Leader’s Notes:
In this session we are going to talk about Embodiment and Emotion. Within faith communities, we are often quick to lead with our heads and to disregard our emotions. While it’s true that “Emotions make excellent servants, but tyrannical masters,” (John Seymore, Introducing Neuro-Linguistic Programing) it is also true that emotions can provide us with great information and insight. During this session, by observing and considering David’s emotions, we can create an inviting place for people to examine and acknowledge their own. We want to honour the signal system that God purposefully gave us.
In both the Film Reflection and the Reflection Action, we make a physical gesture of letting go. If asking people to do this during the session time feels too risky or not appropriate for your group, we do provide another option where people can do this on their own.
Reminder, that any words that are italicized are a not meant to be read out loud, and is a note or instruction just for you
Welcome
Welcome to our session.
Does anyone have reflections or new thoughts to share about our last time together?
Note: watch your time. You may only have time for 2 answers
In this session, we are going to focus on experiences of being in our body and engaging our emotions. We will also explore how David’s experience can give us insights into our own.
What was your favourite childhood game to play? Tag, Grounders, Simon Says, Musical Chairs…?
Share a personal story about playing where you experienced laughter or joy.
Note: If you have the time and space you can play Simon Says or Telephone as a group.
Breath Prayer
As we move into our time together, we will take a moment to release the day and centre ourselves in the Eternal through breath prayer.
As we breathe, I invite you to let go of your day. Release it. Feel your breath going into your lungs and out. We’re going to breathe together for one minute. If closing your eyes is helpful, you can do that now.
Today we’re going to do the Yah-Weh breath prayer together.
Demonstrate Yah-Weh breath prayer.
Take 30 seconds for just breathing and then start Yah-Weh breath prayer. Note: If appropriate, close with a prayer. Go right into poem.
Poem
A Liturgy for Those Looking for Joy
When the world expects sadness,
help us, Creator of Light, to look for pockets of joy.
When the world is overwhelmed by darkness,
give us eyes to see little delights.
When the world is caught up in sensationalism,
help us speak of the hidden wonders we’ve discovered,
holding them up for others to see.
The sacred stillness of the early morning,
a quiet moment in the sun,
small children laughing on scooters,
trees bursting into bloom and lilies opening at the corner store.
These small joys reveal the truth of the world we live in.
No, there is not peace everywhere
and all pain has not been removed.
But there are still people returning home,
voices that pray,
moments of forgiveness,
signs of hope.
We don’t have to wait until all is well
to celebrate the glimpses of your Kingdom at hand.
Let us not deny sadness,
but transform it into fertile soil for more joy.
Let us not deny the darkness,
but choose to live in the light.
Cynics seek darkness wherever they go,
but joy is the mark of the people of hope.
Help us discipline ourselves to choose joy
for the reward is joy itself.
Help us renew our minds until they default to joy and not fear,
for there is so much to frighten us.
Help us believe that the Light can be trusted,
for there is so much darkness to mislead us.
Oh Man of Sorrows, you are also the Man of Complete Joy,
help us to hold both sorrow and joy in the ways you’ve shown us.
Help us to follow the light shining in the Great Story
And listen to your words like little children
Help us to remain in your love
so that your joy may be in us
and our joy may be complete.
Inspired by Henri Nouwen’s The Return of the Prodigal Son.
Introduction
For many of us, growing up means leaving behind the emotional richness of childhood, which is often full of tears and laughter, delight and rage, sadness and playfulness. As we become more “mature,” we often lose touch with ourselves and our true feelings. When we hide our feelings and suppress our anger (which can often lead to depression), we may become very sensible citizens, but the cost is high: losing connection to our emotions and our sense of humour.
Emotions are a gift. The nervous system is an intricate network of pathways at the very core of how we’re made and how we thrive. It is the primary embodied mechanism through which (often unconsciously) we learn to navigate the world and everyone in it. The nervous system causes you to blink, laugh, cry, run and sleep. Without it we could not survive.
