Simply Alanis Morissette
Alanis Morissette : Those are the Kali approaches—love those, too, believe me.
Maranda Pleasant : How do you process emotional pain? Whether it’s a breakup or a loss of some kind, do you have a process?
Alanis Morissette : I did a lot of work with the somatic experiencing from Peter Levine, and then a lot of Gestalt work. A lot of the journey over the last years has been returning to my body, which I have been so dissociated from for a long time. So really coming back into the body and feeling where those feelings are. We live, in North America in general, if I’m given the indulgence of selling us down the river, in a culture of fear of this connective sense of spirit. We’re in our heads so much in the West in general—but definitely in America, I dare say. My journey and my challenge has been to really see where those feelings lie. When I’m angry, do I feel it in my jaw? Do I feel compelled to raise my fist? When I’m angry, do I feel heat? When I’m in pain and grief and despair, my throat is clenched and my heart hurts.
Having done a lot of shadow work, working with Debbie Ford for many years, I have always noticed that if I feel healing all the way through, that there is a bottom. I think Gangaji really beautifully said at one point that the only feeling she has experienced as having been bottomless was joy.
