One of the common themes in the healing sessions that I have facilitated over the past few months is the concept of suppression of emotions.
Some clients have an awareness that there is a lot of pent up emotions within them but they have no idea of how to get the emotions out of their system. Other clients are not consciously aware that they actually have a lot of emotions bubbling under the surface because they have operated like that for the majority of their lives. As an empath who can feel emotions within others (whether they are consciously aware of it or not), it is always interesting to see the reaction of clients when I actually name the emotion which is being suppressed. A majority of the time I get the response “Oh I don’t know about that” and then in a few minutes the client is making the realisation that they indeed do have that emotion stored within them and allow themselves to express it! Sometimes the release of emotions can be quite a cathartic exercise, and for others it can be quite gentle in the form of silent tears. Personally for myself, I’ve had both ends of the extremes and in between too!
As someone who had to acknowledge and dive into the emotions that have built up within me over the years (and still do), I have come to understand that it takes a LOT of energy to keep those emotions suppressed – to keep them “in check”. The best way I can describe it is think of your favorite soft drink in its bottle with the lid firmly held in place. The energy of suppression of the emotions is like shaking up that bottle and not taking the lid off. Eventually the amount of force and pressure in that bottle gets too much and the lid blows…. leading to an emotional and/or mental breakdown. It’s not a nice place to be in when that happens and believe you me, I have been there!
If we tie this into what is physically going on with you, it could mean that you feel lethargic, you feel like you have no energy, you feel like you’ve lost your motivation for life, there is little joy, and some people might actually manifest it in terms of headaches/digestive issues/chronic pain, etc. All of that energy you’re using to suppress your emotions could be better spent actually helping your body achieve balance! This can only occur if you give yourself permission to express the emotion.
So how do we do this? For some, physical activity is a good way to express the emotions or relieve the stress per se. Some people love running, others find boxing a GREAT way to get it out of their system, etc. For others, being alone and just allowing the emotions to flow with no judgement is the way to go. I myself have had plenty of times where I am just sitting at home and all of a sudden a wave of sadness overcomes me and I cry it out for a few minutes and after that’s over, get back on with my day. But for those who find it hard to let those emotions out, I have another tool for you – it’s a visualisation.
The campfire technique
- For this one, get comfortable and close your eyes.
- Imagine that you are in a place where you feel safe. It’s a place where you can retreat to if things in the real world a bit crazy. No one can come into this place without your consent – you have total control here. Bring in as much detail as possible – colours, scents, textures, etc.
- Once you have this place – imagine there’s a campfire in the space. It’s the perfect size and temperature – it won’t hurt you. The fire is a symbol of transforming and transmuting things. This fire will take all of the emotions you have suppressed and transform the energy into something more workable for you.
- Give yourself permission to just unload your emotions into this fire. You can scream, you can laugh, you can throw things, you can say what it is you want to say, do whatever comes to mind here – just offload it all and put it into the fire. Physically, you can do this all in your head or even better, if you feel like you need to physically stamp it out or squeeze your fists and bang them or whatever, do it! Same goes for if you feel like you just have to hum or something like that.
- If you are holding a grudge or emotions towards someone else, I’d recommend bringing that person in to the other side of the fire, looking at them and putting all of your emotions and feelings into the fire in front of them. Don’t bother about taking the high road here – you need to get everything off your chest so just do it! The person on the other side is the mere observer – it’s time for them to finally listen to what is going on with you!
So why does this technique work? Because it is a tool that helps you offload everything you’ve been holding inside. It doesn’t matter that you don’t necessarily get the opportunity to do this to the people who are offending you in the physical world because quite frankly, the brain can’t distinguish between what is “real” and what is not real… it just feeds off the emotion and thoughts that go through your head. For example, we tend to get emotional in movies even though we know that it’s fiction!
Try it out and let me know how you go 🙂