1) a clear fixation by a person of his state, creating the possibility of managing and controlling this state; 2) the ability to express this state in sign form.

At the same time, the degree of awareness of emotions and feelings can be different. A person can know that he is experiencing something and that this experience is clearly different from all previous ones (for example, for the first time a lover experiences a state that he cannot define, but at the same time knows that it continues and that it cannot be compared with anything) .

Another level, which can be called awareness itself, is manifested in the fact that a person is able to express knowledge of his state in verbal (verbal) categories (“I loved you, love, perhaps it has not completely died out in my soul”). It is at this level that control over emotions is possible, that is:

• the ability to anticipate their development;
• understanding of the factors on which their strength, duration and their consequences depend.

One of the main observations made by Freud, and later confirmed by numerous experimental studies, is that emotional processes are not fully understood and not always. First of all, those processes that arose and were formed in early childhood are not recognized. Therefore, many emotional experiences and associations of this period never receive their expression in sign forms, although they can participate in the regulation of adult behavior. The feelings that have become habitual for people with whom there is the most close connection. As long as feelings are formed, there is high degree Awareness: Various traits of new comrades or rivals are noticed and considered. But as relationships are established, awareness decreases accordingly until what is happening is taken for granted.

The main indicator of a mature normal emotion is its arbitrary character. Arbitrariness at the same time, it is understood as the possibility of indirect control over the expression, experience and generation of emotions.

The breeding of experience and manifestation in socialized and cultivated emotion, the possibility of a delayed, altered or suppressed reaction - all this is the result of the formation of arbitrariness. Emotion acquires arbitrariness not directly, but through sign-symbolic operations, which include verbalization and possession of the subject area of ​​emotions.

Awareness of emotions occurs through the process of learning. A person learns to isolate in an initially undifferentiated mass of experiences some specific experiences associated, for example, with hunger, anxiety, anger, fear. This process is carried out with the active assistance of other people, thereby acquiring a purely social character.

Communicating with the child, the mother leads him through such stages as the differentiation of his own and other people's feelings, their name, establishing a connection with the subject, learning the forms of expression. The child learns not only to recognize, for example, that the emotion he is experiencing is called anger, but also to notice what happens to him when he is angry, what thoughts and images arise in him, etc.

THEORIES OF FOREIGN RESEARCHERS

The question of the place of social factors in the formation and manifestation of emotions has long been seriously studied by psychologists. If C. Darwin in his work “The Expression of Emotions in Man and Animals” (1872) argued that facial expressions are due to innate mechanisms and depend on the type of animals, then subsequent studies showed that Darwin’s idea was only partly true. Social determinants also play a significant role in emotional behavior of people.

Among the most famous experiments that confirmed this conclusion are the experiments of Landis, which were carried out in the 20s of the XX century. (the results were published in 1924). These were pretty cruel experiments. So, in order to evoke strong negative emotions, a shot was suddenly heard behind the subject; or the subject was ordered to cut off the head of a live white rat with a large knife, and in case of refusal, the experimenter himself performed this operation in front of him; in other cases, the subject, dipping his hand into the bucket, unexpectedly found three live frogs there and was simultaneously subjected to a blow electric current etc. In this way, Landis managed to evoke genuine emotions. Throughout the experiment, the subjects were photographed, with the main muscle groups of the face outlined in charcoal. This made it possible to subsequently measure, with the help of photographs, the shifts that occurred in various emotional states as a result of muscle contraction. Contrary to expectations, it turned out to be impossible to identify facial expressions typical of fear, embarrassment and other emotions (if we consider typical facial expressions characteristic of most people). At the same time, it was found that each subject has a certain repertoire of facial reactions characteristic of him, repeated in different situations: a person closed or opened his eyes wide, wrinkled his forehead, opened his mouth, etc. Landis then conducted additional experiments With some subjects who were asked to portray some of the emotions they experienced in the experiment (disgust, fear, etc.). It turned out that the mimic imitation of emotions corresponded to the generally accepted forms of expression, but did not at all coincide with the facial expressions of the same subjects when they experienced genuine emotions.

Thus, Landis' experiments point to the need to distinguish between conventional, conventional facial expressions as a recognized way of expressing emotions and spontaneous, involuntary expression of emotions (Po: Reikovsky, 1979).

