Julie Brigitte Moore Zen Shiatsu Therapist and Spiritual Writer

Julie Moore and Louise L. Hay, San Diego 2011

I believe that the importance of “understanding emotions” is under rated in our society. Medias and self-help books try to promote Emotional Intelligence but at the end of the day it is often addressed as trend. Emotions are often featured a bit like fashion accessories or home décor tips and tricks…

I am not proud to say it but I personally started to travel the world of my emotions in my forties. As a girl, I studied at private school with the nuns and loved it. I recalled learning about French, English, Latin, Religion, Math, Biology, History, Geography, Chemistry, and Physique. I learned all kind of sports and had fun with arts and craft! Did someone taught us about emotions? No, I had never heard of it.

Every night of the week, I was going to ballet school and loved it. Dance always have been my true passion and my first love. When I stopped dancing fifteen years later, I sheltered dance in my heart. I locked it and threw away the key far behind my back and never looked back. For the next twenty years, when I encountered anything “dance”, I ran away as fast as I could to avoid it. I was feeling “deep emotional pain” but I had no clues what to do with it. Therefore I repressed it and moved on.

For me, dance has never been a channel of self-expressions. I love dance because it was an intense amazing trip where I could escape for hours, forget my unhappy home life and stayed focus in the beautiful world of dance. It gave me the feeling of freedom. On the other hand, it was a fantastic experience of “Being One”! One with the moves, one with the music to the point I became the music. I was one with the floor, space, movements, rhythms… This unique feeling of “being one” with the universe was exhilarating… I never dance to express my emotions and I never really understood why other dancers would say that. In retrospect, I must say that I did not know what emotions really were other than happy or sad.

Later on, I studied visual art at Cegep for two years. I had to take two courses just on “colours” for 12 weeks each, three hours per week. Why was I mixing colours for three long hours week after week? Well as an artist, you have to understand colours… The more you play with it, you learn what they are and how to use them…

At university, I had to pick a few course outside my faculty. I chose a course on winter camping. Now that was fun! I studied all kind of topics like nutrition, management even philosophy… But I never signed up for the course about “Emotions” because it did not exist.

It just fascinates me to see how “Emotions” aren’t in school curriculums… It is interesting to notice that school created space for sex education, but not for emotions… Hmmm

I believe my thirteen years of experience, as a Zen Therapist, taught me that most people feel “true body pain” due to their emotional ignorance. If human beings would be taught at primary school about “what emotions are and how to deal with them”, most of us would experience less physical pain, less conflict and happier family lives. We could embrace most life challenges with ease and we would simply experience happier lives.

I think if we want the world to be a better place and reduce the cost of healthcare and reduce the divorce rate; let’s start by teaching “Emotional Intelligence” in primary school!

In my next few posts, I want to invite your to discover your own emotional existence. I will share with you my basic understanding of what are emotions and how to better understand them. Learning to manage our emotions is certainly a great benefit for walking on the path of happier and balanced life.

One of my great mentors on the topic of emotions and healing is the amazing Louise L. Hay. In April 2011, I had the great opportunity to meet her in person in San Diego. I will cherish this moment for the rest of my life. I have learned a great deal from her personal life experiences and her beautiful books. I certainly recommend all of them.

Some aspects of her philosophy are that “everyone suffers from self-hatred and guilt. The bottom line for everyone is “I’m not good enough”…Self-approval and self-acceptance are the keys to positive changes in our lives. When we really love ourselves, everything in our life works” **.

In my opinion, studying the topic of Emotions is vitally important. Certainly as important as learning a second language or geography or biology and even basic sex education… I want your discovery approach to the fascinating universe of emotions to be simple, refreshing and most of all practical. Despite the fact that I do not have a degree in psychology, my intuitive approach is rich in common sense. I believe there is a parallel between our health, emotions and meridian system. Based on how we feel, there is a mutual and complementary effect between the emotions of the heart and the flow of energy in our body. I will extrapolate in this direction in the future.

Many of us spend a lot of time understanding the power of the mind. We are pretty good at experiencing life from a rational perspective. Every morning we get up, think and listen to what ever the mind has to say. Then we make decisions and behave base on the expression of the mind. Sometimes we may hear little voices from within. It is often a shy emotion which is trying to be heard, the same way you can feel a gentle breeze when the window is slightly opened. No one really likes to hear little voices inside… So we just get up and close the window. In this moment, it feels safe, better, and we go on with our day.

In other words, we are use to listen to the mind but we are uncomfortable and sometimes afraid to listen our heart. I believe it is normal to be afraid of what we don’t know. That is why learning about our emotions is in reality a primary need. Emotions make us feel alive! Too many dead people are walking on the streets… I know because I see them day in and day out in my private practice.

I want to share with you that emotions are a sort of a wise international human language. Because I have been studying and working many years in advertising, I can tell you that advertisers around the world deeply understand and apply these golden emotion concepts every day. Then we wonder why money is just coming out of our pockets when we buy all kind of stuff we don’t need… Maybe you aren’t familiar with your emotions, but great advertisers are…

Learning about emotions could really help us to understand better who we are, what we want. It would help us to get on the precious path of a pain free life for greater daily enjoyment and zenly balanced existence, including insightful relationships.

From my perspective, I often tell my clients towards the end of their Zen massage to listen to your heart. The ultimate answer is often that Love is the greatest healer…

In conclusion, if you take the time to take care of your appearance and wardrobe, if you take the time to take care of home and even your car, don’t you think it would be time well spend for you to domesticate your emotions?

Julie Brigitte Moore.

**From Louise L. Hay’s book: You can heal your life.

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