Visceral
Anatomical drawing: viscera of human body. Lantern slide from the Art Gallery of South Australia.
Beautiful baby fox, limp from the terrier’s teeth, red
Goldfinch below the window, yellow-white belly to the sun
Toad’s last look of bewilderment, accidentally struck by the shovel
Fish, 18 inches of rot enticing the other dog to roll
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These scenes halt me from rushing through the moment to the next thing. They require a pause and breath to the belly, a squatting down with reverence and revulsion, a beholding.
Right now, I soft-spit the word “visceral” out of my mouth and feel my own gut come on line, sense myself instinctively form a fist down by my belly. I whisper it again: visceral. I am in love with this word, because it brings me into my body, it has depth, it feels good to say. It feels good to feel.
I am one who had to learn to live in her body. I am one who is still learning to feel.
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Though I have grown to inhabit my body across the years—through yoga, walking outdoors, and meditation—I still find it difficult to bring awareness within my body, to truly feel. So these experiences of nature are gifts, opportunities to drop immediately into sensation. They help me practice, which I need.
Because let’s face it, stressors are plentiful this year, and they continue to mount. Every client I work with is navigating high-intensity stress like never before. This seems like a good moment to come back to our bodies.
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Embodiment guru Wendy Palmer taught me that stressors are visceral. Stress is not experienced as thought or emotion, but as a body-based phenomenon. Therefore, dealing with stress requires a visceral response. We cannot think our way out of anxiety. Telling ourselves, “It’s going to be okay” or repeating “Just let go” are not useful strategies. And even when we use words to describe emotions, we still circumvent the body.
We have to actually sense our bodies, to feel our way through to calm.
Here’s a fact I’m happy to make more widely known: emotions pass in ~90 seconds, if we let them. This means when we’re hit with big feelings—like despair, anger, fear, worry, grief—we should pause. If we can go for the ride, tuning into the sensations as they course through our bodies, emotions do not get trapped as chronic stress; instead, they dissipate.
Jill Bolte Taylor, neuroanatomist and author of the inspiring book and TED talk My Stroke of Insight, named this phenomenon the 90-second rule. She says:
“When a person has a reaction to something in their environment, there’s a 90-second chemical process that happens; any remaining emotional response is just the person choosing to stay in that emotional loop.”
I have found applying the wisdom of nature’s surprises, Wendy Palmer, and Jill Bolte Taylor to be immensely instructive. To know that I have the capacity to feel fully and immediately—without drama or charged energy—has been liberating.
Invitation
Test the 90-second rule for yourself. Next time you have a visceral reaction or notice a big emotion take hold, pause. If you are with others and can step away for a couple of minutes, do so. Do not attempt to override, ignore, stuff, or deny the sensations that are happening in your body. Just go for the ride. Taylor suggests watching a timer or clock if you can, to better observe yourself having the physiological response. In any case, quiet your mind. There’s no need to come up with labels or words of any kind. Even if all the circumstances continue to exist, YOU will be different.
If you are curious to learn more, here’s a helpful article: The 90-Second Rule That Builds Self-Control.