Where do emotions live — in the mind, or in the body?
Have you ever noticed how fear tightens the chest, or how sadness seems to drain the legs of their weight? These are not metaphors. Research suggests that emotions have consistent, measurable locations in the body — and that our capacity to sense them may be the very foundation of how we understand ourselves and one another.
How movements and gestures are grounded in our memories?
There is evidence showing that multimodal encoding—processing information simultaneously through different senses (e.g., vision, hearing, touch) or movements—helps us recall information. Studies indicate that self-performed actions associated with linguistic tasks can support memorization of words and the learning of new word meanings. More specifically, it is easier to remember the sentence “grasp the orange” if we perform the action of grasping an (imaginary) orange ourselves, rather than observing someone else perform the action or simply reading or hearing the sentence.
What does it involve to fully experience the present as it is?
Mindfulness, which is an essential part of the Hakomi method, is a state of conscious self-inquiry — a practice of presence, where attention is directed to the here and now. Sensations, bodily feelings, memories, emotions, and thoughts are met as they are, not as we wish them to be. The work is grounded in a shared and bi-directional mindfulness between two people — the therapist and the client. In Hakomi, this is known as guided self-study.
When you are talking to yourself, is there anyone listening?
Do you often find yourself chatting with your inner voice? If yes, you are not the only one. Inner dialogue refers to speaking words in one's own voice, and according to some estimations, people spend one fourth of their life engaged in an inner dialogue.
While talking to ourselves, we still preserve some dynamics of social exchange by engaging in an internal dialogue similar to conversing with another person. In that sense, someone - an imaginary person - is listening to our inner conversations. Inner talk has a substantial role in creation of ourselves and meaningful autobiographical narratives are constructed through inner speech.
What is a good life?
Do you ever wonder what makes a good life or how to make the most of your remaining days?
Research shows that a good life is often linked to happiness or a sense of meaning. A happy life is connected to things like contentment, joy, security, and stability, often including financial security, close relationships, and an optimistic mindset. Personal satisfaction plays a central role. A meaningful life, on the other hand, is linked to a greater purpose, coherence, and principles - life seems to have a more purpose than just the pursuit of personal happiness. Meaningful life aims to make a (societal) impact.
Mindfulness in coaching
Mindfulness refers to a heightened non-judgmental awareness in the experiences of the present moment such as body sensations, thoughts, or emotions. Long-lasting mindfulness meditation practice helps to enhance attention control, emotion regulation, and self-awareness, and thus, mindfulness practices have been increasingly incorporated into coaching or psychotherapeutic interventions.
The impact of using a non-native language in coaching or counseling: How are emotions, empathy, and trust affected?
Acquisition of a mother tongue occurs in emotionally rich and diverse contexts while foreign languages are typically acquired in academic environments, resulting in non-identical emotional reactivity in response to native and foreign languages. Sometimes we might even experience an emotional distance when engaged in conversation in a foreign language.