An important point in understanding one's own emotional reactions and states is Adoption or rejection them in this culture. Difficult access to consciousness have those emotional processes, the manifestation of which is faced with punishment. For example, bans in the area sexual life women, expressed in the demands of modesty, restraint and even contempt for any manifestations of sexuality, were an important point in education in different historical eras especially at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. It is not surprising that Freud so often observed in his patients signs of negative emotions associated with his own sexual activity.

Another example of a negatively reinforced emotion is the emotion of fear in men. If a " a real man”should not be afraid, then the manifestation of fear dooms him to condemnation and ridicule.

It is difficult to overestimate the importance of emotions in human life They give meaning to our lives, unite us with other people, and are also the basis for understanding ourselves and our relationship to other people. emotions, in literally, determine the image of our being, thanks to emotions, we have the opportunity to be sad and cry when we feel bad, rejoice and laugh when we are in good mood. Without them, we would not be what we are, would not be people, in the full sense of the word. Without emotions, we would turn into some kind of robots, endowed with reason, but deprived of a soul. However, despite the great importance that we attach to emotions, we must remember that we are the masters of our emotions, and not their puppets. Man, as the "crown of creation", is one step above the entire animal kingdom. This obliges us to early years learn to be aware of and control your emotions, to be above them and be able to act contrary to emotional impulses when necessary.

A person who knows how to recognize and control their emotions is able to think clearly and creatively, cope with stress and anxiety more effectively, communicate with other people on an equal footing, express love, trust and empathy. Problems and troubles do not cloud his head, but are perceived by him as a challenge. He is ready to accept this challenge and easily directs his efforts to overcome the obstacles facing him. On the other hand, losing control over their emotions, a person ceases to fully manage himself and his life. He acts contrary to common sense, is quick-tempered, overly emotional, often in bad mood and tries to isolate himself from outside world. As a result, life just passes by. The benefits of controlling your emotions are obvious, and it is unlikely that anyone would turn down the opportunity to learn this. In this article, we will show you how to take one not very difficult, but infinitely important step to control your emotions, it will be about developing emotional awareness.

What emotional awareness?

We all, by nature, tend to experience emotions. Good and bad, they appear in us in response to external stimuli and influence our way of thinking and acting. In fact, they guide us, especially if we are not aware of them and do not resist the influence they exert. Well, we rarely do that. We observe the appearance of this or that emotion, but do not attach any importance to it - we simply act as we have always acted. Only occasionally do we ask questions:

• “What caused this emotion to arise?”
• "Does it fit? real situation things or has grown against the background of excessive impressionability?
• “Will I do the right thing if I do what I want to do in this moment?»

In these rare moments, we may find that our behavior is dictated to us by momentary needs and differs from the main life line that we have chosen for ourselves. But, unfortunately, these glimpses of consciousness are not enough to direct your life in the right direction. Being emotionally aware, we are fully aware of our feelings and emotions, as well as the feelings of other people and the reasons for their occurrence. Thus, emotional awareness involves the ability to identify and express emerging emotions. It is an understanding of the connections between our feelings and actions and the ability to predict and prevent unwanted behavior.

Benefits of emotional awareness.

One of the main benefits of emotional awareness is that you gain more control over your own emotions, and therefore over your entire life. Anger, depression, anxiety and restlessness, excessive impulsivity, emotional instability and feelings of isolation lose their power over you. The understanding comes that it is our emotions, not thoughts, that push us and determine our behavior. Emotional awareness gives us many levers of control over ourselves and circumstances, which most of the existing self-development techniques cannot provide. Of particular note are the following benefits of emotional awareness:

• Knowing yourself, your likes and dislikes.
• Understanding and compassion for other people.
• Open and effective communication.
• Adoption wise decisions contributing to the achievement of long-term goals.
• Motivation and high activity on the way to goals.
• Building strong, healthy and valuable relationships.
• Creation emotional balance without sudden mood swings.
• The ability to give an account of one's actions and words.
• A high level of internal energy that is no longer wasted.
• Resilience to stressful situations.
• High level of personal effectiveness.
• Healthy expression of emotions.

The list can go on and on, because along with the main benefits, you get a lot of other benefits, directly or indirectly related to them. Perhaps we will devote a separate article to the benefits of emotional awareness, listing them in this article was not part of our plans. And, in the process of increasing the level of emotional awareness, you yourself will be able to discover positive changes in yourself.