Emotions are part of our nervous system and provide us with critical information about what is happening in our lives as well as in our relationships with divine and human reality. Our physical, emotional and spiritual identity is all bound together. Each aspect of our being needs to be in a healthy balance. Some emotions are more “socially acceptable” than others, but we all feel or experience a very wide range of emotions, even though we negotiate or manage them so differently.
David not only seems to experience a wide range of emotions but truly embodies them. He expresses emotion loud and clear – from rage to despair, violent anger to childlike joy – and even dancing naked in public! We witness this intense range of emotion and emotional expression in the life of someone who was called “a man after the Eternal’s own heart.”
Film Scene
Watch film clip 5.1 –
Film Reflection
What emotions do you see David expressing in this scene? Does it make sense to you? Would you express yourself differently?
Can you identify the place on your body where you sense David is feeling from?
Psalm
Together let’s reflect on Psalm 6 and 25. As I read these short lines from the Psalms, allow yourself to hear and experience the words.
Read Psalm 6:2 and Psalm 25:16
Show me grace, Eternal God. I am completely undone.
Bring me back together, Eternal One. Mend my shattered bones.
QUIETLY turn Your eyes to me and be compassionate toward me
because I am lonely and persecuted.
Note: You may want to read the passages twice since the reading is short, and people may need a second reading to enter into the text.
Reflection
How would you describe your range of emotion? For example, would you say that you feel a lot?
Do you tend to think more than you feel?
Would you say you can name all the emotions that you feel?
What do you think has shaped your experience and expression of emotions? (e.g. Your family of origin, past events, particular friendships or communities, something about your unique personality).
Action Reflection Options
Option 1 – Releasing Action
I’m going to play the sound of children at a playground. As you listen, I invite you to quietly reflect on your own emotions and breathe. We’re going to sit in this quiet for a few moments.
Play clip 5.2 (this is an audio based clip)
Note: Wait at least one minute before reading the next part, but you may want to give more time. Use your intuition for what’s appropriate for your group.
I’m going to invite you to stand if you can. Once standing, close your eyes.
As you breathe with your eyes closed, I invite you to touch the place where you feel your own emotions in this moment, and then make a gesture of releasing them.
If you’d like to take a moment to write down how this felt for you, please do so.
What did you notice during this reflection time?
Option 2 – Personal Releasing action
Note: If you feel Option 1 is too vulnerable for your group, you can use this adjusted version.
I’m going to play the sound of children at a playground. As you listen, I invite you to quietly reflect on your own emotions and breathe. We’re going to sit in this quiet for a few moments.
Note: Wait at least one minute before reading the next part, but you may want to give more time.
If you’d like to take a moment to write down how this felt for you, please do so.
What did you notice during this reflection time?
Before our next session, I want to invite you to do this reflection action again. Start with breathing like we did today. When you feel ready you can touch the place where you feel emotions and to make a gesture of releasing the emotions.
Closing Thought
Some cultures, including in a number of Middle Eastern or African countries, are much more able to ‘play the whole piano’ of emotions, while some cultures, including in the West and in Asia, often play ‘one octave’ when expressing emotions – especially in public. Still, little children everywhere are much freer in the expression of their feelings, until taught to behave differently.
One of the greatest sayings of Jesus was: “You must become like a little child to enter the Kingdom of Heaven.” Someone once described the ideal spiritual community as “the joy of recovered childhood.” David is an example of a human being who always felt and expressed a breadth of human emotion. He remained in touch with his own humanity and his childlike spirit.
Closing Poem
I have seen the sun break through
To illuminate a small field
For a while and gone my way
And forgotten it. But that was the pearl
Of great price, the one field that had
The treasure in it. I realise now
That I must give all that I have
To possess it. Life is not hurrying
On to a receding future, nor hankering after
An imagined past. It is the turning
Aside like Moses to the miracle
Of the lit bush, to a brightness
That seemed as transitory as your youth
Once, but is the eternity that awaits you.
R.S. Thomas (20th Century)
Closing Prayer
Close in prayer, thanking the Eternal for the full range of emotions.
Thank everyone for journeying through emotions and embodiment with you.