Lowering the Volume on an Emotion
Break an emotional addiction by regulating the aroused body back to the present with your eyes closed first
- Difficulty
- Advanced
- Time to result
- ~ongoing to results
- Steps
- 5
- Confidence
- 79%
Dispenza treats a persistent emotion as an addiction: an arousal the body craves and reaffirms through the stories and people it attaches to. Rather than trying to fix the feeling in the heat of real life, you practise first with your eyes closed. When the body starts getting anxious or aroused in meditation, you become aware of it and, like taming an animal, settle the body back down into the present moment. It fights back like a spoiled child, so you keep lowering the volume, slowing the breath and brain waves and moving attention into the heart, where the parasympathetic system engages. Repeating this conditions the body to a new mind so the brain stops firing the old circuits, and eventually you can regulate the same emotion with your eyes open in real situations.
Origin
Dr Joe Dispenza's self-regulation practice, refined with veterans, Navy SEALs, CEOs and event communities wearing monitors, and measured through brain scans and heart coherence data.
Core principles
- 01An emotion held long after the event becomes an addiction the body craves
- 02Where you place your attention is where you place your energy
- 03The more relaxed you are in your heart, the more awake your brain becomes
- 04Practise regulating the emotion with eyes closed before facing it in life
How to run it
- 1
Catch the emotion in practice, not in life
Sit with eyes closed and wait for the body to start feeling worried, aroused or anxious, so you can work with the feeling in a controlled setting.
Pro tip Get so good with eyes closed that you can later do it with eyes open.
- 2
Become aware the body is feeling it
Notice that the body, not you, is generating the emotion, and refuse to let the body be the mind.
Pro tip Recognising you have gone unconscious and returning attention is itself a victory.
Watch out Most people conclude they can't do it when the body re-arouses; that is the moment to persist.
- 3
Settle the body to the present
Like taming an animal, guide the aroused body back down into the present moment; it will resist and re-arouse repeatedly.
Pro tip Keep bringing attention back from the worst-case scenario and the memory of the past.
- 4
Slow the breath and move to the heart
Breathe more slowly to change your brain waves and place attention on your heart so energy builds there and the parasympathetic system comes up.
Pro tip Once energy moves into the heart you tend to become calm and creative.
- 5
Repeat, then take it to eyes open
Keep lowering the volume until the body surrenders into the present and can no longer hold the fear, then practise regulating in real conditions.
Pro tip When it is hardest to regulate, it matters the most.
Watch out If you have not genuinely overcome the emotion, your real-life reaction will be unchanged.
In the wild
A Navy SEAL who had tried talk therapy, antidepressants, pain relievers and plant medicine still could not function because he had not gotten beyond the emotion keeping him connected to the past. Brought right up to the edge of his emotional belief, where the pain is at its height, he chooses to go one more time. On going again he has an immediate breakthrough and relief, and afterwards looks back at his past through an entirely different lens.
→ Repeated regulation to the edge of the emotion produced a breakthrough where other interventions had failed.
Common mistakes
White-knuckling the emotion with nothing to do
Trying to simply suppress the feeling triggers withdrawal-like cravings; replacing the thought and feeling with a practice moves you through faster.
Waiting to practise until you are already triggered in life
The program is too ingrained to master first in the moment; you must rehearse regulation with eyes closed before real situations.
Feeding attention to the person or problem
The stronger the emotion toward someone, the more attention and energy you give them; lowering the volume returns that energy to you.
Is it for you?
Best for
People with chronic anxiety, fear or trauma responses who keep reliving an event and reacting from it.
Not ideal for
Acute crises requiring immediate professional or medical intervention rather than a self-practice.
From the transcript
“the act of sitting with that and keep lowering the volume and not letting the body be the mind”
“the more relaxed you are in your heart the more awake you are in your brain”
From the episode
How To Unlock Your Mind & Master Your Life - Dr Joe Dispenza - #741
Dr Joe Dispenza