Our Emotional Body
What it is: The nervous system, hormones, touch, water and water release (tears), and water absorption (bloating or clutching from not letting go, feelings of lack, and trying to hold onto/control things too closely). Some believe that the emotional body extends a few millimeters or inches around the body. How we are doing emotionally is represented by how calm or rough the waters are in our thoughts and our dream state.
What it represents: As the bridge between the physical and the mental, it is where our experience of the world is synthesized and interpreted. It represents our feelings and relationship to all things (i.e., how we react, interpret, and respond to situations and outside energies, particularly anything that’s not factual—like how we feel when people look at us in a certain way, or how we respond to something they might say, etc.). The connection between the mental-emotional body is the reason why there are always different sides to a story or situation—if the bodies are unbalanced, those situations can be greatly misread and misunderstood. When balanced, it represents centering and acting from the heart space.
How the emotional body should behave when balanced: Inclusive, empathetic, open, honest, less or non-judgmental toward others, and generous with help. There is a desire to give without expecting or wishing to receive something in return. Cortisol, insulin, estrogen, progesterone, and testosterone will be more balanced and even, blood sugar is more regulated, the heart beat even and slow, and blood pressure balanced. The body does not retain water, nor is the body over-dehydrated.
Masculine or Feminine: Feminine
Quality of someone under-balanced toward emotional: A general lack of emotional intelligence, trust, and very little intuition or ability to read and understand people. There’s also a lot of fear and neuroses, as well as concern for the self and less empathy for the experience of others. This can manifest physically as holding water in the limbs, joints, and face (especially from hormone imbalance), dehydration or bloating, inflexibility, and joint stiffness. Lack of sleep from emotional stress presents similar symptoms. Mentally, it manifests as self-doubt, projection, and thinking others have a better life, which again, causes us to lose sleep and increases the physical symptoms of imbalance. Ultimately, it means that we are not using the mental or physical body, either by talking ourselves down to a point of being rational, or using the lungs and breath to calm the heartbeat.
Qualities of someone over-balanced toward emotional: Oversaturated, passive then quickly aggressive, obsessive, irrational, extremely irritated, depressed, overly anxious, often with feelings of drowning or hopeless conclusion of relationships or situations. This can manifest as weight gain (even while dieting) and too much water in the aura and system, where the body is behaving like a sponge. Alternately, if someone over-fires their nervous system, one can dry out the emotional body, which also manifests as being under-weight, dehydrated, or desiccated. Hormones are key to our health. The heart might feel heavy and the menstrual cycle might be heavy as well. The throat may feel closed, which also adversely affects hormones.
How to bring the emotional into balance: Anything that releases emotion, tension, stress, and anxiety—this will create clear, running waters with fewer rocks or less damning of the stream. Depending on the person this might require something like meditation, dance cardio, a comedy club, or breathing techniques. Ultimately, the emotional body comes into great balance when we learn how important it is to balance our hormones. Yoga, especially restorative and hatha, sauna, light detoxing or fasting (with adrenal and liver support), more touch and intimacy are key. Forgiveness and acts of forgiveness are also crucial. Learning the value of emotional intelligence and not only mental intelligence is central to empathetic and adrenal wellness.
source: editors of goop