Ever wonder if you’re stuffing your emotions?
Your mind/body connection is stronger than you think. Here are some of the ways in which you purposely not feel - to not deal with what’s truly going on.
Stop stuffing your emotions.
Now, I don’t mean stuffing your emotions with turkey dinner (yes; we’ve all been there). I mean truly having an emotional up-rising and knowingly burying it. Essentially not feeling it ….to not deal with it.
Your emotions are highly connected to your body.
Your body feels the emotion first, and then your pesky brain intercepts and rips it into bite-sized pieces of logic. In other words, your unconscious mind automatically knows how to feel. Your body then feels the emotion (sometimes without your knowledge) and acts accordingly. And finally, your conscious mind snaps back and makes reason out of feelings.
Let’s make sense of this.
Hilary Jacobs Hendel has something to say about this topic. She is a certified psychoanalyst and author of “It’s Not Always Depression”. She writes on TIME.com:
“Emotions have energy that pushes up for expression, and to tamp them down, our minds and bodies use creative tactics - including muscular constriction and holding our breath.”- Hilary Jacobs Hendel https://bit.ly/2GYhv0E
Ever notice your breath shorten or your shoulders tighten? This could be your subconscious emotions sending your body reactions that you’re not bringing awareness to.
….It’s also possible that you’ve been sitting with your fists balled up in frustration, having no knowledge of what you’re feeling in that moment. We’ve all been here with the body pain our frustrations have caused us.
Speak about it, or you’ll lose the opportunity to off-load your stress.
Dr. Allan Schwartz mentions something fundamental for dumping what’s on your mind (and in your body) out into the world:
“Words are symbolic representations for how we feel, what we think and what we are experiencing. Many great psychologists and psychiatrists have written about their observations that verbal communication is a way for people to mitigate the impact of the stresses to which life subjects them.” – Allan Schwartz (LCSW, PH.D.) https://bit.ly/2VgLyVw
We know by now that good mental health can help prevent sickness and disease. And that the mind and body is far more connected than we originally thought. But what some people may not know is that – by talking about your stresses, you actually help relieve symptoms of the stress itself.
Coaches, counsellors and psychologists get you to talk about what’s on your mind. By doing so, you hear yourself verbalize things that were deeply locked away.
A funny thing happens when you speak your secrets out loud – you make discoveries you had no idea about. The best way to accomplish these little nuggets of self-discovery is by talking through it, one step at a time.
