Theories about emotions stretch back to stories of Ancient Greece, Ancient China and into the 19th century.

Hippocrates was a Greek physician, and is still considered one of the most outstanding figures in the history of medicine. He believed certain moods, emotions and behaviours were caused by body fluids called ‘humors’.

In China, is was said that excessive emotion was believed to cause damage to Qi (life force, energy) which in turn, damages the vital organs.

The word emotion is derived from the Latin word which means “to move.” Emotion – (e)motion. Emotion actually means “energy in motion.”

In the 19th century Charles Darwin wrote a book The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals. He argued that emotions actually served a purpose for humans, in communication and also in aiding their survival.

We have known about emotions for such a long time, so my question is why is traditional medicine so fast to put you on a pill when you suffer from depression or anxiety? Wouldn’t it be better to see if you can work with the emotion first?

So What Is An Emotion?

Emotions, as defined by Damasio, are changes in both body and brain states in response to stimuli. Emotions are complex. According to some theories, they are a state of feeling that results in physical and psychological changes that influence our behaviour.

Physiological changes, (such as posture, breathing, sweating, muscle tension, facial expression, heart rate, endocrine activity etc.) occur in the body and are relayed to the brain where they are transformed into an emotion that tells the individual something about the stimulus that they have encountered.

Over time, emotions and their corresponding bodily changes, which are called “somatic markers”, become associated with particular situations and their past outcomes. So our body learns how to respond to a certain stimuli.

Emotions are brief in duration and consist of a coordinated set of responses, which may include verbal, physiological, behavioural, and neural mechanisms. So you see that our thoughts, behaviours and our physical body are interconnected.

I thought in this edition of Holistic Living Magazine it is very important to help people see the connection between our thoughts, emotions and our physical body (symptoms).

When we realise our emotions are connected to our body, we can start looking at getting healthy from a different angle. Rather than simply treating the symptoms, we can start to look at the cause.

We know there is so much more that modern medicine has yet to uncover; as stated at the beginning of this article there were many theories and these theories are now being confirmed by modern medicine.

Many of us have been conditioned to suppress our emotions. When you suppress your emotions you trap energy in your body, causing blockage and making your body feel at dis-ease and sometimes this blocked energy can cause disease.

The cause of many disease is trapped energy in your body. Healing yourself emotionally is not easy but it can be simple if you follow some of the advise from our experts in this magazine.

My wish for you is for you to read this edition with an open mind and completely understand how you can change your emotional state, knowing you can start healing emotional pain and releasing emotional hurt to start changing your health.

Enjoy.

Think of how emotions are defined in our popular culture; the super cool secret agent or the soldier with nerves of steel. Then there are the dippy, highly strung men and women who just can’t seem to get their lives on track.

You never see a dippy spy, well only in a comedy when he is the butt of the joke, and even then it’s usually his understated side-kick that saves the day and is actually as cool as a cucumber…

Now think of how you are brought up, told constantly to control your emotions, don’t cry, don’t get angry and on it goes. A constant emotional straight jacket is put on everyone to not be emotional, show nothing and just be a physical body that stumbles through life.

But life isn’t like that, look back to your first dates, how did you feel? For days before you were a nervous wreck.

Barely able to get dressed, feeling sick to your stomach. Or the first time you got in a car and drove it on your own, the first time you got on a plane… how did the feeling of acceleration of the plane down the runway make you feel?

These are all emotions that can’t be suppressed. And shouldn’t be suppressed. Each and every emotion results in a physical outcome.

Just think back to the first date… if you know what to look for you can see a physiological response in a person if they like you; breathing gets shallower, pupils dilate. These are all due to your emotions, not the other way around. Just because your pupils dilate doesn’t mean you fall in love!!!

I work with computers all day long, I love working with computers, no emotions, no sentiment.

They don’t remember the day you wrote bad code, or just turned them off for days at a time. But at the same time they don’t laugh at your bad jokes, or put an arm round you when you are feeling down. They just sit in the corner occasionally blinking a red light at you.

Without emotions you are empty, nothing. You need emotions to feel life. To feel happy. To feel sad.

And yes sometimes they run out of control, somethings happen that are just so terrible that they will run riot, take over for days or weeks. And even that is not necessarily a bad thing. Emotions make you human. And that is a great thing!!

This edition of HLM is all about emotions; how they are you. How they control you, how you should approach them, and how you should think about them.

Our experts will give you some exercises to release trapped emotions, practise them often and become a master of releasing emotions.

Uncovering repressed emotions and practising an emotional release technique that you will learn from our experts can really help you on your wellness journey.

I hope you enjoy reading this edition as much as I did.

This is a subject I have written about so many times before and I think it needs more attention; so many of us have very busy lives (and many of us do not make the time to read articles like this). Is it possible to stop panic attacks? Read on…

The pressure of living is sometimes too much for us and some of us suffer from panic attacks.

We are built to cope with small levels of stress and for short periods of time, but unfortunately so many of us are constantly in a state of stress in work and in our homes as well. There is nowhere we switch off, so our brains keep on going on and on, even when we sleep.

Look back to the lives our grandparents lead and see how slow their pace of life was. They did not have the technology that we have today and were not bound to computers or cell phones. They had time to relax and be with their loved ones and friends.

They worked 9 – 5 Monday to Friday and had the evening times and weekend to relax. Back then nothing even opened on a Sunday!

I remember the days when the shops only opened until 12 pm noon on Saturdays. Offices were closed, shops were closed and people spent time in nature with the people they love.

These days we are bound to our computers, tablets, phones and people can contact us constantly so we never switch off to let our body recuperate. Many of us work 60+ hours a week, plus work on the weekends.

When we are not working there is so much pressure to live up to societal expectations. The advertising is constantly hitting us, whether it is on radio, T.V. billboards, newspapers, there is a never-ending stream of pressure on us from every angle.

The pressure to conform, to be the same as everyone else, to keep up with the Jones’s. It is everywhere you look.

Sometimes I sit and wonder what it would have been like in our grandparent’s time. I am sure they were much more relaxed than we are today.

Sometimes stress can be good. It can be a challenge that keeps us alert and motivated. It also makes us ready to avoid danger. (Like ready to run away from a saber tooth tiger.

Not that there are many of those living in our cities these days, but I am sure you understand what I am saying). It is normal to have some stress in your life.

One of the best things you can do for your health is manage it, even when you can’t control the source of it. Here is a great resource for dealing with anxiety and fear.

On the flip side stress can be very bad…

So what happens when it gets too much? That’s right. We get sick!

If you’re constantly under stress, you may develop physical symptoms, for example; headaches, high blood pressure, IBS, chest pain, lack of libido and poor sleep.

Stress can also lead to emotional problems, depression, panic attacks, or other forms of anxiety and worry.

You see, stress can play a bigger part in your life than you may realise. You may not relate your headache to stress, but if you are stressed, it is probably the cause.

You might take a pill to reduce your headache, but that is only treating the symptom. For true healing to occur you MUST treat the CAUSE.

You may be suffering from anxiety or depression and be taking pills for this but it is treating the CAUSE or simple masking it.

I work with my clients in finding the cause and making permanent change in their lives so that stress does not affect them in the same way. They can use stress to motivate them but not overtake them.

So how do we do this? We change the way we see stress, we change the way stress feels in our body. We change the behaviours we ‘do’ around stress. We change our awareness so we can see what is really going on.

We become aware of our triggers, so when we see a stressful situation coming towards us, we can better prepare ourselves.

