"Emotional Release: The Key to Healing Trauma?"

For so long, we have lived in a world where we need to silence our emotions. Or at least the less acceptable ones. The ones that can make others (and ourselves) feel uncomfortable.

The emotions that seem too much.

But what if the reason we continue to struggle. The reason we feel so blocked when we want to step forward in our lives, is because we don't allow ourselves to feel enough.

Feeling our emotions is how we heal.

How?

First let me speak to Trauma for a moment and what this is:

Trauma is the wound that you sustained as a result.

Trauma is not what happens to you. Trauma is what happens inside you as a result of what happens to you. - Gabor Mate.

Trauma is the response we have to an event. It is what we felt at the time. It is the feelings that did not get to release. Its the emotions that haunt us.

Its the feeling connected to that event that keeps it alive.

Our mind responds by creating a set of limiting beliefs to ensure we don't ever experience anything similar again. Its why someone might be afraid of water or flying or hospitals. There is an emotion there and a physical response. Our mind would rather make us feel deeply afraid and anxious than allow the "other" emotions be felt again.

This keeps us in a perpetual loop.

When we deny our emotions and dont feel them we adopt them.

For example, I used to be afraid to feel & express a lot of my emotions. This resulted in explosive outbursts that were beyond what would be a 'normal" reaction. People called me fiery and angry. I didnt like how I made others feel when I acted like that.

I held it in.

Then I didn't know what I felt anymore. I found it hard to express or explain my emotions. Almost afraid to feel them incase I unleashed something I couldn't control.

Its no wonder I ended up with hashimotos (an autoimune condition that affects the thyroid in the throat) and a constantly clenched jaw, TMJ and a digestive system that seemed to have a mind of its own.

I forgot to feel, or so I thought!

As I started my journey learning hypnosis, learning about the mind. I started to see how important it is to not only review a past event but to FEEL IT.

I have seen some phenomenal results with clients when they FEEL and RELEASE the emotions tied to an event that is keeping them stuck.

When we allow ourselves to feel emotions and release them, it not only makes it ok to feel all of our emotions but.. it also completes the trauma loop. If we release the emotion tied to an event, we can release the beliefs that our mind has created as a result of the event and then, we view the event for what it was. We take the learnings without the pain.

We clear the slate.

We no longer feel stuck and we learn how to manage our emotions in a healthy way. That allows us FEEL them, RELEASE them and understand them.

An easy method to try if you wnat to start connecting more with your feelings and emotions is the R.A.I.N Method :

Recognise and try to identify the emotion and name it, if you can.

Allow yourself to feel the emotion, let it be expressed. The harder we push it down the stronger it can feel.

Investigate where this emotion is coming from. What triggered the emotion and if the trigger really is the cause or, is it coming from somewhere deeper? Is it true?

Nurture and be kind with yourself. Negative emotions are just as much a part of our lives as "positive" ones. We need to experience the full spectrum.

"Negative" emotions are a way to identify that something isn't right and we need to address it so pushing them away and ignoring them will not mean they will just go away. We need to look at them and let them be expressed.

Our emotions help us undertand ourselves and our motives. When we work through them more and more, we start to understand the person behind all the limiting beliefs. We feel safe to show up as our true selves in the world. Emotions and all.

If you want to learn more about what is keeping you stuck in a perpetual loop, book a discovery call and find out more.