Simple exercises to help you process suppressed emotions
What’s been showing up as a particular theme in clinic lately is our relationship to acknowledging, feeling and creating space to release built up emotions. Life is busy and we tend to live from our head, not being aware of how we’re feeling and the signs our body is giving us. What’s been showing up is blocked emotions creating stagnation. This could be a programmed belief system that crying is wrong, weak, embarrassing. Or a lack of awareness of feelings that are contributing to health complaints or undesirable reactions to life.
Grief has a way of creeping up on us. We may feel we have processed and released sadness from losing a loved one, but it can sit under the surface causing havoc. Moving through grief is different for everyone. It’s important to give yourself the time and space to acknowledge where you’re at the process. Making yourself busy with distractions is a great way to disconnect from your feelings, allowing these unacknowledged emotions to boil up until you explode or burn out. It also contributes to your physical health conditions. As Louise Hay mentions in her book ‘You Can Heal Your life’, hay fever can manifest from suppressed emotions. Or unexpressed internalised anger impacting the functioning is your Liver, which is connected to our eyes, skin and how our body detoxes itself. There are many more layers to explore to find out what’s specific to your condition, but it is a helpful guide to reflect and ask yourself what am I feeling right now? Am I harbouring anger within? You may find once you move through anger then sadness appears, or it may be the opposite. Kinesiology brings to your awareness what the stress is and what part of the body it's impacting. It delves much more deeply into the specifics and de-stresses your system as we move through the balance. I’m not just working with your conscious brain, I’m reading your nervous system, your different energy layers that all impact your physical body. It’s resolving the stagnation in your energy which then provide clarity and helps you see the situation differently. The power comes from connecting into your unconscious programming and getting your energy channels flowing again, which shifts the functioning of your physical body.
Moving through grief is different for everyone. It’s important to give yourself the time and space to acknowledge where you’re at the process. Making yourself busy with distractions is a great way to disconnect from your feelings, allowing these unacknowledged emotions to boil up until you explode or burn out.
Ways that you can tune into whether you have suppressed emotions is to sit quietly with no distractions and feel into your body. Focus on your breath. If you find your thoughts are bringing you out of the present moment, bring yourself back to your breath. Ask yourself how are you feeling? How is your body feeling? This simple exercise of slowing down, focusing on the body, getting curious, can help you connect with suppressed feelings. There is also a letter writing exercise that can help you go deeper into unprocessed hurt located in my How to support your Base Chakra post. There’s a belief that our approach to health requires some expensive and complicated drug or program with a hard to pronounce name, as the only way to fix our issue. Some health issues may require the use of drugs or a more complex approach, however if we were to all implement these simple, powerful and free practices on a regular basis, which is proven to change the chemistry of our body, we would all be much happier and healthier. Rather than adding more information to an already overloaded mind and environment, we simplify and remove all the noise.
There’s a belief that our approach to health requires some expensive and complicated drug or program with a hard to pronounce name, as the only way to fix our issue.
The act of reducing the noise and sitting still, will help you connect to your inner world. It’s like a reset for you mind, creating space to identify what needs to change in your life. It just requires a willingness and commitment to push through any resistance. Guided meditations are also powerful or having non-verbal music can be helpful. Tara Brach offers some soothing mediations with profound teaching on self-enquiry and self-acceptance. Find who you resonate with. There are also other tools you can use to provide guidance whether that be Oracle cards, Tarot or other types of divination cards that brings messages to you. I find these can help me if I’m limited on time and want a quick message. I also love astrology to delve into the psyche and gives you tools to move through planetary transits that can throw us off balance. These tools tend to spark something that brings clarity and release.
So what’s going on with you? If you’re feeling stuck, congested, sick, fatigued or frustrated. How can you create space to do these simple exercises to connect with your inner world, as it drives your outer world and how you perceive your life. The most transformative process can be a simple one.