Learn How To Stop Panic Attacks

I know how this feels because this was MY old strategy of getting panic attacks.

Can you see I can give you a step by step list of HOW I did it? You will notice I used the word ‘did’ as I no longer suffer from panic attacks.

That is it! It is half the level of steps so easier to achieve, when you know HOW!

Can you image how different my body now feels compared to the years I spent having panic attacks?

That is it! It is half the level of steps so easier to achieve, when you know HOW!

Can you image how different my body now feels compared to the years I spent having panic attacks? I had no idea I could stop panic attacks from happening to me. I no longer have headaches, panic attacks, my muscles are freer than ever before. I now have these strategies and I have used this strategy with other emotions as well.

Your subconscious mind learns behaviours, just like a child does and you can retrain it. Your subconscious is there to protect you, but when it learns a strategy that will keep you safe and protected and makes you feel good, it will change your behaviour in an instant.

This is why I love doing the work I do. There is no need to stay on pills for the rest of your life, when you learn these strategies. When you know how to make these changes, you can then turn this knowledge to other areas of you like.

You brain is ‘plastic’ (not literally of course. Neuroplasticity, or brain plasticity, refers to the brain’s ability to CHANGE throughout life. The human brain has the amazing ability to reorganise itself by forming new connections between brain cells (neurons).

By growing these neural networks you can create so much change in your life. You can create change in your physical health, mental health, in fact ALL areas of your life.

I hope that this article helps you to understand you CAN CHANGE YOUR BEHAVIOURS, LIFE & HEALTH. It IS possible to stop panic attacks. There is no need to live a miserable life of pain and suffering. You just need to find the strategies that work for you.

Preparing to write this article, I came across the definition of ‘Emotion’ by the Oxford Learner’s Dictionaries Online, which closely relates emotion to love. This made me smile instantly, as it is my truth also.

For the last 20 years, I have learned so much about personal growth, ego, fear, anger, love and many shades in-between, and I experienced all these emotions myself. This won’t stop while I am in my physical body, there will always be emotions running through me.

With all my studying and learning, I have found ways to work WITH my emotions, rather than fighting any of them, which helps me immensely when I feel a wave of ‘something’ surging through me.

Love has been my sidekick for a long time, and I am so grateful for allowing this particular emotion to become my main partner in life.

My dear soulman died in April 2014, and I stood in this unexpected situation with a strong core of love and connection to my man’s soul.

Still, the process of grief with all its different phases was new to me, and I walked my path with very careful steps, breathing through as much as I could, keeping clarity close by my side.

Listening to myself, being as gentle as I could, while continuing to live a ‘normal’ life was the task at hand, for myself and for my two children.

We went through an ocean of emotions, individual phases as well as collective family emotions. We have learned how to swim in this ocean, and by now are confident swimmers with some waves still crashing over us when we’re not aware.

I have strengthened my inner trust, my connection with my soul and my belief in myself and my abilities to deal with this life, and I am hoping my kids can build up on the foundation we have created together over these past two years.

As it is with oceans and waves, they are alive and in motion all the time. Sometimes, the waters are calm, and sometimes a storm ripples through and creates mighty strong waves.

Ebb and flow are continuous, and resistance is futile, as the rhythm of the ocean will never stop.

The currents change, and we might be carried to unknown shores. How we deal with these new shores is up to us, remembering what we have experienced to get us here is very helpful though.

Getting out of the water, shaking ourselves dry and standing strong in our core with clarity and love in our heart is a good starting point in any new situation.

Maybe we have been washed over by some of these waves of emotion, maybe we think we have lost track of where we are going and why, and maybe we are totally ok with where we are now. What’s next then?

Exploring new territory, while we are conscious of all the lessons we have learned so far. Taking care of our body, mind and soul as we take step after step into the uncharted territory.

Feeling the emotions that are alive and kicking, even though we have left the ocean… As within, so without… The ocean is inside us the same way it is outside of our physical body…

Emotions ebb and flow, they create big waves as well as calm surfaces.

Sometimes, the inner weather is constant for a long period, and sometimes it changes very quickly and gives us physical symptoms or disease. When the ocean is upset and the water is agitated, there is poor visibility.

High waves are created by mighty storms, out there in the physical world as well as in our inner system. When there is disturbance in our inner weather system, we cannot feel and see clearly what is going on, and we might just block ourselves from physical and mental health.

Once we calm the inner storm, we get access to what’s happening inside, and maybe even clarity of why we are experiencing certain symptoms and illnesses. Our emotions are helpers on our path through life, if we can accept them as they are.

From my experience, the physical symptoms are messages from our soul, asking us to listen better to our inner weather. An imbalance in our physical body shows us that our inner ocean is in motion, and that our emotions are running high.

There is no good or bad here, no right or wrong, just a matter of perspective, of non-judgmental awareness and of being gentle with ourselves while increasing the dosage of self-love.

Realizing this all happens because we are ALIVE might help seeing things from a different angle, and acknowledging that our emotions are actually treasures might shift something altogether.

While I was in my ‘high grief’ period, there were many waves crashing over me, and I did my best to keep my head above water and to breathe steadily.

I kept swimming, sometimes slow and sometimes fast, accepting the inner storms, the disturbance and the upheaval of the status quo I had lived for 14 years. My life changed in an instant, yet my core stayed calm. I continued to be physically healthy, mentally strong and stable, much to my own surprise.

Accepting all the emotions I was going through, as much as I accept the physical weather, did a good job as my water wings. And I’ll gladly use this swimming aid for future storms, within and without.

Dear Reader,

In case you don’t have time to read my entire article, at least read the key points below. Please do so for all the women you know (and their partners, families, friends). This information is regarding a landmark Danish study, recently published in the medical journal JAMA Psychiatry, 2016.

“Key Points

Question Is use of hormonal contraception associated with treatment of depression?

Findings In a nation wide prospective cohort study of more than 1 million women living in Denmark, an increased risk for first use of an antidepressant and first diagnosis of depression was found among users of different types of hormonal contraception, with the highest rates among adolescents.

Meaning Health care professionals should be aware of this relatively hitherto unnoticed adverse effect of hormonal contraception”

There you have it, in black and white. Users of hormonal contraception were compared with non-users. Users were more likely to be prescribed anti-depressants and diagnosed with depression.

Hormonal therapies in women are associated with depression. A few words stand out for me from the above key points.

Adolescents. How many women have doctors prescribed hormones, especially the combined oral contraceptive pill (COCP), in their teenage years? To fix those irregular periods, that acne? When we could instead, accept that the first 2-3 years of menstruation is often irregular as the brain and ovaries form a connection?

That the acne is usually a result of bad diet and that we should treat food as medicine?

The researchers found the risk of depression was highest in adolescents and decreased with age.

Unnoticed. If you don’t ask, you generally won’t know. Yet, maybe it’s doctors wanting to turn a blind eye. “What do you mean, it causes depression?

I’ve fixed her heavy periods and acne; she should just stay on it. The depression is probably caused by something else more complicated, like a bad relationship”

The researchers found that the risk of using anti-depressants and being diagnosed as depressed peaks at 2 -3 months of contraceptive use and then begins to fall.

Should we take more notice in the first few months of use? Should we be more vigilant about prescribing lifestyle –based treatment of depression during this time?

Before we go any further, hormonal therapy such as the COCP when used perfectly, is excellent at preventing unwanted pregnancies. This article is not about contraception per se. I feel strongly that women should have the choice to use birth control.

