Melting Emotions in the Body

Born porous and open, children are inextricably delicate and absorbing. Childhood interactions with caretakers create imprints. I’m bad, I’m not good enough, I’m insignificant, I’m hopeless, I’m worthless, I’m helpless, on and on it goes.

Over time, we may choose to not feel or our environment shuns us from feeling the negative emotions. We learn suppression is the best way. Fear is not ok, anger is frightening, sadness/hurt/shame is for the weak.

Each imprint is an open sore wound. We live out our lives and get triggered every time the past is accidentally touched in the present. Until we fully feel the emotions we chose to suppress years ago, we will feel the residual emotion and thoughts in the present. 

Long term suppression then condenses into what we call personality. Undesirable traits are often leftovers from previous experiences, where the individual doesn’t know how to maneuver out of the emotional stuckness. 

Suppressed emotions end up like oil grease, coagulating like mucus on organs, muscles, fascia, bones. The body serves as a memory palace of past experiences. Emotional and physical memories not passed through are stored inside and over time our bodies become dense, tense, and numb. The body, when clogged, no longer reacts to events sensitively. It loses its sense of direction and is unable to tap into a deeper knowing guiding to aliveness.

Emotions are energy. Energies not felt are locked inside like a shaken soda bottle, pinballing around without an outlet. Unprocessed emotions create repeated thought loops and narratives in our heads. In a world where we are conditioned to strengthen the mind, therapists use mind-based modalities like CBT/DBT to intellectually re-engineering our thinking. That is excellent and useful. What is also useful is our bodily knowings and intuitions.  By feeling the feelings, which are sensations in the body, energy is released. The affiliated thought will then come into consciousness and once recognized, also dissipate.  

Feel the feelings. The body knows. The body guides. The body carries. 

Tools, from meditation to somatic therapies, are avenues into the body. Meditation helps to distance from the strength of the mind. The focus on mantra, breath, and sensations helps to dis-identify from rampant thoughts of the habitual mind. Somatic therapists’ presence leads us to explore the crevices of our dark rooms. These practices poke at the sensations, allow images to arise, and give acceptance to the scared ones behind the nooks and crannies.

Stuck emotions arise when we give our body openings. Various movement methods can help soften the body (e.g. yoga, dance). Oftentimes, emotions are also stuck in our joints and legs. Particular yoga methods such as Adioyoga can help release joint pressures. As the body softens, convulsions and shaking can happen as emotions and energies leave the body. TRE is a tremendous method that helps release pent-up energy through tremors. Oftentimes, immense physical pain can be a result of unreleased emotions. Tears are the ultimate signs of release. Through the emotional de-constipation process, the body can restore to ease.

Each layer of emotional release allows the brain more space and calm. The incessant thoughts that used to shroud the brain, often negative and fear-based, are released with the stuck emotional energies. Thoughts become clearer, mental space becomes more spacious, and innate human goodness arises. One will have higher cognitive capacities to think more clearly and rightfully use the brain to problem solve. The old patterns of self-criticism and other hatred will subside, allowing intuitive life to flow through.

The emotional and physical processing help reach true self-acceptance. Knowing that we are a product of our experiences. Our patterns are not permanent and our becoming is ongoing. Each day we die to an older version of self. Each moment we are evolving and letting go of the old. The ever-adaptation process of breathing in and out is the evolution of being. We are being and always becoming. 

 There is a vast space beneath the chatter of the small brain that contains something vastly larger than the ordinary analytical mind can hold. That mystery itself is vastly enchanting and what many people unknowingly yet desperately are trying to reach. 

The smaller self is aware of the dangers, knows its locations, keeps track of its bank accounts. The larger self trusts, is compassionate and calm in a crisis, and sees itself as a piece of an ultimate changing universe. 

The body is the larger self. The body is the subconscious. The body connects to the “more”, the “mystery”, where we cannot be alone in our journeys.

The body as a clear vessel can serve as guidance towards our service towards the whole. Through the subtle sensing of opening and closing of the body, we can use it as a guide for decision making, accessing unconscious knowings that are life-serving.

The more we flow into the deeper parts of being through moving the tension and blockages in our body, the clearer our inner voice of clarity is. Rather than seeking external guidance based on societal demands or parental and social expectations, we follow an inner compass that comes from the full acceptance of ourselves. And always, this deeper investigation always leads to a more benevolent self that we always know ourselves to be.