Are your emotions blocking your Energy?
Energy is not limited, it’s an infinite resource which I wrote about here. Yet often we feel as if our energy is limited. Life can feel hard or tiresome.
If energy isn’t limited why does it sometimes feel that way?
Feeling as if you have little energy is about your ability to be open and receptive. When energy isn’t allowed to flow through you…when your energy is blocked…it feels as if you have no energy. You often feel tired, physically out of sorts and with no zest for life.
What blocks your energy?
Suppressed emotion.
As children we’re often shut down when we express emotions. “Don’t cry or I’ll give you something to cry about.” “Big boys/girls don’t cry.” “Don’t be sad, you’ll make mommy/daddy sad.” “There, there don’t cry.”… and the list goes on. This isn’t limited to sadness, grief or anger. Often children who are in amazing states of joy are told to “be quiet” or “simmer down”.
The bigger message behind our caregiver’s inability to allow us our tears or laughter is the unspoken message: it’s not okay to express what you feel…you’re feelings are wrong. And too easily this is translated by a child as “I am wrong”.
This isn’t about blame; our caregivers were only repeating what they learned. This is about understanding the unconscious beliefs we hold about expressing emotions which leads to repressing them and blocking our energy.
Repeated messages to contain our emotions leads us to eventually stop expressing them.
We put a lid on our emotions and that’s where the trouble begins.
Emotions are energy in motion.
Emotion is a real, live energy that is expressed through the body. Imagine water flowing through a pipe then someone puts a cork in the middle of the pipe. The water cannot move through. More water comes in and meets the water blocked by the cork. Eventually, the pipe breaks (think explosive melt down) or the system shuts down and no more water can come through (depression, apathy, illness).
Let’s face it; we live in a society that wants to pretend everything is peachy keen.
Facebook is filled with pictures of your friends all having a wonderful life. It is the rare post that says “today I feel like crap and want to lose myself in a bag of Cheetos and Say Yes to the Dress reruns”. No we don’t say that because we have been taught being sad is not acceptable. Women with strong emotions are referred to as hysterical or imbalanced…as if emotions are a bad thing. Sure, some people create more drama in their lives than is necessary but truth be told, there’s a lot more repression going on than expression.
When we suppress the energy of emotion it becomes stuck in our body.
Body workers have long understood that emotions, especially from traumas can live in areas of the body and during massage or energy work, the emotions can be released. There are other ways to release these stuck emotions too. Here are four simple steps to help you.
Four Steps to Releasing Stuck Emotion
Step 1) Awareness: It begins with awareness. Being conscious of what emotions are in your body by being present.
Step 2) Detach: The next step is to let go of any stories you have around those emotions. This isn’t about WHY you feel this way.
Step 3) Consciously feel and release: Allow the emotions to be pure physical energy that you can release. Breathe into the physical feeling and through the breath allow it to be released.
Step 4) Keep the pipe flowing freely: As you go forward, become aware of emotions as they arise and allow them to be expressed or at minimum felt so they can be released to keep your energy flowing.
There is a saying that I find true. “In order to heal it, you need to feel it”. And this doesn’t mean you have to go back and rehash traumas, but you do need to acknowledge the trapped emotion by feeling it.
The process is much simpler than you might imagine with remarkable benefits.
When your energy flows, you feel excited about life.
You enjoy robust physical health
More abundance flows into your life too.
Life is Good.
If you want to learn more about how to manage your emotions and your energy, join me for my Illumination Program, 6 week teleclass that begins March 26th. Special pricing is available for a limited time.
[…] Emotions are energy in motion. When we suppress the emotions, we block energy. When we block energy we cut ourselves off from the natural vital flow of energy we need to sustain health and vitality. When we allow the expression of all our emotions, we allow the energy to flow. This doesn’t mean I’m encouraging anyone to express their emotions in a way that is harmful to themselves or another. We can express our emotions and release the energy in healthy ways. Here’s an article with specific steps. […]