I also feel strongly that women should be warned of the association between depression and hormonal therapy. I see so many depressed women in my practice.

After a few years in private practice, I noticed that many women would describe to me how much better they felt after coming off hormonal therapy, especially the COCP. Better in terms of better mood and more energy.

I was enlightened to see the results of this study out of Denmark. I felt that it backed up what I see daily, clinically, in my office. This study asked a simple question – is hormonal contraception associated with the treatment of depression?”

More than 1 million women (that’s a lot of cases!) aged between the ages of 15 – 34, with no prior history of depression were included in the study. The study found that compared to non-users, those who took the oral contraceptive pill were 23% more likely to use antidepressants.

It’s not just the oral contraceptive that was associated with depression.

Women on progestogen – only pills, were 34% more likely to need antidepressants; women with the levonorgestrel intrauterine system (IUD) were 40% more likely to be on antidepressants; those using the etonogestrel vaginal ring were 60% more likely to be anti-depressants.

Recently, gut health and the microbiome have dominated the medical landscape. There is mounting evidence on the link between the gut and brain health.

In 2015, the Australian Therapeutic Goods Association (TGA) evaluated published research that described a link between the use of combined oral contraceptives (COCs) and an increased risk of developing inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), including Ulcerative Colitis and Crohn’s disease. They also identified that hormone replacement therapy (HRT) was also a potential risk factor for IBD.

Perhaps a woman’s gut health while she is taking hormonal therapy impacts upon her risk of developing depression?

It is important to note that this study did not prove that contraceptives cause depression but are rather associated with it. The researchers recommended that women not stop their contraception, as further studies are needed.

My concern with this is that such studies take a long time to put together and for conclusions to be drawn.

It is important to look at the limitations of such a study design. This was a prospective cohort study. Such a study is able to provide possible associations (links) between the exposure (pill) and the outcome (depression).

It is not designed to prove that the pill CAUSES depression. Yet, I feel a positive association is enough to guide my recommendations.

In my practice, when I see a woman who is on the pill and is depressed, I discuss other options for contraception or menstrual issues, pelvic pain etc.

As long as she is informed of the association between depression and hormonal therapy, in the end, it is her choice what she chooses to do.

It’s important that women know this bit of information. I hope I have helped spread the word.

Be well,

Did you know we have this innate natural ability to let go of our emotions, but sometimes choose to stay attached or live in the drama and attention because we don’t want to take responsibility for ourselves?

It’s simply a way of confirming what you are experiencing and saying ‘See I told you so’ Whatever it is, it can stops us moving freely from each of our life experiences.

We are uniquely caring, free, creative loving beings. Throughout our life we draw in many experiences that reside within our energy field, we live on pure emotions. Even someone that you meet and you feel they are quite emotionless still holds emotions within.

We gain understanding so we can move through to greater awareness. Only by letting go of each experience from a reality of how that experience was, can keep us free and able to move forward.

However, we tend to make a ‘mountain out of a molehill’ out of a negative experience, holding on and keeping them buried deep inside.

Emotions & Healing

Think about this. What are some of your greatest emotional feelings you have experienced in life? I’m sure most of us would say Love. Being in love, feeling love, consumed by love, the love of a child, am animal, a parent or partner and nature.

This brings joy, passion, excitement, tranquillity, bliss. With these elevated emotions, we feel we can conquer so much.

We feel nothing can stop us, everything seems to fall into place, things become aligned, we are running on exhaled emotional breath, our bodies flourish and massive releases of highly activated adrenaline swirls around within.

If you stubbed your toe or knocked your knee you would probably shift right through (of course it’s felt) the actual pain, because the high intense positive emotions are like a blocker and you feel nothing but euphoric. That in itself is a healing emotion.

Then again we also have not so great emotional feelings, like hurt, pain, sadness, guilt, anger and fear. These opposite emotions can have a harrowing effect on your body, mind and spirit.

When someone is in the throes of a negative emotional experience, you actually create a different vortex of rhythms that subject you to feelings of your world and life becoming heavier, your body may feel weak, or sluggish and to nourish your body you choose foods to console the inner emotions, and you start to shrink internally.

Your weakest points within your body’s emotions become susceptible to illness or pain, your choices and decisions become less clear. You do not feel aligned and everything that can go wrong will, and somehow you feel you are spinning out of control.

Some of us can attach more deeply to our emotions and this can retain relationships and situations being bogged down.

We have the ability to allow our emotions to heal us, or prevent us from healing.

That Vibrational Feeling

Feelings or emotions are like a pulsating vibration that are within and around us. We send out these positive and negative emotions like a ripple that grows with the amount of emotion behind it.

If some of the emotions that are stored within our energy field have been connected to major life events, big deal moments or even enormous situations, we can subconsciously play those events over and over and basically keep coming up with the same or similar behaviours.

Let’s say as a child you were berated or yelled at by a parent, that moment will be felt if that experience came up in life as an adult, with someone yelling at you, triggering the emotions you felt as a child.

It’s been imbedded in the hardware of your brain (like a computer) and it simply reacts to what you felt when you were young.

Research says we usually focus on a negative emotion foremost, like stress, fear, anxiety, anger. Positive emotions are just as important as the negative ones. This helps in making decisions, being creative and helping us to heal.

Disconnected From…

When you feel disconnected emotionally it changes you. Today’s society is so much more involved than our way of living 2-3 decades ago. Communication, interaction, access and association to people and our world are instant, and it will continue to be this way.

We actually feel emotionally so much more because we are encouraged (or it’s in our face) to see life right in front of us now, not what is going on just within our own families or local neighbourhoods, but on a global scale.

With distractions and involvement of enormous proportions such as traffic, buildings, bright lights, big cities, economic change, climate change, natural global disasters, anxiety and so much more, we take on these energies and they can wreak havoc and interfere with our energy fields.

What if emotions are meant to be free? As spiritual beings existing, we can only take so much emotionally before ‘somethings gotta give’.

Feel them, acknowledge them and let them go so you can start to live a life not attached to having to feel a particular way with someone or something. When you are free and connected, you are emotionally being yourself.

Regaining your emotional stability and living the best life you can in this world is so important. You can seek alternative, natural harmonious ways to improve your life.

Emotions Categories

The Forensic Healing Systems Emotions Module helps to clear emotional blocks and conditions thereby allowing the client to move forward in their lives. There are 14 categories under the Emotions pathway and each category has a healing pathway and detailed scan lists associated with them.

These are some of the emotions categories we cover within Forensic Healing. We can all relate to some form of emotion; some are greater than others.

Forensic Healing is a proven therapy system superior to all healing modalities, because it:

• Profiles the client, identifying negative life patterns, archetypes, emotions, belief systems, and much more.
• Clears curses, negative energies, rituals, and many other spiritual issues.
• Activates spontaneous healing forces in the body for immediate changes.
• Removes the negative conditioning stored in the DNA or cell memory.
• Uses healing secrets from ancient healing scripts combined with the most-advanced scientific methods.
• Utilizes healing pathways that use physical, emotional, energetic or spiritual elements.
• Heals deeply at a soul level by targeting soul facets, fragments, DNA etc.
• Places a blessing on the client at the end of a healing.
• Educates and empowers the client to understand themselves so they leave with new information to progress in their life.

A Pledge

Promise to treat yourself, with Love, Respect, Kindness and Honour your existence. You are here for a reason, you and only you know your path. Love yourself for all you have been, all you are and all you will become.

As Cyndi Lauper sings “I see your true colours shining through, that’s why I Love you, so don’t be afraid to let them show your true colours true colours … are beautiful like a rainbow!

