situation that requires or triggers a certain emotional response, it can feel the safest option to consult our ‘emotional scripts’.

These scripts consist of emotional imprints from birth that act as a compass throughout our life. These emotional scripts are formed from core emotions you felt or received during early childhood. Think of it like your go-to favourite playlist or cafe.

I will explain with an example. Say you grew up in a family that constantly laughed during painful or uncomfortable situations. Maybe there were times of genuine laughter mixed with inauthentic humour. As a child you learnt to laugh through pain, and make jokes to get you out of uncomfortable situations. This forms part of your ‘emotional map.’ And the accompanying script might sound like “this hurts, I am afraid to show it, so I will laugh, smile or make a joke..” or “I can feel the pain in someone else, and I want to take it away, so I am going to make them and put on a silly act”.

As we go through life our map becomes larger, with certain ‘mountain ranges of emotions’ standing out more than others.

Imagine for a moment that your core emotions were like a compass, in the words of Teal Swan. Where might your emotions be directing you to? What might they be asking you to notice/become aware of/take action on? etc.. And perhaps invite an even more curious approach, to how else could we explore the full range of human emotion? And more importantly, how curious can we become towards our emotional scripts, so that one day we might actually feel something shift and ‘aha!’, out comes a genuine emotional response, a vulnerable response. A hidden gem of the landscape. What if humour wasn't the only way to respond to pain? What if crying wasn't the only way to show our sensitivity? What if could extend our sense of emotion and feeling, and ask a different question to ourselves, for the sake of getting to know our emotional landscapes more?

One question to encourage this:

“What might this experience be asking me to feel or notice right now?”

Notice the word ‘might’. This is key. Without having explored the whole map, we have no idea where it might lead us. So curiosity is key here.

Learning to be curious and creative about the different types of emotions we can feel. Not the ‘stored’ emotions (this is more of a mental state). But really, what other types of emotional landscapes have I not explored yet? Is there somewhere on this map that I really don’t want to explore and why? Is it too dark? Too cold? Too hot? Too high? Thinking of these in terms of metaphors, symbolism. It can create some distance, to build a relationship with our inner emotional parts.

Thinking can be a creative process 🧭

Feeling can be a creative process 🗺

There is something to say for groups or individuals who live a very routine way of life, that perhaps their emotions are also very routine. If one were to stay in the same job their whole life or live in the same village their whole life, they may not have the opportunity to explore a full range of feeling, sensation and emotion. It takes a different set of skills to seek out this experience, especially if your core emotions have been anchored in a particular tradition or culture. This is by no means a statement, but more something I have noticed as I have travelled around.

Our emotions are powerful anchors. They serve as landmarks in our human experience. How we choose to feel them, connect to them, relate to them, express them, share them is a creative process.

I am hosting a Breathwork Event where we explore this theme of Curiosity! in Belgium, Oost-Flanders. Follow the link for more information and how to book