What is your level of emotional awareness?

Each of us, to one degree or another, has the ability to recognize our emotions. Someone more, someone less, but you probably lack this skill if you purposefully did not develop it. time and life experience only partly increases this ability, and not always and not for everyone. That is why it is so important to take the initiative in your own hands. But before embarking on the path of developing emotional awareness, it is advisable to determine how this skill is developed in you. For this purpose, you should take a closer look at yourself and ask yourself a few simple questions:

• Can you remain calm while experiencing such powerful emotions like anger, sadness, fear, disgust and joy?
• Do you feel the presence of emotions in your body?
• Are you able to listen to the voice of your mind, no matter how you feel?
• Do you trust your body's emotional signals?
• Do you allow yourself to experience negative emotions?
• Do you notice changes in the emotional background?
• Do your emotions change throughout the day?
• Do you think other people are generally understanding and empathetic towards your emotions?
• Are you comfortable when other people know how you feel?
• Do you feel the presence of emotions in other people and can you put yourself in the place of these people?

If you can honestly answer “yes” to all questions, your level of emotional awareness is quite high, you can do without it. further development. If you cannot answer “yes” to all questions, or “yes” is true for all questions, but not for all situations, you should work on yourself. And finally, if you answered “no” to most of the questions, well, you are far from alone, and you should definitely consider developing your emotional awareness.

Keep in mind that the answers to these questions cannot accurately predict what your level of emotional awareness is, so it will be helpful for you to read about the existing classifications of these levels. So, Drs. Richard D. Lane and Schwartz spoke quite interestingly about the levels of emotional awareness. In their work, they reflected the range of human abilities to be aware of their emotions in six levels. Briefly, these six levels of consciousness look like this:

• 1. Lack of emotional awareness.
• 2. Awareness of bodily sensations.
• 3. Awareness of behavior.
• 4. Awareness of the current emotional state.
• 5. Differentiated emotional awareness.
• 6. Mixed emotional awareness.

There is another version of the classification of levels of emotional awareness, found on the website of one of the missionary organizations in Spain. Knowing these levels will help you decide what level you are at and will serve as a good Starting point for your further development.

Development of emotional awareness.

The first thing you need to understand is that developing emotional awareness is a long process that requires a lot of time and effort. People have been taming their emotions for years, and they don't always get the job done, especially if they don't know which direction to go in. This process may take a little less time for you, but for this you need to follow the recommendations given below.

1. Learn to relieve stress.

Many people know that stress is natural state our body, which is in adverse conditions. It can be as harmful as it is helpful. For example, people of the Stone Age and a little more late periods history, he helped - to activate the internal reserves of the body in order to cope with enemies or run away from them, make quick decisions and catch prey. For most of us, in the civilized world, it only harms, because we have nowhere to put excess energy. Stress overshadows our consciousness and prevents us from acting adequately, and, even more so, when stress occurs, we are the least able to recognize the presence of emotions in ourselves. You can learn how to properly and quickly relieve stress from the articles on our website in the "Stress" section.

2. Get knowledge about human emotions.

Study questions about what emotions exist, how they are created in our body and what effect they have on it. Find out how our environment causes certain emotions to arise, what effect they have on our perception of the surrounding reality, on our thoughts and actions. The more knowledge about your body you get, the easier it will be for you to manage yourself, and the higher your ability to realize your emotions will be. And no, you don't have to get additional education, or to study a mountain of literature on human psychology and physiology, superficial knowledge will be enough - the main ideas that matter most.

3. Watch yourself.

Monitor the presence of emotions and try to determine for yourself how you feel. What is it like to be angry? How do you feel when you get angry at someone or something? What is sadness for you? How does fear affect you? How does your sadness show up? How do you rejoice and laugh? What physical sensations accompany your emotions? How productive are you when you experience certain emotions? How long can an emotion stay in you? Listen to yourself and try to develop the ability to identify the emotions you are experiencing. Find out how wide and varied the spectrum of your emotions is? How many types of emotions do you find in yourself? As you observe your emotions, you will come to understand yourself, and your level of emotional awareness will also increase.

