Since my introduction to energy healing over 15 years ago, I’ve learned how patterns of held emotion impact the body. It’s been an illuminating experience that has had a profound effect on me personally.
So much so that it catalyzed my desire to become a Mind-Body-Energy Medicine practitioner, integrating modalities that support healing and evolution on all levels.
Recently, my massage therapy training further reinforced my understanding of how unresolved emotional patterns impact the physical body.
Freeing the physical body from holding emotional pain and stress is the key to evolving and resolving chronic tension, system dysfunction and mystery symptoms.
Unresolved tension requires a deeper dive
In massage therapy school, we learned various techniques aimed at easing tension and inviting the muscles and nervous system to relax and hit the reset button.
As students, we regularly practiced on each other, as well as the public, offering us the opportunity to work on many body types and see a variety of issues.
Over the course of our program we gradually recognized common tension patterns. We also observed that while some issues resolved easily with bodywork, others didn’t.
A common refrain I heard among my fellow students was “I’ve tried all the techniques. Why won’t this tension pattern release?” Barring a structural issue or injury that the body is ‘guarding’ with tense muscles and limited mobility, stress was named as a common culprit.
But, how do you define stress? It’s a rather general and ubiquitous term, generated by a variety of situations. In my client practice, I like to probe further when a client cites stress as an issue.
Emotional patterns drive physical patterns
My job as an integrative practitioner is to identify specific behavioral and emotional patterns in the energy body so they can be released through energy regulation and clearing protocols.
Patterns such as:
- Caretaking and People-Pleasing
- Emotional Flooding and Overwhelm
- Mental Perseveration and Worry
- Perfectionism
- Need for Control
- Unresolved Trauma
- Dominating emotions like Anxiety and Depression
are common examples that often generate an enormous amount of internal stress.
Physical symptoms such as:
- Digestive dysfunction, IBS
- Headaches, Migraines
- Neck and Shoulder Tension
- Maladaptive Postural Patterns
- Frozen Shoulder
- Back Pain
- Rheumatoid Arthritis
often accompany these emotional patterns. And yet, the connection between the two is often overlooked by both clients and medical professionals.
Somatized emotion is the ‘issue in the tissue’
Strong emotions accompany the behavioral patterns mentioned above. Rage, Fear, Shame, Guilt, Self-hatred, and Defensiveness are just a few of these. Uncomfortable to feel, they are often avoided, suppressed or repressed.
Likewise, you may have been taught that certain emotions were unacceptable to feel or express. ‘Nice girls don’t get mad’ or ‘boys don’t cry’ are examples with implications reaching well beyond childhood.
When you consciously or unconsciously choose to suppress the energy of uncomfortable, unwelcome emotion, it leaves the Astral plane where it belongs and is driven into the Etheric plane. This is the mechanism of action for creating somatized emotion.
Bottom line: emotional energy does not belong in the physical body! And this misplaced emotional energy can create all kinds of havoc.
Evolve emotional patterns to resolve physical issues
Ultimately, the process of releasing chronic emotional stress and physical tension requires introspection about what you avoid feeling.
It’s an opportunity to examine your less-than-effective patterns and instead choose to operate in a more connected and integrated way, aligning with your autonomy, and fostering the kind of life and relationships you want.
As you consciously determine what you don’t want to feel, your work is to accept and acknowledge those feelings. Then, it’s available for releasing through emotional energy clearing.
Applying targeted bodywork techniques alongside emotional energy clearing is an integrated, strategic approach inviting the whole self to return to balance, resiliency, alignment and growth.
Creating a sense of calm in the mind as well as the body is at the heart of Starleaf Wellness. Join me if you’re ready to evolve your Mind-Body-Energy Connection!
