The emotions of our shared reality

Should there be a different way to refer to the emotions which result from collective rather than personal situations? That’s the inquiry of this article.

Grief in an individual body is experienced as grief whether it comes from the death of a beloved pet or the the death of a species. This is not to compare magnitude, but to talk about the way enormous global happenings register with the same emotional language as our small personal experiences. One of the many differences however lies in the number of people (human and nonhuman alike) who are individually carrying emotions related to a situation.

While it may be only one person mourning the death of a beloved dog friend, it’s uncountable numbers who are carrying rage/shame/sadness around colony collapse.

What are these collective/individual emotions?

I’ve started thinking about the emotions that relate to systemically generated situations as holonic emotions. A holon is something that is simultaneously a whole in and of itself, as well as a part of a larger whole. The way I am seeing it, the emotions a single person may experience around plastic in the ocean are complete in an of themselves, yet part of a larger picture.

Distinguishing these holonic emotions from personal emotions may help recommend different ways to work with them. When we’re all having reactions to shared situations, even if the reactions are diverse, perhaps we might better process them together.

How to process emotions

Techniques from the frontiers of somatic psychology have found exciting ways to work with emotions. Raja Selvam, founder of Integral Somatic Psychology, has promoted an expansion technique for working with stored emotional charge wherein one embodies and experiences the emotion with their whole system.

One of his commonly used phrases: it’s easier to lift a suitcase with two hands than with a pinky. Having more space and resource to process the emotion helps shift the energy to a new, integrated state.

Integration is the key—we invite these huge compartmentalized feelings and charges of the past to harmonize with our integrated, compassionate, loving, present-moment Self.

Emotional Embodiment for Holonic Emotions

This same principals apply with holonic emotions and personal emotions.

What I’ve found is that there is particular power in witnessing and in being witnessed in holonic emotions. Untapped anger/sadness/anxiety around gender dynamics, colonization, whiteness, or one’s powerlessness to end the suffering in the world becomes more bearable to work with when there’s the awareness that one is not alone.

We’re not alone in being mad at God. Even if you don’t believe in God, your body might still be filled with anger towards the idea. Carrying around that emotional charge is paralyzing and closes off intimacy with the present moment.

We need ways to process through the backlog of emotions that form buffers around meeting the moment with curiosity.

Let’s work together.