The last three themes may have already provided some insight into the nature of emotions. Thoughts and physicality are so entangled with the experience of emotion that the boundaries between them are almost inseparable. The physical body contains, contracts and flows with every experienced emotion. Indeed, emotion is caught and carried in the tensions of muscles and joints, in illness, in physical and psychological scars, in a cumulative build up that occurs over the course of our lives. 

Human relationships, with all their confusions and hurts, often leave us reeling, emotionally disjointed, defensive, or just plain bewildered. We may be so confused by a lifetime of emotional misadventure that we may no longer accurately recognise our own emotions. We feel something, but that doesn’t mean that we know its name, and, even what we are able to name may be only a shadow of what we actually feel. 

Look for simple pleasures and enjoyment, moments of feeling up or down, and look at the emotional dimensions of engaging with other people. The skills learnt by observing the body, senses and thoughts, which take conscious application and time to practice and develop, become the basis for key habits and tools available to use when dealing with life’s most difficult emotional struggles.