Feeling it is Healing it

Feeling it is healing it… what does this mean?

Have you ever noticed how you feel better after a good cry or expressing love or appreciation to a friend? Or how do you free yourself of anger or rage by hitting the gym, running, or doing an intense hot yoga class? This is the transformative power of the concept of “feeling it is healing it.”

When we allow ourselves to feel or express our emotions, we allow them to free themselves from our bodies. Emotions are energy. We can think of our emotions' energy as a ball being held underwater. We can choose to free the ball, letting it burst up to the surface with force and freedom by “feeling”, or we can choose to lay on the ball and hold it down with our weight, energy, and determination. What happens if we free the ball? We are free to move without limitation!

Many of us have beliefs or programs running within us that tell us that it is not OK to express emotion, or, a super doozy, that the above metaphor about the ball does not exist!

What happens with continuous repression or holding down of the ball? We spend days, months, or even years using our precious energy to continue to hold the ball down. As time goes by, not only are we continuing to use our precious energy to hold the same ball down, we obtain more and more balls, and we spend more and more energy pushing, holding, coordinating our efforts, and trying to maintain all of this while supporting a family, working, and going through life. Soon enough, it all gets too much, and our body must release the energy.

And how does the body eventually express this? Through physical pain and illness. When our body creates pain and illness, it is a dire effort from the body screaming, “Please listen to me, please hear me, please free me!” Our bodies are a reflection of what has been repressed. We all have pain and illness. We have all been “programmed,” and we have all had trauma. So, see this process as a tool for empowerment, not something you are not proud of.

If you have pain or illness, here is a wonderful exercise for you to try:

1.     Close your eyes and tune in to the physical pain AND emotional pain you feel in your body. For example, Say you have lower back pain. What exactly do you feel? Be as descriptive as possible. I.e., dull, achy, sharp shooting, stabbing, numbness, frustration, irritation, walking through quicksand, immobilized.

2.     With each of those words, put “I feel” in front of them and turn them into a statement about your life. Feel free to add additional descriptive words as you go. The KEY is: You have to be willing to admit to your statements and want change. Otherwise, you just go back to holding the ball down. So the MORE detail you go into, the BETTER! I promise you, your body is trying to tell you something. Here is the above example continued:  

I feel dullness or a sense of boredom in my life.

I feel achy or like I am aching for something in my life.

I feel sharp, or like I have been stabbed in the back throughout my life.

I feel a sense of numbness in my life or that I have gone numb.

I feel like I’ve been immobilized or taken down in my life.

I feel a deep sense of irritation and anger in my life.

I feel like I am walking through quicksand in my life, and it's extremely difficult to get where I want to go.

I feel a deep sense of irritation, anger, and frustration in my life.

3.     With each one of your statements: Sit quietly for a couple minutes or more. Write down whatever additional feelings arise. For example: After sitting with “I feel dullness or a sense of boredom in my life.” I realized that if I am honest, I feel bored with my life. It brings up additional emotions like sadness, regret, and disappointment. I feel dull like I am not contributing or experiencing the world with much enthusiasm. It feels so refreshing to admit this to myself. Now, I can start researching small ways to enhance, contribute, and experience my life differently.

Do this with all of your statements, and feel how refreshing it feels to finally admit to how you feel. Feel free to write just a few sentences or start a journal and go to town! The more emotions you can stir up, the better. This means you are letting go of the balls and liberating yourself of what you once used your precious bodily resources to hold down! You will start to feel lighter and freer as things begin to change in your body and in your life.

*Contact me for a one-on-one coaching session or to create a guided "Body Talk" meditation if you would like help or guidance with this process.