I believe that all of us have 3 primary emotions that affect our lives. These emotions can be broken down further, but they can be put into 3 overriding categories:

When I was thinking about how these emotions can be seen as tangible in our lives, I immediately thought of the words we use, because our words often reflect what is going on for us emotionally.

Another clue to understanding your primary emotion at any given time is simply to observe your breath (during normal activities – not during or just after playing sport, running or doing strenuous work). When you observe your breath, if you are experiencing:

By paying attention to your words and your actions, you will be able to identify the emotion you are feeling and then take steps to balance it. My premise is if you balance the 3 primary emotions, you potentially can balance all the emotions.

It is possible to simply and easily balance the emotions you are feeling RIGHT NOW. This is very different to the emotions that have been trapped or blocked in your energy and physical body over time.

Identifying Your Emotion

Often it is difficult to identify the emotion you are experiencing as it could be a mixture of emotions and you don’t know which one is more dominant. If you can’t identify your primary emotion, the following tips will help you.

Start by asking yourself “What colour am I relating to – red, blue or yellow?”

Rather than trying to identify and name your feeling, use the colour to give you an insight into your root emotion. Sometimes you will be feeling different emotions at the same time, but one will be the root or primary emotion. This is the one to balance first.

If you can’t determine a colour, observe your breath. This action will also help you identify the emotion you are currently dealing with.

It is a good idea to start to keep a journal of your observations about your emotions for at least a week so that you can become familiar with your own breath.

Balance Your Immediate Emotion

This simple breathing technique will balance your emotions. With practice, you will manage out of control emotional outbursts calmly, and effectively deal with day to day challenges.

By practicing this technique each day for five minutes you will transform every area of your life for the better.

Longer Term Solutions

If you want to go further into balancing your emotions in the long term, I recommend one (or more) of the following exercises.

Write A Letter

Writing is an exceptionally powerful way of releasing your emotions. Take some time to handwrite a letter to the person whose actions initiated your emotional turmoil.

Write as fast as you can and for as long as the words will flow. Write until there is no emotion left around this situation.

While it is tempting to type out your letter, take the time to actually hand write it. This will help you connect with a different part of your brain and to better connect with your emotions.

When you have finished with the letter, burn it. DO NOT send it. Burning it is an important part of relieving yourself of the destructive trapped emotion.

You can even hold a ceremony for the burning of it. Light some candles and say a prayer and remember to keep in mind your intention to release the emotion to the universe.

Keep An Emotion Journal

Write down (again, handwrite) how you are feeling and what you have learnt from experiencing different emotions. The important part of having this journal is to reflect on what you have learnt.

It is interesting what you will discover about yourself during this process. Often by re-reading what you have written you will discover patterns that you didn’t even know existed. Being aware of these patterns is the first step towards breaking them and releasing this emotion.

Talk To A Confidante

The meaning of confidante is a person to whom secrets are confided or with whom private matters and problems are discussed.

Find a confidante who doesn’t mix with you socially, so is not involved with the people and circumstances. Not only will they be able to see things objectively, there is no way that they can betray your trust in a social situation.

The most important job of the confidante is to listen and not try and fix the problem. We all have the solutions to our own problems within us, and the job of the confidante is to help us find our way to these solutions. Talking with a confidante will give you this space.

While it may be tempting to verbally dump all of your emotions and thoughts onto this person and then walk away because you feel better, try not to do this.

Ensure the intention of the conversation is to discover the higher learning in your experience. This will help to grow your self-understanding at a rapid rate.

Talk With A Therapist

For some people, a therapist will be the best solution for them. Choose a therapist who is skilled at releasing emotions, and one that you feel comfortable with. You could choose to have a one off session or space your sessions out if you feel you need more than one.

Choosing to speak with a therapist gives you peace of mind that you are speaking with someone who is objective about the situation and is committed to helping you to release these emotions.

Summing It Up

When you are feeling emotionally unbalanced, start by identifying exactly what the emotion is, either through colour or your breath. Once you have done this, perform the simple breathing exercise above to initially calm yourself down, then take some time to think about a longer term solution that works for you.

Why It Is Important

Our emotional health is integral in our overall health and we cannot exist long term in an emotional state of turmoil. You will find that when your emotions are balanced you will feel better, make better decisions and generally be healthier. Here’s to your good (emotional) health!

Emotions have been researched and discovered for many years, by doctors, psychologists, neuroscientists etc. There has been real curiosity about this subject, as it helps us learn about the most important thing in this world, and that’s you.

By uncovering how emotions function and operate, it unlocks many doors about the self. It is important for us to learn how emotions affect self.

We as humans are intricate, yet simple creatures that have a multitude of layers and dimensions within self.

Emotions are a very big aspect of our identity. Now with science delving deeper into the mind, body, spirit connections, emotions naturally become a subject of great interest.

Emotions are a way in which to respond to a person, place, event and or a situation. A feeling is how we choose to respond to that emotion. An emotion is an intense response that is short term, yet a feeling is more sustainable and longer lasting.

Emotions create a physical reaction within the body and feelings can determine your experiences and stories that are set in place within your mind.

Emotions have been identified by 3 distinct components: a subjective experience which evokes a physiological response within the body that arouses a behavioral response.

Our emotions are triggered by what we see, hear, feel, know, taste and information that you process from external sources.

Once that external trigger evokes an emotion that is short term, it creates a physiological body response that we respond to through our actions and behaviors.

Our feeling and emotions tie back into one another. We feel an emotion yet we think about a feeling. How you’re probably wondering?

Each different emotion holds an energetic vibration that resonates deep into the cellular structure of your physical, mental/emotional, soul and spiritual self.

Altering every layer both internally and emanating a frequency externally, into the auric and universal layers. Then reflecting back that initial energetic imprint back to self.

The body has been mapped out by chakras and meridians that date back hundreds of years. Each meridian and chakra group connect together the organs, nerves, tissue etc. that emotions reside within.

The connection that binds both the emotions and physical self is via the millions of nerves in the body.

The interrelationship of the mind and body is through the spinal cord which acts like an elevator or messenger of information.

The mind processes the information from the emotion and it travels down the spinal cord and delivers a response within the region that it’s mapped out to deliver to.

A response from the region will be delivered back to the brain to process the response of that delivery.

Now the more times that emotion/feeling is triggered, the faster the relay of information is delivered to that specific part of the body.

If the emotion is of dense energy like anger, shame or guilt, just to name a few. The region, (let’s say the lungs) will become weakened over time manifesting itself into illness.

Like colds a flus and other additional illness. The body will give indicators that there is an imbalance, change is required to bring a state of balance back to the body, hence changing the cellular memory in that region.

This is where the soul/spiritual connection comes into play with emotions. It sends subconscious messages hinting to you that you may need to change the way you think, as thoughts create our reality.

So if you change the thoughts that respond to a person, place, event or situation it will change the emotional response and physical reaction occurring to that area, therefore changing the emotional energy being dispersed within that area.

Let’s say that something triggers you to become angry.

That dense vibrational energy will travel down from the mind, deposit itself into the cells of a specific area of the body, changing the physiology components and then you will react to the physiological body response by lashing out either verbally or through your actions and behaviors as a way to express that emotion of anger.

So with that being said, we can change any of these reactions and choose to respond differently, therefore changing the outcome through neuroplasticity.

Neuroplasticity is the ability to change how the brain functions and operates. As everything you see, heal, feel, know & taste evokes a process of internal response.

