How To Get Rid Of Emotional Stress Trapped In The Body

Illustration of how to relieve emotional stress (Unsplash/Darius Bashar)

YOGYAKARTA – In all the experiences that have been experienced, there is an 'emotional baggage' that often does not get attention. Emotional baggage is unprocessed and untreated emotions. This emotion, it turns out, does not just disappear but is suppressed in the body. In fact, there are experts who say that emotional baggage affects posture.

Not only does it affect your physical condition, unreleased emotions can affect how you think about yourself, how you react to stress, and your relationships with other people. Launching Healthline, Monday, August 15, trapped emotions can be recognized in a certain way. For example, you may have heard that people cry during acupuncture, massage, and yoga treatments. Some experts may refer to trauma being 'stored' or 'stuck' in the body.

It is experienced when the brain associates with certain memories on a subconscious level. According to Mark Olson, Ph.D., LMT., owner and director of the Pacific Center for Awareness & Bodywork, emotions are constantly generated unconsciously or consciously in response to the reactivation of memories or unsatisfied goals. Touch to a specific area is simply a reliable stimulus to reconstruct patterns associated with a particular traumatic event.

Olson believes that everything happens in the brain. When one area of the body is touched to elicit emotions or memories, certain sensations are formed.

Illustration of how to relieve emotional stress (Unsplash/Stefan Spassov)

Bradley Nelson, DC, says that trapped emotional vibrations cause surrounding tissue to vibrate at the same frequency, known as resonance. In his book The Emotion Code, Nelson writes that each trapped emotion resides in a specific location in the body, vibrating at its own frequency. This can cause a lot of emotions to build up and clog up.

Body and mind are related, this makes the body feel its sensations. Nelson explains, feelings come from what your nervous system is telling you. The picture is that when you are in a frightening situation, the body will produce a physical response to this emotion by activating the fight-flight-freeze response.

According to research, emotional processing occurs in the limbic brain. When information is received continuously, it produces a response by the preconscious autonomic nervous system. It sends signals to the body to activate the appropriate emotions. Well, when the mechanism that sends signals and activates emotions is disturbed, the emotional energy is trapped in the body.

In psychology, self-realization is that part of us from birth that is naturally open, curious, and trusting. The false self emerges as a set of adaptive strategies for dealing with pain and loss. The reactions to the emergence of a false self are usually expressed as hatred, poor decision making, self-sabotage, overreaction, increased stress and anxiety, depression, and fatigue.

Trapped emotions can weigh us down. In addition, it also affects our mood, and drains energy. In order to release the pressure and baggage of held emotions, a person needs to confess his feelings first. Try to identify the feelings you are feeling, then work on managing those feelings but not holding back and keeping them. A 2007 study showed that labeling emotions can reduce their intensity.

The second way, develop a coping strategy. It should be understood that coping strategies often result in feelings of isolation. But at the same time, it is an independent step to adapt. Like by identifying the root of the problem and meeting your real needs.

The next way is to make intentional movements or what is called somatic experience. This method of dealing with tension and emotions that have not been processed and left in the body. Vincent suggests dancing, stretching, yoga, qi gong, Tai Chi, meditative walking, abdominal breathing exercises. The fourth way, silence allows us to be with our thoughts and feelings in the present state.