But first, before we go into this exercise, let's talk about the difference between emotions and feelings. everyone is talking about it, but how do we tell the difference?
I hope this post will help you understand the difference and make your exploration easier.
Emotions are only considered pathological when they are contained, suppressed or expressed intensely without control, or out of context.
They are usually held in areas of restrictions in our body. Emotions could be; anger, sadness, frustration, fear, worry, anxiety and so on. Upon enquiry, your body will let you know what emotions are stored in that restricted area.
Enquire further in these same restricted, contracted areas and the held feelings will reveal themselves, which could be: tightness, contracted, buzzy or bubbling feeling. Also lack of focus, foggy head, one side or lower half of the body feeling smaller from the other and so on.
Now for the steps to the daily practice:
Begin by scanning your body, starting from the feet all the way up to your head and observe where it feels different, restricted, contracted or tight. Restrictions usually are in our midline, examples are; base of spine, lower abdomen between the hips, stomach area, diaphragm from one side of ribcage to the other, heart, between the collarbones, throat, back of head at the base, behind the eyes and forehead, where the chakras are located and in the organs too.
What feelings are coming up for you when you bring your awareness to these restricted areas?
Then enquire about the emotions that are coming up for you?
You might have the need to move your body or shake it or dance to release this felt emotions, just follow what your body tells you. Other ways of release could be - old memories coming up, crying, whole body hot flush, the need to shout, the need to stretch and move.
When emotions are released, a space is created, try to fill that space with emotions that you would like to have. For example worry or low self esteem can be replaced with self confidence and trust.
Practice daily locating these restrictions and naming them and see what memories comes up for you to heal.
At first you might feel nothing or just minimum. Be patient! You can always try again later but do come back regularly. Be consistent! It might be that your body wants to build the trust with you first, wants to make sure you are dedicated, and soon it will reveal all to you.
This has been my own experience of my inner journeying.
Our energy is in constant flow. Positive emotions create flow with ease whereas negative ones becomes restricted.
Allow your system to integrate the changes to allow new neural pathways to begin by choosing new ways of being and thinking, otherwise it’s easy to set back to old ways again since the mind prefers routine.
The more we practice, the more we can hear what our system is telling us.
Here's the important part - our hearts need to be open in order for us to go deeper into our wounds for healing otherwise, we are constantly skimming on the surface of our journey and in looping patterns.. But my heart is open I hear!
What could be the signs of guarded heart:
anxiety
shallow breathing
frequently being triggered
tight diaphragm
grief and sadness but not being able to cry
tight chest
folding arms frequently
feeling heavy in the chest
shoulders stooped forward to protect the heart
We’ve all been hurt at some point in our lives whether it is romantic, friendship or from our families. When this happens in a traumatic way or too many times, we tend to guard our hearts.
Instead of healing ourselves and opening up, we tend to carry on with our lives, or enter a new relationships with our hearts guarded. Or have few healing sessions and we start feeling better, so we stop the inner work thinking we’re done.
Healing should not be done sporadically and sometimes it is not a bed of roses, but the reward is so profound that we discover this vast ocean of love in our hearts. It is a lifelong journey of self discovery.
Feel your heart. Heal your heart. Open your heart to your own beauty within. The heart is vast and the love is never ending. We need to love ourselves first before we enter into a new relationship and both individuals need to be willing to work on themselves because the new partner or the new friend is not our superhero. They will not save us from the past. If that’s what they are promising then clearly, they need to do some inner work too.
Our heart is the seat of our soul. If we guard it, we suppress our soul’s expression.
Protecting our hearts out of fear will only create more pain and disappointments. Pain is resisting change. Create healthy boundaries rather than lonesome barriers around your heart.
Wishing you a self discovery journey of coming home to yourself.
My name is Séta, I do Distant Healing and hands onCraniosacral Therapy.
I provide a safe space for you to release past trauma and help you reach your greatest potential with confidence.
If you would like to book a free consultation to discuss your healing journey, please contact me on seta.curatherapies@gmail.com