A play-by-play of processing past trauma and trapped emotions 

Are you tired of dealing with physical symptoms that won't go away? It could be a chronic disease or an injury. If you're having a hard time getting it healed, there might be something you're missing.

I worked as a Physical Therapist for 23 years. I persistently searched for ways to help my clients get better faster.

One thing my patients taught me was that there was much more than just the physical that needed to be addressed for full healing. When we don't address these other aspects, then our healing is going to be stunted or incomplete.

Today I'm revealing a behind-the-scenes, play-by-play of how you can help physical symptoms resolve on a deeper level.

You'll find that you feel happier and lighter as a result.

This one comes with a video - so you can watch the video, OR, read the post below.

3 Aspects of Your Being

There are three aspects to your being. We often think about our physical body. It may get most of your attention.

Then there's the emotional aspect. (Technically, we could classify that as physical. Because emotions are biochemical.)

The third aspect is our spirit. Our physical body is a vehicle for our spirit.

We also have our thoughts, our mental aspect. I tend to incorporate that with our spirit.

The two main things that we're going to talk about today are your physical body and your emotions.

Dealing with Emotions

First, think about what you were taught about dealing with emotions. And even how you deal with emotions today.

Most people learn unhealthy ways to communicate or express their emotions. In many places some emotions are not even acceptable. So how do we end up dealing with them?

If you grew up in a household where it wasn't okay to cry, for example, what happened? You suppressed or stuffed those emotions back down inside.

We all do this to varying degrees. When we suppress emotions, we are suppressing some part of us. We suppress something that is wanting to be expressed, or to flow and to move.

Now this emotion is in your system. It becomes part of you.

Trapped Emotions

These unexpressed emotions become trapped emotions. They are not expressed.

Anything that is in your system long enough will eventually interfere with the normal functioning of that system.

Consider the pipes in your house. Think about your kitchen sink.

If you're throwing too much food scraps down your pipes, eventually that stuff is going to get stuck. That food will clog up the system. The water is not going to flow very well. You have to get that cleared out of there for it to flow right.

It's the exact same thing with your physical body and emotions.

Your emotions, like everything in this world, are meant to move. Nothing is meant to be stagnant.

So when you have emotions that are not expressed, they become suppressed, and trapped. As a spiritual being you are here to express who you are. If you're not expressing those emotions you are suppressing yourself and this leads to trouble.

You might feel sad or hopeless or despair or depressed. In many ways these things stem from suppressing who we are and what we desire in life. They stem from not allowing ourselves to enjoy life and to be who we want to be.

What Physical Symptoms Mean

As I continued to study physical healing, I had a small breakthrough. I found two books that gave fantastic explanations of emotions and thoughts behind physical symptoms.

If this sounds too far out, consider this...when you have an emotion and you allow that emotion to come out, your body changes.

Think about feeling sad or depressed. What is the posture in your body?

Now think about being happy or joyful. What is different about the posture of your body?

We already see how different emotions express through our physical body.

Here's the cool thing! With physical symptoms, your body is expressing the emotions that you have suppressed.

Said another way, if you keep your emotions stuck inside long enough you will eventually get some sort of physical symptom.

This happens because your body is trying to communicate with you. The symptoms are a sign of an imbalance, not just physically, but emotionally and spiritually, too.

When you realize that these physical symptoms are simply your body asking for help. It's sayin, Hey! there's something going on inside. Give me some attention!

You can figure out what those things might be.

Two Books That Explain What's Behind the Physical Symptoms

There are two books I have found extremely helpful to understand what the underlying emotions are behind physical symptoms.

First is the very popular Louise Hay, You Can Heal Your Life.

She was an amazing woman who experienced a lot of trauma as a child. Her book is the wisdom of what she learned about the inner beliefs and emotions leading to physical disease.

Second is Feelings Buried Alive Never Die, by Karol K. Truman. I find this book to be more accurate for the underlying emotions.

Both books list various symptoms and the underlying beliefs and emotions. They also provide different ways of healing them.

(Read more about these books here.)

A Play-by-Play for Releasing Emotions

I want to give you a play-by-play for how to release these trapped emotions.

There are a lot of ways to release them. Here's a list of 11 you can try for yourself.

You can also book an energy clearing session with me. I got certified in The Emotion Code and The Body Code specifically to help me heal my own past.

Here's the story of releasing trapped emotions in the moment. You can do this yourself!