4. Learn to accept your emotions.

It is not necessary to avoid or suppress your emotions, this can negatively affect all areas of your life. Thus, avoiding emotions deprives you of the opportunity to understand yourself. By suppressing negative emotions, you block positive emotions, and, on top of everything else, this activity requires too much energy and prevents you from developing relationships with other people. But, allow yourself to experience emotions of any nature and the situation will change in better side. Just accept your emotions, let emotions fill your body. Do not dwell on them for too long, do not attach importance to them, so as not to prolong their existence. They will leave you as quickly as they came. Their place will soon be taken by other emotions, then another and another.

5. Follow the path of your emotions.

Having found any emotion in yourself, whether it be anger, fear or joy, try to identify the reason for its appearance, without missing a single detail. What in your environment caused this emotion to arise? What thoughts do you find in your head when you experience these emotions? In what ways do you usually express these emotions? Watch your facial expressions, gestures, voice, intonation and words. What conscious or unconscious actions can you identify? What do you usually do to get rid of or, conversely, to prolong the stay in you of any emotion. How effective are your actions in eliminating or prolonging emotions? On the early stages Keeping notes will be helpful in developing emotional awareness, as this will allow you to conduct better introspection.

Developing emotional awareness is one of the critical steps to manage yourself and your own life. With the improvement of this skill, you will learn to identify unwanted behavior and motives driving you, you will come to understand yourself, get full view about what in your environment causes you joy, sadness, fear, anger and other emotions. In the future, emotional awareness will allow you to correct your behavior, use your emotions and their energy as a source of strength to overcome obstacles, manage other people if necessary, and much, much more. Become the sole and full owners of your life and make it what you want to see, success to you and all the best!

© Oleg Akvan
metodorf.ru

The request for a conscious life is born only in developed person who begins to feel his inner world and pay attention to his experiences, emotions, thoughts, desires and begins to trace an inexplicable relationship between his internal state and their results in the outside world. This is the request of a person who does not just want to satisfy his basic needs survival, but also wants to develop and get true joy and pleasure from life, from self-realization, from interaction with other people.

Mindfulness allows you to act effectively and at the same time enjoy life, realizing your potential, noticing problems at the stage of their occurrence and quickly and effectively resolving. You can only manage what you are aware of. Therefore, awareness is the key to managing your life! Mindfulness allows you to control your body, emotions, thoughts, your attitude towards people and your life.

What is awareness?

Mindfulness is a total and non-judgmental immersion of attention in the processes taking place in our life (physical, mental and psychological) and their awareness. Awareness is a searchlight of attention directed inward, which illuminates a problem or some process, makes it clear, visible and understandable. At this moment, we do not condemn and do not evaluate the phenomenon, person, feeling, action, but simply observe. Conscious life- this is real life, life outside of conventions, imposed values, desires and behaviors. Being aware means seeing yourself and the world as they really are.

What you get by practicing mindfulness in life:

• Recovery. A conscious attitude to the body will help prevent diseases and come to recovery, because by listening to our body, we begin to give it exactly what it needs.
• Inner balance and harmony. Being aware of your emotions allows you to control them.
• Realizing your potential. Realizing our desires, over time we learn to distinguish true desires from imposed. And realizing true desires, we begin to reveal our essence and our uniqueness.
• Freedom to be yourself. Being aware of our thoughts, desires, feelings and actions, over time we become free from nested programs, patterns, negative attitudes and become more successful and happier.
• Improved relationships with others. Mindfulness allows you to see a person as he is, and not to interact with an invented image.
• Opening intuition. A conscious relationship with one's own inner world opens intuition. Often the body and nervous system give us signals, warning us of the possible consequences.
• Improving the standard of living. A conscious attitude to your thoughts will help create positive changes in life, as conscious thoughts give rise to conscious actions.
• Brightness and interest in life. Mindfulness makes life interesting, not boring and mundane. After all, every moment is unique and beautiful, but not noticing the beauty around, we plunge into a series of endless gray everyday life with dreams of a vacation.
• Increasing energy levels. Returning your attention to this moment, we regain our energy, which we used to waste on scrolling thoughts, situations and experiences from the past or fears for the future.

Thus, awareness allows a person to become alive and real, to do what comes from the soul, and not imposed by anyone, therefore, to realize oneself and experience true joy and happiness from this.