You can at anytime interrupt the transmission of information that is being relayed throughout your whole entire self. Being your mind, body, spirit and soul self.

You can choose to think differently which will put you in a new emotional state. Therefore the reactionary response will filter a different neurological response within the physical body and your actions and behaviors will be channeled differently.

At any time your emotions can alter the whole physicality of self.

We have a responsibility to ourselves to live in alignment with self. How we do that is how we process information on how we think and feel about the world we live in. Life is full of choices and we decide how we want to live within this reality.

We are here to experience life and the more knowledge you learn about yourself offers insight into how you operate within this reality.

Knowledge of knowing what triggers unpleasant emotional states and choosing to react differently, allows you to feel good about yourself.

Choosing to work on intense emotional states, progressing to actions and behaviors that leave you feeling not so great about yourself, keep you in flight or fight mode, eventually wears you down and prevents your ability to grow and expand and build great relationships with self and others.

As humans we all experience things differently. Two people can be at the same situation yet both choose different emotional states due to their beliefs, values and feelings towards that situation so therefore both parties will have a entirely different outcome from that same situation.

As humans we have free will to choose how we respond and react to every experience.

We are all designed the same yet experience the same world differently, yet we have choices, so why not choose choices that align you with your higher self?

This is a very interesting and in-depth subject to work with and it has many pathways which one could follow and investigate. The pathway that I would like to offer you to walk down for a few minutes is based on my investigations and experiences as a counsellor, psychotherapist and teacher.

Firstly, I will offer some clarity and context on what I mean by ‘emotions’, in relation to this article. For me, there are a range of situations and experience within the emotional feeling realm that can trigger our emotions.

In turn, these often affect the body in some way. These can be either positive or negative experiences. They are generally an experience of either sympathy (love) or antipathy (hate).

When we are ‘triggered’ emotionally from a more negative experience, we often go into reaction, projection or judgement as a means of protection or response from what we (unconsciously) perceive as a fear, threat, invasion, affront or even embarrassment or shame.

As we experience these negative ‘feelings’ and ‘emotions’ in our soul, our instincts of flight, fight or freeze come into play.

With positive feelings and emotions these instincts do not come into play, the feelings and experiences of sympathy and love give us another kind of experience that is connected to what we can call ‘embracing’.

This embracing experience is the opposite of fight, flight or freeze.

Whatever it is that we experience from a moment of emotion, our body will be affected in some way, positively or negatively.

Here are some excerpts from my book – Where Am ‘I’ Right Now? physically – emotionally – mentally – spiritually, that I would like to share with you that give some more understanding about this topic of how emotions affect our body.

Our Physical Body

Our physical body, bones, skin, hair, nails, etc; are connected to the mineral realm of calcium, silicates, carbon and other physical elements. We can relate this to the idea or image of being ‘earthly’ beings connected to the Earth.

Pinch yourself a few times on your arms and legs and you will experience and know that you are a physical being. Do it hard enough and you will also experience and know the sense of pain!

This physical aspect of our being is what conventional health and medical practitioners generally work with. In alternative, complementary or holistic health and medicine other aspects of the human being are also taken into consideration, such as a person’s soul and spirit.

I have heard people speak many times about their physical ailments returning again and again, even after treating them for weeks or even months or years.

If practitioners, doctors or medical staff spent more time and energy investigating the emotional and spiritual connections within, around, or behind the ailment or illness, they may experience much better and more favourable results.

Let me make this a bit clearer. In this example I will use the analogy of the body being built up like simple building blocks:

For the purpose of this explanation, let us agree for a moment that we, as humans, have our ‘I’ (more on the ‘I’ coming soon) at the top of this building block system.

We then have, below the ‘I’, an astral body (more on the astral also coming soon) which holds our emotions. From here our emotions come alive and from where our habits and addictions are formed and played out.

We then move down and have the etheric or life body which sustains and keeps us alive and stores all of our life experiences and habits.

If anything is out of alignment in any of these areas a process of ‘contracting down’ develops and ultimately the issue or the symptom can end up in the physical body as a physical ailment.

If we are not fully in our ‘I’ presence and are struggling to stay centred we automatically contract into the astral body which then becomes the dominant ruler of our experience or behaviour. It (the astral) becomes the boss!

If our astral body is out of alignment and running rampant, (which will happen if the ‘I’ is not present), then the emotional turmoil and residue from this untamed astral body has to go somewhere, and it does!

This can impact on and damage the etheric body which then will have an impact on the physical body in some way.

Headaches, heart and kidney disease, liver dysfunction, gallstones and cancer, along with other physical ailments and diseases often have an emotional connection and as the whole body (‘I’, astral, etheric and physical) works somewhat like a filtering system, eventually it all gets stuck at the bottom, in our case, in the physical body!

A good way to remember this is: ‘The issue can get stuck inside the tissue!’

Here Is An Example:

If I was walking down a street and suddenly saw a snarling dog, which frightened me, my adrenalin would kick in, my instincts would take over and I would go into fight, flight or freeze mode.

This is natural for us to do and generally we calm down soon afterwards thanks to our ability to produce insulin. If I remain fearful and anxious from this event, these emotions get stored in my being somewhere, especially if they are not dealt with.

In the experience of a dog frightening me, if I continue to be fearful every time I see another dog in the street, it would start to have a deeper effect on me.

If not dealt with, these types of experiences eventually get locked into our physical body somewhere; perhaps in one of our internal organs, perhaps somewhere in our gut.

From this place there is nowhere else for the stuck emotion to go. It is the end of the filtering system. From here, major problems may, and often do, occur.

Can you see how the issue can get stuck in the tissue? It is like a filtering system in which we can, at times, forget to filter out the issue when it is stuck, thus leaving it to solidify and crystallize.

A useful image to help us understand this is the contacting or crystallization process of water which is made of one part oxygen and two parts hydrogen.

Think of how H2O goes from gas to steam, from steam to water and from water to ice. They all have the same basic ingredient or substance (H2O), expressing itself in four different ways.

To stay in good health we really need to detoxify our emotions as well as taking care of our physical body.

Reactions, Projections & Judgements

Our reactions, projections and judgements are mostly driven and expressed from our unconscious. Once they have been released and expressed, we often dislike or regret them.

Being part of our soul make-up, it generally requires a good amount of focus and effort to fully observe how these actually come alive and work within and through us.

For more clarity, I would first like to outline what I mean by reactions, projections and judgements from a therapeutic and human development perspective…

For more clarity, I would first like to outline what I mean by reactions, projections and judgements from a therapeutic and human development perspective.

As we travel through life and meet people or situations; if we are not comfortable in the situation we ‘respond’ naturally with what we call ‘fight or flight’.

We also spend much of our time in a place of reaction, projection or judgement with people when we are not in a place of safety, trust and conscious awareness and are not standing in our ‘I’ presence.

When we meet people, especially for the first time, we often link them to persons or situations from our own past; from our past experiences, beliefs, assumptions or values.

So let us agree that these soul activities (reactions, projections and judgements) do not represent the best of us and let’s agree that the way in which they are used and expressed in this book is from a negative or non-serving perspective.

In the case of judgement, it can be good to make a judgement if it is to make a decision about something or someone that has a positive outcome.

Judging from a place of discernment and intuition about something or someone can be a good thing, especially if we need to create a boundary or protection.

However, a judgement about how someone should live their life, walk their dog, look or speak is another matter.

There is a big difference in being discerning or making an intuitive or informative decision about something or someone and making a call on someone’s behaviour, action or character.

