How we can coach ourselves with the help of songs that touch us in a special way, with EMDR.
What actually happens to us (or rather: in us) when we really like a song, when it moves us emotionally?
Do you remember the songs of your youth? For example, your favorite song while you were in love for the first time? Or what song accompanied you (through grief) when your first great love ended?
During our adolescent years, we experience numerous emotional moments, positive and negative. Many of these have been stored in our body memory. It is not uncommon for us to unconsciously associate those involving experiences with a song that we liked in that situation and that reflected our mood: it became an anchor for what had happened.
Somatic markers locate our emotional experiences in the body
Involving experiences leave emotional traces in us. So-called somatic markers locate such particularly emotional events in our body memory and, for example, allow us to experience those emotions from back then again and now when listening to an “anchored” song.
For this to happen, the experience does not have to have been negative. Even an extremely positive situation that is accompanied by extraordinarily strong feelings can be remembered in this way.
But: our past experiences decide what judgment we make today about a supposedly similar situation. This is because the somatic markers that make up our body memory let us evaluate future related situations in fractions of a second.
Read more about somatic markers
How Somatic Markers Influence Our Lives
Somatic markers make themselves felt with the help of body reactions of varying intensity It is often observed that one situation (external stimulus) only triggers some goose bumps, while another
How Somatic Markers Influence Our Lives
Somatic markers make themselves felt with the help of body reactions of varying intensity It is often observed that one situation (external stimulus) only triggers some goose bumps, while another
A freely made decision looks different, because the learned emotions associated with an event belong to a person we were then and are not now.
Many events we would actually evaluate differently as the person we are today; actually. Our decisions would look different if we could use all our experience, knowledge and skills unclouded. (Read also Mental Blocks).
With the help of the songs of our life we look into our soul
The songs that move us make a direct connection to our body memory. And while we are listening to such a song, it represents the moment in which we can take advantage of the special opportunity to simultaneously conduct an EMDR self-coaching session with the help of the EMDR glasses REMSTIM 3000.
As a result, we usually re-integrate memories such as joy, strength, confidence and trust (or whatever positive learning effects the situation held for us at the time) into our brain. The full potential of such positive effects becomes available to us, now and in the future.
Often we will notice that the song will not carry us along in the same way and with similar intensity afterwards. The once strong emotions have now weakened or even disappeared. This may be a less pleasant consequence for one or the other. Ultimately, however, this is a small price we should be willing to pay in order to take full advantage of our resources. Because our resources are formed (among other things) from the lived situations that we have stored in us as experiences in a complete and orderly way.
On the other hand, we are happy to pay the price of forgetting if it means that we can finally come to terms with a painful experience and no longer have to remember the physical sensations that accompany it.
Think about the opening question and let’s remember our first love that passed away. Which song accompanied you back then when your first great love ended?
Possibly this sad event is still “in the bones” of many of us! It may be superficially forgotten; but also fully processed? Should the song of that time make us melancholy and awaken a sensation somewhere in our body, the memory is still emotionally alive. Let’s take the chance for a successful EMDR intervention.
The songs of our lives open the door for EMDR self-coaching
Few things are easier: we listen to the song that accompanied our separation at that time and that still awakens the specific somatic marker today, and at the same time we perform an application with the EMDR glasses . As a rule, the body sensation will fade. The former separation receives a mostly complete integration in our neural pathways and is emotionally re-evaluated.
In this way, we ourselves are able to make formerly stressful situations appear in a new light. From now on, these will frighten us less and will no longer trigger an “uneasy” feeling. We thus expand our capabilities because our valuable experience will be fully available to us in the future.
But it doesn’t have to be heartbreak. Regularly use the power of music and thus of each song, which sends you on an emotional journey. Combine the sound experience with a self-coaching session: Make yourself comfortable in your armchair and simply put on the REMSTIM 3000 while listening to music. Whenever you hear a song that takes you away, start the 6 steps:
- What theme do you associate the song with?(more)
- What emotions make themselves felt?(more)
- Where in your body do you feel a sensation? (Or maybe you don’t feel anything at all?)(more)
- Now start an application with the REMSTIM 3000 and again hole the 4th step until you get the best possible result(more)
- Look for residual sensations while listening to the song and thinking about your theme(more)
- Think about your subject and notice the first positive thought that you now anchor with the REMSTIM 3000(more)
You can download a detailed guide to EMDR self-coaching free of charge.
You will be surprised how many countless previously unused experiences lie dormant within us. Experiences and associated emotions, which we associate with numerous songs. These songs are thus a key to our emotions.
So much is still waiting within us to unfold its full potential.
