The following is excerpted from the course Tools for the Times

The Basics: Joy, Sadness, fear, Anger, and Grief

The pure emotional energy is dispensed into these five basics: joy, sorrow, fear, anger, and grief. There is a whole range of variations that these energies can be diluted into. There are combinations of two or more emotions that gives a new flavor. (Refer to the additional page about the emotional permutations on the main page)

But all the variations typically can be broken down to these. Each one has certain body symptomologies and specific locations where they show up in the physical and energetic bodies. Each aligns fairly consistently with one of the in body chakras. So, we shall briefly explore each with some specific characteristics with the intention of expanding your personal awareness to be able to notice and respond when and if they arise.

Joy
Honestly, joy is not an emotion that we dissect to understand it…we just enjoy the experience of it. Having said that, it brings a sweeping feeling of lightness and raises our frequency and mood to a positive, higher vibration place. Our laughter, smiles, animation, and child like spirit exemplify its presence. It is based in the second chakra (belly laugh) but it infiltrates others. It helps us to feel solid and grounded and connected in the root. It activates us and assists us in taking action, a solar plexus quality. Often, joy opens one’s heart and creates loving, connected feelings that are inclusive of others. It is verbal and helps to release pent up energy with the variations of tone in laughter, ha ha ha, ho ho ho, he he he….Joy happens more frequently when we are open, balanced, and inclusive of life. It is infectious, triggers endorphins, and leaves one feeling clean. Joy is the natural state of the child. When we are joy-filled, we often get silly. Most don’t analyze why they are having joy, but most would like to bring more of it into their life.

Sorrow
 Sadness is mostly a heart chakra issue. It is triggered by loss, unexpected changes, disappointments, or abuse. It involves all the chakras below it in varying degrees. Physically, the sensations are in the belly, the chest, behind the eyes, in the throat, and can be overwhelming. The voice sounds in a downward arc. The shoulders slump and one can whine or cry or make groaning sounds, depending on the severity and the unexpectedness of the loss. Crying is a sign of sorrow. The cleansing capacity of tears is perfect with this emotion. They wash away the sense of loss. Tears also trigger the untapped reservoirs of loss and frustration and personal disappointments, etc., often leading to deeper, more lengthy release than the current situation might call for. One seeks comfort, touch, and support when sorrow strikes. The eyes are droopy and the corners of the mouth sag. The world feels heavy. It moves slowly in release because it is often manipulated by thoughts, patterns, attention, self-pity, and the triggered release of an energetic reservoir. Crying actually feels good (when its over). Allowing sadness can be very cleansing for all the energy bodies.

Fear
A classic second chakra emotion, fear is the most pervasive of the emotions of this plane, not because there is a lot to be afraid of, but because we have been taught to fear. A useful emotion that uses heightened awareness to ward of threats, danger, and potential harm, fear is a constant companion for many in this culture, and world. It involves the kidneys resides in the deep viscera of the lower belly. Fear incapacitates and immobilizes. It can be accompanied by thoughts of terror, cold sweats, urges to run away, sweaty palms, facial clenching, wide eyes, high pitched mournful sounds, screams, and a need to survive at all costs. Taxing the adrenals and impacting the kidneys, fear leaves one feeling separate, unprotected, child-like , and weak. It precipitates unrealistic thoughts, feels like anxiety in that tissue buzzes, tingles, contracts, etc, and stresses the whole body to question the capacity for survival. In a society replete with violence, war, threats of annihilation,  loss of work, money challenges, relationship problems, the future, terrorists, global warming….where insurance  companies remind us over and over that catastrophe is just around the corner, where doctors threaten us with the panorama of disease and side effects from the cures they prescribe, where lawyers salivate to take what you have, where the police and the judicial systems control  our moves and freedom and watch over us 24/7 with surveillance, where our death waits just down the road…on and on. No wonder we are afraid. The pressure is too much and the stress of handling it all contributes to heart attacks, strokes, suicides and more…fear is diminished by getting clear on the facts. “Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain”. Imagined results are one of the tools of fear full energy. Fear is a mighty attractant in the cosmic interplay of abundance and prosperity. Fear distracts and debilitates, contributes to ulcers, heart attacks, brain disease, nervous system disorders, rashes, paranoia, etc. Balanced fear,contrastingly, is a force in alignment with the situation. It moves through observation and inner permission to clear out fairly quickly, unless life restimulates it. Clearing the reservoir of fear unexpressed is a priority for humans everywhere…

Anger
Anger is a solar plexus issue, a matter of power repressed. As a mask emotion, there is usually something underneath the expression of anger, a fear, a loss, a perception. Anger floods through the viscera like spinach through Popeye’s arm. It is fast and vigorous, blinding and consuming, and is impacted mightily by storehousing it. Consider crimes of passion, and a blinding rage, and losing control. Anger is first felt in the solar plexus, a knot in the stomach. It creates heat and feels like it is moving through the tissues, especially the extremities. One feels activated, intense, physical, and wants to strike out to defend, harm, and destroy. It is loud, explosive, and filled with deep bodied sounds. Anger is fed by the reservoir of injustice, criticism, disappointment, manipulation, yellings, and punishments that have been perpetrated upon us by our moments of living up until now. Moments of anger trigger the reservoir to release as the body is attempting to clear the field. Anger is everywhere, but often couched in socially acceptable guises: wit, just kiddings, sarcasm, criticisms, advice, etc. Anger is activated by the violence in our world. The movies, TV shows, news, the real world injustices, the inequalities are all dripping with back door expressions of anger. The acceptable violence and killing shown and reported in the media support the inappropriate expressions of anger. Programs are all about controlling it rather than working with the safe release of this visceral force. There must be an outlet for anger to be released safely, like a pressure cooker. The forms of the world create varying degrees of anger in people. Most have learned to stuff it. The existence and intensity of sporting events is actually a productive way to release the stress that feeds anger, to yell the words and sounds of frustration and helplessness, to collectively feel the energetic intensity that supports release…all productive unless they go to far and become violent…as many do. The force of anger creates action and produces results and change…which can be positive or negative. What is most important is to recognize anger and have safe ways to move and release the energy.

Grief
This emotion is actually a combination of all of the others. Triggered by unexpected loss and significant change, grief moves through stages, each involving one or more of the other basics. The shock of the event can be numbing, often very vocal and animated as inner doors of companion losses are thrown wide open to feed a sweeping wave of energy that clears out a whole lot of debris. The initial flood leads to disbelief and denial, a time of numbness and unacceptability. Sadness rises next, the anguish of the loss, the separation anxiety, the sense of helplessness. Tears cleanse and wash the debris. Too often these are curtailed. Then comes the rage about the loss, the helplessness to do anything to stop it. Fear reveals itself next as one is feeling lost and does not know what they will do, how life will be without…the unknown, the changes that must take place, the routines broken…And finally, comes the resolution, the acceptance, a lengthy journey through each element that must have time to be assimilated. Grief is felt in all of the lower chakras, It’s symptoms are many, but include the specific emotion ones outlined above. Grief is accepted by society, but only for so long. Get over it, there’s nothing you can do about it, time to move on, let it go…soon flood the senses from those around who have grown impatient with your self pity, mainly because it triggers their own reservoir of unexpressed toxicity.