We are emotional beings - who think.
- Jill Bolte Taylor
In his book The Emotional Brain, neuroscientist Joseph LeDoux tells the story of a woman who was unable to make new memories because of damage to her brain. She simply couldn’t remember things that she had experienced only moments before.
Under the care of a doctor, he would walk in to her room and greet her, shaking her hand. But if he left the room and returned only a few minutes later she would have forgotten she’d ever met him. Each time they met he would have to reintroduce himself. Over and over, again and again.
One day the doctor did something a little different. Entering her room, he put out his hand to greet her but concealed a tack in his palm. Needless to say, when she shook his hand it hurt and she pulled back.Quickly forgotten you might think?
But the very next time he returned to the room to greet her, this intelligent woman refused to shake his hand. She couldn’t tell him why, she just wouldn’t do it. Some part of her remembered and while she couldn’t recall it consciously, she knew this doctor had caused her pain.
Under the care of a doctor, he would walk in to her room and greet her, shaking her hand. But if he left the room and returned only a few minutes later she would have forgotten she’d ever met him. Each time they met he would have to reintroduce himself. Over and over, again and again.
One day the doctor did something a little different. Entering her room, he put out his hand to greet her but concealed a tack in his palm. Needless to say, when she shook his hand it hurt and she pulled back.Quickly forgotten you might think?
But the very next time he returned to the room to greet her, this intelligent woman refused to shake his hand. She couldn’t tell him why, she just wouldn’t do it. Some part of her remembered and while she couldn’t recall it consciously, she knew this doctor had caused her pain.
The Emotional Memory
The thing is we have multiple memory systems. Our conscious memory is only one of them. We have another quite separate system that stores our emotional memories processed by our emotional brain. Sometimes these memory systems intersect and we might remember an incident that caused us pain. But just as with this woman, there are times we remember things emotionally that we may not recall consciously.
And this is one of the limitations of a cognitive approach to emotional healing. Because if we don’t consciously know what is causing us sadness or anger or grief or anxiety or depression, or feelings we can’t even label, then we can talk about it and analyse it until we’re blue in the face and we’re often no closer to resolving the emotional pain.
Does that sound familiar?
When problems are based in the emotional memory, we need to work at this deeper subconscious level in order to help truly resolve the difficulties we face. The wonderful thing is when we work at this level we don’t need to talk about or analyse our feelings or problems in order to resolve them. In fact, it’s better not to.
And this is one of the limitations of a cognitive approach to emotional healing. Because if we don’t consciously know what is causing us sadness or anger or grief or anxiety or depression, or feelings we can’t even label, then we can talk about it and analyse it until we’re blue in the face and we’re often no closer to resolving the emotional pain.
Does that sound familiar?
When problems are based in the emotional memory, we need to work at this deeper subconscious level in order to help truly resolve the difficulties we face. The wonderful thing is when we work at this level we don’t need to talk about or analyse our feelings or problems in order to resolve them. In fact, it’s better not to.
Do you have trouble sleeping?
Because the emotional brain directly influences the autonomic nervous system, it is not surprising that unresolved emotional traumas can keep us awake at night. Poor sleep can in turn affect our ability to heal both physically and emotionally as well as increase the experience of chronic pain.
An ongoing lack of sleep also has implications for other serious conditions including heart disease, diabetes and cancer.
Professor of Neuroscience and Psychology, Matthew Walker, describes the wonder of our ability to heal emotionally during REM (dream) sleep in this 4 minute video below.
A P.S.H. therapist is trained to help you to utilise your own innate ability to heal emotionally, much like we do in REM sleep.
Improvements in sleep are often one of the first benefits people notice...
