Invitation to Meet Joy

I often say if I were not a physical therapist, I would be a neuroscientist. I am fascinated by the brain, especially in regards to how the brain interprets sensory information from the nervous system. I mention this interest as the neuroscience of chronic pain and emotional processing is a relatively new area of scientific research. Don’t get me wrong, people have been studying it for eons, but the research has evolved significantly in recent years to illustrate the physiological underpinnings of emotional processing and pain. Meaning there is now evidence that the body has physiologic, i.e. musculoskeletal, cellular changes in regards to emotional experiences.

One of these areas of interest and research surrounds the concept of making abstract concepts more tangible, and thereby creating neuroplastic changes within the brain that can change our interactions with pain and/or emotional pain. For example, in a recent study on this subject, “The team found that when abstract concepts (such as love) appeared with related visual information (such as people kissing), the brain processed them more like concrete concepts, engaging sensory and motor regions.” 

In my practice I have used this data to create an intervention of making abstract concepts tangible, concepts such as joy, happiness, sadness, fear, or anger. Today the invitation pertains to joy, but obviously this method can be applied to many varied emotions. The idea being that when something becomes more tangible, it has the potential to give a person more empowerment as to how they interact with that emotion, to help a person have a different sensory experience, or to remove it from the interminable hamster wheel of cerebral thought. So without further ado - 

Invitation to Meet Joy. I invite you to make a tangible concept of joy. Get creative and allow yourself to create what feels joyful to you. Some examples from patients that have done this exercise include:

  • Use of toilet paper roll, pipe cleaners, beads, and googly eyes

  • Writing “joy” on a volleyball

  • Drawing and coloring an image that denoted joy

  • Creating a clay sculpture

Once made, take Joy with you, or have Joy be present frequently. Some examples of this include:

  • Having Joy be at the dinner table with you

  • Have Joy ride in the car with you

  • Let Joy wake you up in the morning by sitting next to the alarm

  • Have Joy be on the mirror that you use to get ready for the day

I would love to see your Joys and hear about what might shift or change for you when you have a tangible Joy to experience and with which to interact. Feel free to post to our Instagram, write us an email, or call us to share your stories of Joy.

Reference: Viktor Nikolaus Kewenig, Viktor Nikolaus, Vigliocco, Gabriella, Skipper, Jeremy. (2024) When abstract becomes concrete, naturalistic encoding of concepts in the brain eLife 13:RP91522. https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.91522.3


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