How to develop mindfulness?

On this path, one can constantly improve, collecting threads of attention and, over time, realizing more and more. You can start with the simplest, but it is from small but constant efforts that a great result is formed.

The simplest mindfulness practices

1. Breathing practice. Focus your attention on inhaling and exhaling, not interfering, just watching. This practice calms, immerses in the present moment, relaxes.
2. Mindful eating. When eating, focus on its taste. Holding a piece of bread in your hands, try to realize how it got to you, how much effort and time it took to cook it, grow wheat, collect, grind flour, package, bake, how much effort and labor was invested in this small piece. And what is its value.
3. Focusing on your feelings. In order to have time to live your life, and not do everything automatically, you can dive into the present moment every hour or two. You can set a timer on your watch. And when the bell rings, leave your affairs and immerse yourself in the present moment, asking yourself “What do I feel now?”, go through the body, relax the tension, follow the breath for 5-10 minutes. This practice does not take much time and perfectly restores strength during a busy day, refreshes.
4. Ball of awareness. Imagine a transparent sphere in the chest area and focus on it and ask yourself: “What do I really want now and what will please me?”. Then start filling this balloon with nice images. This opens access to the true desires of our Soul. The same practice can be used to determine the true desire or the imposed one. Place the image of desire in this ball of the Soul and listen to the sensations. If they are pleasant and joyful, then the fulfillment of the desire will bring you joy, if not, then most likely, the desire is imposed by someone.
5. Conscious work with negative emotions. If you have been taken over negative feelings, turn your attention inward and ask yourself "What do I feel, where in the body do I feel it?". Then concentrate your attention there and begin to exhale consciously until the emotion dissolves. Over time, you will be able to quickly dissolve negative emotions with your awareness.
6. Awareness of your thoughts. If you tend to get involved in negative thoughts and scroll through them for hours, then try a simple but effective exercise"Rubber". Put a rubber band on your hand and as soon as you catch yourself getting involved in negative thoughts, not much, but noticeably pull the rubber band and click your hand. Consciously switch your attention from bad thoughts, as the famous Scarlett O "Hara said, "I'll think about it tomorrow," but not now. Remember that thoughts are vibrations that form a field around you and what you think about, you attract to yourself.
7. If a person annoys you. Any person responds within us with some feeling or state. For example, we read or listen to someone and feel something inside us resonate and resonate. We feel good feelings towards a person. But it also happens that you look at a person, and something unpleasant, annoying is born inside, which does not find resonance inside. As you consciously walk through this sensation, find and locate a spot in your body, and then begin to relax that tension until it goes away. As a result of practice, you will notice that the attitude has changed to neutral and no longer hurts you. It works very effectively, and with practice it is also very fast.
8. Body awareness. The body always begins to signal us about violations, but we are so absorbed in our affairs or thoughts that we often do not notice this. Until the strongest signal is turned on - pain, which indicates that the destruction is already serious. The main cause of destruction and disease is the contraction of body spaces, which most often occurs during times of stress. Constriction does not allow energy to flow calmly and relaxed. This is the same as constantly walking with clenched fists. Blood and energy stagnates and problems begin over time. Highly simple practice bodywork can be done before bed. You need to lie down comfortably and begin to slide your attention over your body, find zones of tension and consciously relax them, if the tension is very strong, you can breathe it in, imagining how you fill this zone with light with your breath. It promotes good sleep and wellness.

Improving in the practice of mindfulness, you can reach a new level of life. When you become aware of your body and its sensations, you understand that you are not the body. When you become aware of your thoughts, you realize that you are not thoughts. When you become aware of your feelings, you realize that you are not feelings. When you consciously relate to desires, you begin to distinguish the true desires of the Soul from those imposed by society. When you enter the state of the observer and begin to live in the present, then you become the master of your life, mind, body, thoughts and feelings.

AT modern world there is a fairly large unconscious emotional charge that periodically seeks to be released through various social and climatic events. Each person is more or less lesser degree

In the modern world, there is a fairly large unconscious emotional charge that periodically seeks to be released through various social and climatic events. Each person is, to a greater or lesser extent, the bearer of this charge and understanding internal processes and methods of work can greatly improve life in many aspects.