This is the distinction that I would like to make here so that we are clear on the use of the word judgement. Judgement then, in terms of what this article is covering is:

‘a judgement of someone’s character, behaviour or action that comes from a place that is not discerning, intuitive or informative, but one that has probably stemmed from a reaction or projection of some kind, most likely from something that has happened in the past.’

Judgements, reactions and projections are often jumbled up and intertwined and it is not always easy to decipher which one is operating at any given time.

When one or more of these is brought to our awareness we can start to see and experience how our behaviour or actions can affect people. At first, this awakening and awareness to how we behave can be quite a shock.

When we are in a place of reaction, projection or judgement, it generally means that our ‘I’ presence has diminished.

Learning not to react, project and judge others is not an easy task.

Unless we have done a fair amount of work on ourselves in this area and have learnt how to overcome and control these thoughts, feelings and behaviours, we will almost certainly go into nano-second judgement, reaction or projection mode when we meet someone or are placed in a new situation.

Our judgements can leap up and create stories so quickly that they are difficult to observe, catch and stop. Stories such as, he is too fat, she is too well dressed, he is not very smart, they are all too rich or too poor, or too happy, can go through our minds in nano-seconds and before we know it, we have made a judgement.

From here we often go into reaction. We are sometimes so quick to react, judge or project that we can get the wrong message, miss the point or totally misinterpret the situation and from here we can then easily get ourselves into a sticky or uncomfortable situation.

Once we become more centred and in our ‘I’ presence and become more aware of our thoughts, feelings and actions, reactions, projections and judgements, fears, doubts and lack of self-love, we can then connect to other people and situations in a way that is more real and authentic.

As long as we continue to make judgements and react and project our thoughts and feelings out to the world, we will stay stuck.

One good way to start working with this is to spend a moment or two before each new meeting or situation, asking yourself the question – Where Am ‘I’ Right Now? Every time you do this and ask this question you will have a choice to bring yourself back to being more centred.

If you are feeling agitated, nervous, scared, intimidated, angry, upset, victimized, overpowered or silly, you can turn this around by giving attention to what’s happening for you in the moment.

This exercise is best done over a period of a week. It is based on one of my many sayings, “Spirituality is the next person you meet.”

What this statement is saying is; depending on whether you choose to respond and take responsibility and use your intuition or choose to use projections, reactions and judgements, will be a good measure of where you are with your spiritual development.

Once again, this is not about judging, measuring or putting people into categories. This is a self-evaluation to give you an indication of what study and work may be needed to take you to the next step of your journey of becoming more conscious.

Adrian Hanks is a Teacher, Writer and Speaker and the Director of The Blue Wren Foundation. He lives in Sydney, Australia. The Where Am ‘I’ Right Now? physically – emotionally – mentally – spiritually book is available.

Your thoughts and their corresponding emotions are critical to your wellbeing. Since your body is always creating new cells, it makes sense that your thoughts and emotions contribute to what kind of cells are being made.

This simple fact is one that helped me heal myself of seven years of chronic disease in three weeks.

We are all powerful creators of our own reality. When you become present and take notice of what stories you are repeating and ask yourself if a different story might better serve you, your life can truly change.

Here are a few easy tools you can use to become aware of the stories you are telling yourself and also some quick ways to change your story and your life.

Negative Self-Talk & Shifting Attention:

For seven years, diagnosed with many different diseases I kept repeating how sick I was and the doctors reaffirmed that with every test they gave me.

When I became aware that those messages were actually probably contributing to me being sick I felt a few emotions; mad at myself, annoyed that I had not known enough to notice before enduring seven years of chronic pain and excited I had found a route to feel better that I had never considered.

Being sick or in pain or in any challenging relationship in your life with yourself or others brings with it several stories and self-talk. Part of the healing has to be to become aware of your self-talk and where you are putting your attention.

If you are giving yourself nothing but limiting beliefs you are not allowing for any new reality and you are disempowering yourself.

To even notice your self-talk might feel scary. When you hear it, you might tend to get down on yourself. Please don’t, as this is a step to be celebrated. In that awareness you can create change starting NOW.

Notice when you are driving, in the shower, or when you get up or go to sleep in the morning what your running dialogue is. Take note of what you say to yourself and ask if it is positive and what you want to create.

Next, think of something that is good, or the opposite statement of the negative self-talk. For example, someone might do something and comment to themselves, “well that was stupid”.

You might not even believe that, but it is what comes out first, because you heard it from someone else and/or you are in a habit of saying it.

The emotions that follow a negative statement like that are not positive and you could actually feel very disempowered from your own words. Affirm that you are not stupid and actually you are pretty smart.

Smile at your inner self, knowing in this moment that you created a healing environment, instead of a non-healing environment for your body. Congratulate yourself for noticing and intend to notice more stories so you can assess if they are what you want to be creating.

Forgiveness, Self-Forgiveness & Self-Love:

These are crucial for healthy emotions. I mentioned I was beating myself up about my self-talk. I also beat myself up about the roles I was not fulfilling of my own expectations; mom, wife, daughter and friend to name a few.

When you are hard on yourself, you are actively disempowered yourself. You would not speak to your closest loved ones with the same tone or messages you give yourself.

Forgiveness of yourself for anything in the past you feel you have said or done “wrong” is necessary in reaching your highest potential. It keeps you from that regret of the past and moves you into the present which is where all your power lies.

It lays the groundwork for self-love.

Forgiveness of others is just as important. Holding onto anger or angst for a past situation still lets that situation have power over you. You need not feel glad for what happened, but you are consciously choosing to move forward.

Hurt people hurt people. Happy well-adjusted people treat people well. If you feel you were wronged by someone, I can guarantee they were probably “wronged” in a similar way.

You can change that emotion into one of compassion for yourself for having suffered enough and for that person for whatever it is they went through that led them to that choice or action.

The quickest way I have found for people to practice forgiveness, self-forgiveness and begin to fall in love with themselves is Ho’oponopono. Four simple phrases said to your higher power for yourself who is claiming 100% responsibility for your emotions and your life.

These four sentences are I Love You, I Am Sorry, Please Forgive Me, and Thank You. I have seen this prayer create miracles in many people’s lives.

It is short, simple and you can say it anywhere at any time out loud or silently. It creates a huge shift and allows you to tap into the power of forgiveness, self-forgiveness and self-love which are all priceless emotions.

Consciously Creating Joy:

What brings you joy? Is it cooking, dancing, creating in some way, walking in nature, or something else? It can be anything that makes you feel connected, allows you to feel lighter and brings you to the present moment.

Whenever you are in joy you are connecting with your soul and choosing to do something good for yourself. There are disempowering messages along with fear going around lately and by choosing joy you are choosing love.

By choosing joy you are honoring your soul’s gifts. By choosing joy you are filling yourself up with love so you can feel empowered and help yourself and those around you instead of feeling like a victim and in fear of the world around you.

Influences:

Everything in your daily life affects your energy and emotions. Taking stock of what you are allowing around you gives you power over what you will create.

You are influenced by the people you surround yourself with, by what you watch, read and also by your physical environments. If you are spending time only around people who always are negative and feel like victims instead of powerful creators, you will begin to feel the same.

It is up to you to know who fills you with energy and who zaps you of energy and to take action accordingly.

You can limit time with the people who zap your energy, increase the time with people who fill you with joy and make sure if you are around negative people you are doing something before and/or after that refills your well!

Also, take stock of what you are listening to and watching. There are always positive inspirational people and events to tune into and learn about although those won’t be in mainstream news.