I'm at the gym this morning, stretching my shoulder. I'm on the tail end of dealing with a frozen shoulder.

It's awful.

It starts with the joint capsule itself getting quite tight and inflamed. What this really means is, very, very painful.

I've been dealing with it for a year, which is common. Thankfully I'm at the end, it's much better.

Anyway....I'm at the gym, stretching out my left shoulder.

I'm sitting on a machine and there's a bar overhead and I'm simply holding it. I'm just relaxing into it and I can feel the pull.

And I know, because I have stiffness and tightness, that what that means is that there's something that needs to let go.

Think about it. If you've got a part of your body that is stiff or tight it's holding on. It's resistant. Why is it trying to hold on to something? What is it holding on to? What does it need to let go of?

So I'm holding on to this bar and I think, "oh this is so stiff, I just want to let it go."

And I get a reply!

I hear a little voice in my head and the voice says, "I don't want to work." Quite matter-of-fact.

And I get excited. I think, "Excellent! This is a good opportunity. Let's have a conversation."

I ask the voice, "Why don't you want to work?"

"I don't want to be controlled," comes the quick reply.

Hmmm. Okay. I wonder who or what this voice represents. So I casually ask, "Who are you?"

Instantly, the voice has a shape. I see this huge, gray, Pac-Man looking thing with arms come at me. It's at least 10 feet tall and it towers over me, stretching out its arms.

"I am you!"

Oh. Well then. Wasn't quite expecting that.

Then "I" go back down to normal size, and I can now see that it is a little girl.

The whole time, I'm just hanging out, stretching my arm, eyes closed, sitting there on this machine in the gym.

I ask her how old she is, and she folds her arms and turns away from me. "I"m 12."

Now I get an emotion. Because we can't process our emotions with logic. We have to process the actual feeling in our body.

Now I get the feeling and my my eyes start to well up and I start to cry a little bit and I feel sadness.

So I say to the girl, "I'm sorry that you're feeling sad."

It turns out that's she's NOT actually sad, she's angry.

She turns to face me, arms still crossed. Kind of a growling expression on her face.

"Tell me why you're angry."

"Because I don't like being controlled. All the time, people are always telling me what to do and nobody asks me what I want and nobody's trying to help me."

We keep talking, and she tells me she feels like she doesn't have any choices in her life. She's just trying to navigate life and nobody's helping her understand how things work or how to deal with making mistakes. They're telling her what to do all the time and she's done with it. She's very upset.

(And I want to integrate, to clear, to process, this part of myself. This is how we have full healing on all levels. We acknowledge these things and let them go!)

As I talk to her we end up having this nice conversation. I say, "hey I would like your help. I'm trying to do some work. (because the first thing she said was I don't want to work.)

I said, "I'm trying to do some work, do you think maybe you could help me with that?"

She softens a little. Her tone changes. "Well, what are you trying to do?"

"I'm working on expressing. I'm working on writing. I'm working on playing."

She perks up and her arms uncross. "Yeah, I can help you with those things."

I knew she could, right? I mean, she's me. I tell her I'd love her help. Her confidence grows. "In fact,I'm really good at those things. And I think we can kick butt with those things."

"Fantastic! Thank you. I appreciate it." She fades from view.

And the whole time I'm still stretching my arm. My eyes are closed, and the tears have kind of come and gone. I bring my arm down, and let out a big sigh.

And a smile creeps across my face.

I get up and take a few deep breaths as I walk across the gym.

This is how I know I've processed this - there's a physical release, a physical sign.

I also note that I feel better. Lighter, more powerful, more confident.

I had a sigh and I felt better I felt lighter I felt more powerful in my chest and in my being I felt more expansive.

What Physical Symptoms Can You Process Right Now?

I want you to think about your own physical symptoms. What could you process now in the same way?

Over time, this will become more and more natural. It will be easier to do on the fly, like I did at the gym.

When you first start, you might need more time. It might be easier to do at home where you don't have to worry about big emotions needing to come out in public.

If I had felt like I needed to have a really big cry, I would have temporarily suppressed that. But only until I got home! Then I would have given myself the space to finish processing this.

Again, this is where those two books are super helpful.

Find whatever way works for you to allow yourself to process and express your emotions.

As you do, the natural byproduct is feeling happier and lighter. You'll grow in confidence and become more and more comfortable in expressing yourself in the world. You claim your power.

Allow yourself to express, and watch your world change!