Healing Painful Emotions Can Heal the Body

The body is a storage container for everything we have ever experienced. By understanding the mind, body and spirit connection better we can understand the connection between the trapped emotions we store and the physical ailments we suffer from.

We can be affected by trapped emotions for years and even decades without realizing where they come from. When we store these emotions we wind up holding on to blocked energy which can manifest into physical pain.

Trauma, social conditioning, and psychological stressors can result in muscle tension, pain and suffering.

Our first experience with social conditioning begins in our early years of life. Social conditioning is reinforced throughout our lives by our parents, teachers, family members, friends and society. When we are uncomfortable with behaviors that are directed towards us, and are not given a voice as a child to express how we feel, we hold in emotions and feelings that become blocked energy. A lot of the muscle tension that we develop is the result of unspoken social beliefs that we were taught to adopt as a way of being "acceptable", "good", or "likable" as children. 

This way of adopting then becomes an internal program which we act on without consciousness. It's almost as if we are computers being programmed with the conditioning and belief systems that others believe should be your internal software.

Trauma is the result of an overwhelmingly negative event that causes a lasting impact on your mental and emotional state. Trauma can be both physically violent and psychologically devastating.

When these traumatic experiences are not consciously addressed and dealt with, they can result in chronic fear, stress, and even occurrences of PTSD. Chronic anxiety, anger, and grief tends to get stored within the body resulting in muscle tension which contributes to a number of other diseases and illnesses such as mental illness, digestive disorders, fibromyalgia, high blood pressure and even cancer.

Psychological stress is any form of anxiety, sadness, anger, or frustration that we develop as a result of how we see a particular situation. The more fearful, negative or fault-focused our perspective is, the more tension we tend to store in our muscles.

The Emotion/Body Connection

Everything on the physical plane is a manifestation of something on the Metaphysical plane. Your physical symptoms are merely tangible evidence of what you are really feeling deep inside. Your body becomes weaker, or stronger, depending on the condition of your mental state. Scientists can now measure the physiological effects of your emotional states.

Shame resonates at the lowest vibration, followed by guilt and then apathy, grief, fear, anxiety, craving, anger and hate. On the opposite spectrum, love, trust, acceptance, forgiveness, understanding, optimism, joy, serenity, willingness and enlightenment, strengthen you.

When you suffer from an accident or injury, weak or incoherent emotional areas are where an injury will gravitate. Your biology is a combination of verbal, intellectual, physical and psycho-emotional states of harmony or conflict. For example, roots of your past problems are reflected in the left side of your body, while how you feel about your future is reflected in the right side. Injuries or pain generally appear on one side of the body. Whichever side your pain is concentrated on reflects the side of you that feels confused or unsupported.

How Your Emotions Store:

Your Left Side: Based on the functions of your brains hemispheres, your left side is receptive, or yin. It responds to stimulus from your environment. It holds your past experiences, your emotional self, your memories, and emotional joy or pain.

Your Right Side: Yang energy, organizes and moves you forward into the future. It manages how you interact with the world. Experiencing problems on your right side? You may feel stuck or hampered in moving forward. Or you may be experiencing unwanted change that is causing fear, reluctance, or trepidation.

Your Front Side:  Reveals the part of you that others see. It reflects those aspects of yourself that show up in your day-to-day living. This includes communication, desire, caring, loving, happiness, and sadness. These show in your face, posture and body language.

Your Back Side: Reflects the private and unconscious elements of your life. This side becomes the storage container for everything you don't want to deal with or don't want other people to see. Hidden or repressed feelings become frozen into the structure of your body which means a lot of negative emotions become stored along your spine and in the backs of your legs. Most of your powerful emotions such as anger and fear are stored in your back side.

Understanding causes of symptoms can help you to understand how your thoughts create your life experiences. The key to true happiness is self love. Truly loving yourself allows for everything you want to flow to you naturally.

​"You become a willing hostage to pain, trauma, heartache and un-forgiveness as long as you choose to hold onto it." -Denika Carothers

Dissolve Blocked Emotions and Heal Your Body

Give yourself permission to really feel it. Your feelings are real and they have a purpose. One of the easiest ways to let go of muscle tension is to actively feel where it is, breathe deeply and let the emotions go when they come. Feeling your emotions might look like crying, punching something ( please don't punch someone), screaming, shouting, or some other form of cleansing and release.

Don't be judgmental. When we judge our emotions as something "wrong" or "bad", we actually magnify our suffering and solidify the tension within our muscles. Rather than judging it, simply realize that an emotion is just an emotion.

Journal about how you feel. Get it out by writing it out, with no filters. Allow yourself to be raw and honest in your writing. This is a very healing practice if done regularly.

Be gentle with yourself. Muscle tension can add to our negative inner voices which cause us even more tension. By being kind to yourself you can break the cycle of the mind feeding the body and the body feeding the mind. Treat yourself as you would a hurt child or a sad best friend. This is a simple, but profound, practice to help you relax.

Stretch your muscles. Do simple stretches or start a yoga practice to relax your muscles. Just five minutes a day is extremely beneficial.

Breath work is a deep healing modality for removing stored emotions and opening up for love and freedom.

Get a massage. Massages are an excellent way to move blocked energy in the body and reduce muscle tension. Alternatively, you can use something like a foam roller or a massage gun to give yourself a deep tissue massage.

Meditation is a great way to become aware of muscle tension as it arises.

Creative Expression. This can be done through painting, decorating, drawing sculpting or any other method of creative self expression.