Go online and look up “good news websites”, read magazines such as this one, seek out positive news to balance out some of the negative news that is almost impossible to avoid these days.

Notice how the music and movies you watch influence how you feel. Take notice of your physical surroundings such as your office and home. Clutter does not let energy flow. Is there an area you can clean out and possibly donate some items?

Doing so will lighten your energy and allow more flow around you. You can choose much of what you surround yourself with daily and noticing how you feel and changing these up accordingly is truly empowering.

You are living in a great time of change and it is crucial you become present and aware of your emotions. Becoming aware of your emotions and using these tools will empower you to change not only your own life but the lives around you.

Choosing love and not fear will empower you to be the change you wish to see in the world which will help usher in a world full of love. I am sending much love for you on this journey and remember the most important thing is being kind to yourself in this process.

It might take a little effort and awareness to change but it is a priceless investment!

You can never stand taller than the honesty of what you are feeling from moment to moment. Your feelings reflect the real you from moment to moment throughout your life.

We live in a world of intellect and technology that no longer honors the power of your emotions. This of course includes your intuition or gut feeling.

You, like most people today, have probably been conditioned to suppress your emotions. This has happened worldwide. When you suppress your emotions, especially negative emotions, you tend to become numb over time.

This can be a disaster in multiple areas of your life. It can lead to depression, anxiety, exhaustion, mood swings, reactivity, inflammation, heart disease, stroke or cancer.

As a case in point, consider the research of medical doctors who have conducted scientific research on unexpressed negative emotions within their specific disciplines:

In other words, they lose perspective on their authentic feelings or innermost self. People tend to become a mask or pseudo-self that is based on their ego-mind’s self assessment rather being in touch with their true self or inner person.

In addition, most people use this false self to protect their heart’s deepest feelings of love or pain. The blockage of this energy flow to the heart causes many people to become lost. These people lose contact with who they are, their life’s purpose and direction.

In other words, to have true presence, passion, purpose and power one must know how they feel and have the capacity to love, heal and express their true emotions.

Many people avoid negative emotions by repressing their feelings into the subconscious mind. Over time their negativity builds up to a point of overflow. If you assume the body is holding this emotional pain on your behalf, it will eventually come to a breaking point.

If the person then still refuses to deal with their emotional pain, it then spills over into the body as some type of pain or illness. The pain becomes chronic to the degree that they deny their emotional pain.

Sarno indicated that those people who tend most to develop chronic pain or illness are prone to “goodism or perfectionism.” This means their personality avoids or denies their authentic feelings in order to perform or be perceived a certain way.

Neuropeptides are small protein like molecules that communicate between brain and body cell functions. They also mediate between emotions and cells. They are in fact the essential mind-body connectors as molecules of emotion.

Therefore, people do not have mental health problems or physical health problems – they have mind-body problems. Some people call it psychosomatic illness or issues.

Your molecules of emotion have a direct impact on your psychosomatic system that is running 24/7. This means your overall long-term health is dependent on the health of your emotions.

Emotions As Your Connection Point. The Power Of Emotions

Your emotions ride on your energy system. In other words, emotional energy is your connection to mental health, spiritual health, physical health and even to your very soul.

So how can you create a much better connection to yourself and others now that you know your emotional energy is the grand central station of connection in your entire universe?

Before you can express your emotions you must feel them. Feelings ride along the body’s energy system.

It is important to remember that all feelings are good. Even the darkest and most negative emotions along with the loving and happy emotions are stored in your body.

In order to access all your emotions, consider that emotion actually means “energy in motion.” It is derived from the Latin word which means “to move.”

If you consider the importance of movement, sound and breath in all areas of life you will become more alive in the present moment.

For example, if you found just 10 minutes per day to walk on the earth; grass in the yard or park or even the sand by the ocean, then you will strengthen all your cells due to the electromagnetic energy that is absorbed through your bare feet.

Your emotional energy will be charged and you will be more in touch with your emotions.

If you want to take this to another level try sprinting 3 times as fast as you can for 30 seconds after a brief warm up. Take a rest for a minute or two in between. Do this at least 3 times per week.

Over time the sprinting will strengthen your heart and lungs which are the primary keys to your immune system’s health and longevity.

Sprinting also gets you feeling your emotions very deeply because you will be breathing very quickly after the sprint. You will feel great because your endorphins will be released and you will feel connected.

A third way to get in touch with emotions is to do daily stretching, dancing, yoga, martial arts or grounding exercises that get you moving and breathing deeply on a regular basis. A combination of these is even better.

So now you have three effective ways to get yourself moving and breathing and feeling alive with emotion.

For some people who have been deeply hurt in life, a deeper healing process is required. Remember, healing is feeling. Healing is an emotional release process that requires grieving.

Before one gets into releasing deep grief they must express their negativity; resentment, vindictiveness, anger, rage or even blind fury.

If this essential process is skipped, you will be stuck in the shame of recycled sadness for the rest of your life

Your body wants to allow a somatic discharge of the trauma. There are a number of effective ways to access this type of deeply buried emotional pain.

One of the most effective ways is deep tissue body work. You must search and choose your practitioner wisely. He or she must skillfully open the chronic muscular tensions on either side of the entire spine.

Next opening the muscles of the head, jaws, neck, throat, shoulders, lats, hips, solar plexus, pelvis, upper and lower legs. When this happens in a safe, layered manner, you will feel indescribable freedom and love.

Your negative emotions will rise to the surface. You will feel them and let them go. This creates wonderful closure with the past.

Another way to release trauma is to lie face up on a mattress. Begin deep breathing and pull your shoulders back as far as possible. At the same time push your pelvis forward upon inhale and back to normal on exhale.

After a few minutes you begin kicking your arms and legs up and down on the mattress with your head turning side to side. Think of a two-year-old child having a tantrum while kicking and protesting.

Here is your chance to be free. Allow your negativity to surface and let it go. This is a powerful path to freedom.

Unless you have training or professional support to do this sort of releasing you may be in over your head. So have deep respect for yourself and others and do this is in a safe environment.

Accordingly, these two methods are life changing, safe and effective when facilitated properly. Your emotional life will begin to sing as free as a bird. This will happen over time as your authentic self emerges.

Robert Kirby’s mission is to help people to let go of their past, unlock their inner brilliance and be the leader of their lives in every area, whether it be in love, work, business or family.

Over the last 26 years, Robert Kirby has transformed more than 14,000 individuals and business owners all over the US, the UK and Australia.

An expert in mind-body integration, Robert works with several different healing modalities such as Core Energetics, Bioenergetics, voice dialogue and constellations, to help people to smash through their self-limiting beliefs, live from the heart, and embrace their innate greatness.

We all experience challenges in life, some of us major and some minor. How we manage our emotional health during these periods and beyond is what affects our overall well-being. Do you think positive emotions improve your health?

It may be useful to view emotions as the experience and flow of feelings.

These can include (but are not limited to) happiness, joy, contentment, sadness, anger, or fear and can be triggered by something external (from watching a movie, to seeing an accident) or something internal (recalling an unpleasant memory).

While emotions are universal, each person may experience them and respond to them in a different way. Furthermore some people may struggle with understanding what emotion they are experiencing.

People who have good emotional health are aware of their behaviours, feelings and thoughts. They have healthy relationships and they feel good about themselves.

Albert Ellis the psychologist, an important contributor to the ideas behind cognitive-behavioural therapy and founder of Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy (REBT) said that emotions don’t come from what happens to you (as we all assume) but from your thoughts about what has happened.