Mismatch of expectations with what is - the cause of emotions. When expectations are too high, there is a reaction in the form of “negative” emotions, when they are underestimated, “positive”. In general, this is an indicator of inaccuracy in being what is. In society, it is considered a “good” phenomenon when a person is emotional and this is encouraged in every possible way (except negative manifestations), it is even considered that a person is “so alive” when he is emotional, but the fact remains the same - life is what it is. Any non-coincidence with this is a distance from life, not an approach. It's like that, by the way...

For a more practical approach, there is the following. Any emotional experience always has two components: the story that gives rise to this emotional experience and the energy behind this experience, the flow of sensations that accompanies it.

Too often, we get trapped in our own emotional stories, reinforcing the energy behind these experiences and only making the problem worse. No intelligent approach can defuse a blocked energy flow underlying emotions and intense experiences. Therefore, intellectual approaches (endless talking and complaining for example) are practically useless in solving emotional problems.

If, however, to direct attention to the energy that gives rise to such experiences, then this will open the possibility for a quick and deep emotional release. There are two types of ineffective emotions: pre-emotions and accumulated emotions.

Pre-emotions are the result of our rigid expectations and attempts to force desirable outcomes. In addition, they arise from painful fantasies about what will not work out, how exactly it will not work out, how it will end badly, etc. All this is a filter, a kind of sunglasses: everything that is seen is perceived in the same key and color.

Accumulated emotions are any emotions that have not been fully lived in the past, resulting in stagnant blocked energy. This blocked energy latently delays and sabotages our life and self-realization. Escape from fully living your emotions has real and not very positive consequences.

All emotions are active energy. It's just energy that can't harm us.

When we understand that all of our emotions are really given to us as a gift, then we can relax and stop avoiding them or getting lost in the stories, images, and memories associated with them. We can accept them as they are: as energetic.

We will not be able to fully learn the lesson underlying emotion until we: take full responsibility for our emotional state; let go of our history and hidden benefit in the form of a desire to feel that we are right; unite with all energy as a whole.

Usually we tend to deny our own responsibility for our feelings in certain situations; instead, we blame others for the way we feel. Yet it is we who consciously and unconsciously decide how to feel when faced with such situations. Until we take full responsibility for all of our ingrained feelings, this accumulated and repressed reservoir of conflicting energy will never be integrated, healed, and dissolved.

But in order to accept and understand the energy that underlies an intense experience, it is necessary to let go of the story that we have attached to this experience. Essentially, this means leaving behind both thoughts and the hidden benefit of the sense of self-righteousness that often accompanies our habitual emotions. You can be right, or you can be happy. Only by taking full responsibility for our own emotional states, as well as completely letting go of all the stories we tell ourselves, can we fully accept and integrate the energies of emotions.

The greater the accumulated emotional charge, the more stress we will experience in life circumstances.

It takes a lot of energy to keep the repressed flow of energy. Ultimately, the accumulated energy spills out into the autonomic nervous system. This aggravates stress and creates diseases, addictions, impulsive behavior.

The avoidance of accepting emotions occurs unconsciously and is associated with a fear of too much apparent intensity of these emotional states.

This one is very important point, because it clearly shows that we either avoid emotion, or completely identify and react automatically, like a machine. AT early age, before the advent of speech skills, we could not fully assimilate these experiences and instinctively cut ourselves off from them. As a result, we not only chronically avoid such experiences, but we identify deeply with them, either consciously or unconsciously believing that they define us. And since we made this decision before we developed the ability for language, it was buried in the deep recesses of our unconscious.

These unfinished emotional experiences continue to influence the development of our emotional brain, supporting the formation neural connections which force us to reproduce these experiences until we learn the lesson hidden in them. And this happens only when we become full owners of our emotions, fully experiencing them and allowing clarity, wisdom and intuition to bloom.

By becoming aware of the blocked energy underlying fragmented experiences, one can quickly dissolve its various manifestations in the form of non-constructive emotions and develop the ability to face any stressful situation with wisdom and understanding.

The ability to fully accept our feelings without trying to avoid, judge or identify with them is actually our innate ability. Higher consciousness and compassion allow you to discover the causes and dissolve chaotic emotional experiences. Another issue is that neither we nor our parents were taught how to do this.

