Willingness and curiosity

The reification of emotion through physical exploration

A practical technique for fostering willingness is to shift one's relationship to the emotion from being its victim to being a curious explorer.

When a client says "I feel terrible," we invite him to stop using verbal labels ("it's anxiety") and focus on the physical properties of the experience.

We ask him to close his eyes and scan his body as if he were a scientist who has never seen a human being before.

The guiding questions would be: "Where exactly on your body do you feel that sensation most intensely? Does it have a definite shape? If you could draw it, would it be a circle, a spot, a sharp object? Does it have temperature? Does it move or is it static? Does it have any weight or texture?"

By treating emotion as a physical object with neutral properties (heat, pressure, vibration), we defuse the judgment of "bad" or "dangerous."

We discover that "unbearable anxiety" is actually a pressure in the chest and a warmth in the neck. These are intense physical sensations, yes, but they are not catastrophic.

This "reification" allows us to hold the emotion and observe it with distance, reducing its intimidating power.

The curious scientist's attitude to discomfort

We encourage an attitude of radical curiosity. Instead of recoiling from emotional pain, we lean into it to investigate it.

It is the difference between finding a strange insect in your bed and screaming (rejection), and being an entomologist who finds that same insect in the jungle and takes out his magnifying glass in fascination (curiosity).

The sensory experience is the same (seeing the insect), but the attitude changes the emotional reaction.

If we feel embarrassed, instead of hiding, we can ask ourselves with genuine interest, "Wow, how fascinating this reaction is.

Look how my face is heating up, look how my mind tells me that everyone is looking at me. How long will this surge last? How does it evolve if I breathe into it?" By adopting this investigative stance, we create a space of safety.

It's not that we like discomfort, it's that we are so interested in observing the nature of our human experience that aversion takes a back seat.

Curiosity is incompatible with fear and avoidance; you can't be terrified of something and genuinely curious about it at the same time.

Summary

We foster an attitude of radical curiosity, transforming the patient into a scientist who explores his or her physical sensations. Instead of running away, we lean toward the pain to investigate its objective properties.

By "reifying" the emotion and describing it by its shape, weight, or temperature, we defuse the judgment of imminent danger, discovering that "terrible anxiety" is just a series of intense physical sensations.

This investigative stance creates safety, as genuine curiosity is incompatible with fear. As we watch our own reaction with fascination, aversion recedes into the background and we regain calm.