Emotional baggage can be heavy on our mind and overall well-being. Avoid letting it get stuck in your body by releasing it.
Negative feelings connected to a certain circumstance can manifest as pain, this is due to the painful or difficult experiences which an individual may have endured. These experiences tend to stay in your mind for a very long time.
When an individual is overwhelmed with emotional baggage, it means that they are still struggling with unresolved emotions and holding onto pain, sadness, regret, and rage from life, relationships or career.
This emotional baggage doesn’t go away. It can affect the way you think, how you react to stress, and your relationship with others, your physical and mental well-being.
Activating certain areas of the body may trigger these memories, according to Mark Olson, PhD, LMT, the owner and director of the Pacific Center for Awareness & Bodywork.
“Emotions are constantly being generated — subconsciously or consciously — in response to the reactivation of memories or unsatisfied goals,” Olson says. “The touch to X area is simply a reliable stimulus to reconstruct the pattern associated with that traumatic event.”
Yoga instructor Sangita Porwal also states that emotional baggage is stored in our bodies and how to release it via an Instagram post.
According to Porwal, everyone carries unprocessed emotions. Your body actually stores your negative emotions and bitter thoughts.
Healthshots suggest that individuals looks out for these five places where negative emotions are stored in the body:
- Chest: Hurt and grief
- Stomach and intestine: Fear
- Neck and shoulders: Responsibility and burden
- Head: Loss of control
- Lower back and jaw: Anger
Everyone carries unprocessed emotions. You just have to recognise these emotions and deal with them, tap them out creating space for new opportunities and better health, explains the expert.
Here are a few ways to release repressed emotions:
- acknowledging your feelings
- working through trauma
- trying shadow work
- making intentional movement
- practicing stillness
When an emotion is not fully processed, it may become “stuck” in the body and therefore cause you to develop emotional baggage.
However, it’s the limbic structures of the brain where emotional processing occurs. While some areas of your body undoubtedly hold tension or may be associated with an emotional experience, ultimately it’s the brain that’s reconstructing the emotion.
Using these techniques to work through your emotions, like therapy, intentional movement, and shadow work, you can learn to move on from past traumas and release the associated bodily tension.
Also see: How to help you ease your anxiety