Why is it so important to be aware of the emotions that overwhelm us, and what is the danger of completely merging with own feelings? Like borderline splitting and object hatred, causing pain, destroys in our minds all of it good qualities and thus destroys attachment? What are the differences between Western and Eastern approaches to working with negative experiences and what resources of consciousness should be used to learn emotional regulation? We deal with the practicing psychotherapist Maxim Pestov.

A lot of texts have been written about the phenomenology of awareness, today we will focus on its therapeutic functions and try to figure out why awareness alone is not enough to achieve mental well-being.

In general, in Gestalt therapy, awareness is one of the main mechanisms for complicating the psyche. Why is it needed at all? The answer is very simple - in order to be able to regulate your emotional life. There are two poles of its course: when the subject is merged with his feelings and completely captured by them, up to affective narrowing of consciousness and borderline splitting, and when he is able to react emotionally, while maintaining the opportunity not only to be in the process, but also to observe it. Awareness allows not only to participate in something, but also to see how it works. Being aware, I put myself in the center of what is happening, and not remain hanging out on the periphery. To use a metaphor, the mind without awareness is like a galloping horse. Awareness in this sense helps to remember that I am on a horse. After this discovery, we can control her instead of depending on her mood.

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Awareness is the starting point from which emotional regulation begins. On the one hand, it starts a process that unfolds in time, and whose development we can observe, and on the other hand, it itself needs some supporting foundation.

It often happens that even when we understand the need for awareness, we do not realize it right away. For example, we lament that, having the necessary skills, we did not have the opportunity to use them. It is precisely for this that it is necessary to add to awareness such an ability as remembrance, which has a lot of connotations in the Western approach to understanding mental activity. For example, there is the term Mindfullness, which is better translated in this way, and not considered a synonym for Awareness. Mindfulness allows you to turn on awareness at the right time. In this sense, it corresponds to the concept of observing ego.

Another ability necessary for the functioning of awareness is the development attention or concentration. It is important not only to understand something there, but also to maintain awareness for a sufficient amount of time. From point of view common sense, contact with unpleasant experiences causes a natural intention to stop it as soon as possible. AT Eastern tradition this desire is opposed by the ability to observe emotional reactions as objects of your mind, while remaining uninvolved in these processes. AT Western tradition the possibility of mental processing of unpleasant experiences is defined as non-specific ego power. Accordingly, attention develops along lines of clarity and stability, and thus gives awareness the necessary direction and stability.

Thus, we briefly described the "left and right hand» awareness. Now let's see what follows from this. In a procedural sense, awareness allows you to return to the experience of its inherent integrity. When we talk about awareness, we most often mean turning our attention to the bodily components of emotions. Psychotherapists sometimes call it grounding- when observing bodily sensations helps to reduce emotional overwhelm. This is partly because awareness leads to slowing down and thereby increases the accuracy and reduces the intensity of experiences. This is the first stage, finding yourself at the point where the path begins.

The next stage, which logically follows from the previous one, is called symbolization or the process of making sense. It is very important to be able to place your experiences in some context, because emotionally a difficult situation is part of the rest of life. Often an affect occurs when an experience is suspended in the air and isolated from background feelings. For example, the experience of anger can be especially difficult to bear if other emotions that are also present in the relationship cannot be accessed. This affective response is called border splitting when hatred of the "bad" object destroys its good qualities and thereby destroys attachment.

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It should also be remembered that emotions are a contact phenomenon, which means that awareness alone is not enough: it is important to associate the emotion with a need and with an object that could satisfy it. When emotions remain an “individual” process, with which the subject tries to cope on his own and does not “unfold” them into contact, then we observe a stoppage of experience. The extreme manifestation of this process is the onset of a state of mental trauma. Accordingly, the task of emotional regulation is to restore sensitivity during mental anesthesia, and not to support the avoidance of contact with negative emotions.

Awareness of the context allows you to make the transition to the third stage of emotional regulation, which we will conditionally call process thinking. By this I mean the ability to observe complex emotion in the dimensions of the past (the context of common history) and the future (the potential for its development). If this does not happen, then the experience of an interrupted experience, in which it seems that the relationship is collapsing, or life is divided into before and after, strongly contributes to the development of an affect that floods the consciousness and finds its way out in reacting. And this method does not lead to an increase in experience, rather, on the contrary, it prevents mental processing.