So what can you do to improve your awareness for emotional wellbeing, building resilience, strengthening your relationships, improving your mood and getting more enjoyment out of life?

Social Interaction For Emotional Wellbeing

Social interaction is vital to human health, both mentally and physically. Humans are social beings, with an overriding emotional need for relationships and positive connections to others.

People with strong and broad social relationships are happier, healthier and live longer.

We’re not meant to survive, let alone thrive, in isolation. Therefore an important factor in improving emotional health and building resilience is having supportive people around that you can talk to on a daily basis.

Social support not only helps improve a person’s well-being, it affects the immune system as well, where the lack of social interaction can negatively lead to first signs of depression and anxiety.

People with supportive friends and family generally have better mental and physical health than those who lack these networks. The same is true for those who take part in churches, clubs and voluntary organisations.

Having a network of social connections or high levels of social support has been shown to increase our immunity to infection, lower our risk of heart disease and reduce mental decline as we get older.

Avoid Isolation That May Adversely Affect Emotional Wellbeing

Living alone or in a limited social circle due to relocation, aging, or decreased mobility can lead to isolation and an increased risk of depression.

Whatever your situation, try to schedule regular social activities with friends, neighbours, colleagues, or family members who are upbeat, positive, and interested in you.

Manage Stress For Better Emotional Health

Many of us spend so much of our daily lives feeling stressed, we’re no longer even aware of it. Being stressed feels normal. But when stress becomes overwhelming, it can damage your mood, trigger or aggravate mental and physical health problems, and affect your quality of life.

While social interaction and exercise are excellent ways to relieve stress, it’s not always realistic to have a friend close by to lean on when you feel stressed or to be able to go out for a run.

What creates disabling stress in one person, may not have the same effect on another. What best relieves stress is also personal. So try different things till you find what works for you. Some examples are:

Exercise For Emotional Wellbeing

When you improve your physical health, you’ll automatically experience greater mental and emotional well-being. The mind and the body are intrinsically linked.

Exercise not only strengthens your heart and lungs, for example, it also releases endorphins, powerful chemicals that lift your mood and provide added energy.

Even modest amounts of exercise can make a big difference to your mental and emotional health and it’s something you can engage in right now to boost your energy and outlook

Exercise such as walking, swimming, weight training, running, martial arts, put on some music and dance. Add a mindfulness element to your workouts.

Instead of focusing on your thoughts, focus on how your body feels as you move, how your feet hit the ground, for example, the rhythm of your breathing, or the feeling of wind on your skin

Let Your Diet Support Your Emotions

Eating healthy is about giving you more energy, feeling great, improving your mood and improving your health. Learn how to create a tasty, varied, and healthy diet that is as good for your mind as it is for your body.

Our bodies often respond differently to different foods, experiment to learn how the food you include in, or cut from your diet affects the way you feel.

Self-Care For Emotional Wellbeing

The activities you engage in, and the daily choices you make, affect the way you feel and how much you’re able to help yourself. These choices, in turn, affect those around you. Investing in self-care is as much about caring for others as it is for yourself.

Only when you feel healthy and happy can you be your smartest, most creative, and most caring self.

Gratitude

Researchers have found a link with gratitude and wellbeing. Gratitude helps you see your situation in a way that can open your thinking to new solutions. Lao Tzu said, “When you realize there is nothing lacking, the whole world belongs to you.”

Gratitude helps people refocus on what they have instead of what they lack. And, although it may feel contrived at first, this mental state grows stronger with use and practice.

Gratitude makes us happier. Live in a state of gratitude this will have a major impact on your emotional wellbeing.

If there was such a thing as real emotional baggage, what would be inside yours, how old and heavy would it be, what would it mean for your life if it was lighter and is there a way to make it so?

To start answering these questions we need to understand what emotions are and how they work.

The human body is a complex structure which includes not only a visible outer casing but also an internal aspect that spans all our physiological systems, our organs, glands, tissues and cells right down to our biochemistry and DNA.

In addition to these physical tangible elements of the body we also have an energetic counterpart which co-exists alongside the physical on a higher vibrational level.

At the molecular level, everything is a combination of different atoms made up of protons, neutrons and electrons in different compositions. So, at this basic level EVERYTHING is energy.

The most important part of “our body” is the driver behind the energetic structure – YOU.

How you experience or know what to make of an experience you have while inside your body is through the emotional sensations you have in relation to any given situation or thing.

It is the emotional interface where we begin to give the meaning to our circumstances.

That is not to say what you feel is “right” or “wrong” in accordance to some external standard, but the way you feel is merely the shadow cast by the thought process or beliefs behind the circumstance which YOU are experiencing.

What you do with that feeling determines the impact an experience has on your life.

Our emotions are like our inbuilt compass, part of our innate guidance system directing us to our Soul’s desire, which, for everyone, simply comes down to the expansion of awareness in different ways, the actualization of our individual potential.

Using emotion, we react, and receive feedback from what we perceive and, through this, are able to know when something needs to change (emotions are a key part of our Soul’s own stimulus response system).

There is an indivisible relationship between what we think, how we feel, and our life circumstances.

Using our internal “compass” by simply tuning in or getting in touch with how we feel, we can easily verify whether the direction we are facing is toward our highest potential (what we want) or carrying us down a path toward a more challenging, lower vibrational experience (what we don’t want).

Both options exist and again neither is “right or wrong”. It is all about what you want your experience to be and the speed in which you wish to get there.

Avoiding, bypassing, suppressing or denying emotions are the sign posts to the slower longer path and acknowledging, accepting, feeling and letting go of our emotions is the fast track.

Our emotions hint at what is inside our subconscious (this is the non-linear, non-analytical, all accepting, irrational part of the brain and also the place where our suppressed information is stored) – therefore sometimes it may seem illogical that we feel a certain way.

So, don’t be hard on yourself for not knowing “why” you feel the way you do sometimes.

Trying to “rationalize” suppressed emotion is like speaking a different language to someone who is unilingual.

It may seem simple, but the way to process emotions, whether they “make sense” or not, is to simply just FEEL them.

For every thought we adopt, we associate an emotion. When we experience an emotion in relation to a thought, a neuronal circuit is activated which generates a behavior as a reaction to it.

Therefore, how we behave in every aspect of our life is coloured by the thoughts behind our emotions.

Occurring in the form of both energy and matter simultaneously, emotions can pass through both our body and energy as soon as they as processed. Issues arise when we “avoid” or “block” our feelings, as by nature, emotions are supposed to be moving, – fleeting.

The emotional components of our Being are like everything – ENERGY. They are not meant to be stopped or resisted but to be in perpetual motion – in effect energy in motion (e-motion).

So, if we want to change our behavior or life circumstances, we can observe our emotional reactions and by doing so, we gain access to the thought program we are running that is generating the feeling.

Through changing our perspective, we can create a new emotional reaction and therefore change the behavior. However, to do so we must FEEL “through” the emotion to access what is behind it.

Like electricity, emotion needs to move freely or else it builds in intensity creating a vibratory field through us and to us and over time this can “blow our circuits”, resulting in the breakdown of the physical counterpart, our body (when this happens it can also be known as another form of physical toxicity).

Remember we are what we don’t eliminate. We create a magnetism for similar vibrations that we resonate with, meaning we will only create more of the same emotional patterns until we change something at the core level.

Molecular biologist Candace Pert PhD broke ground in the science behind mind-body medicine. She helped reveal the physical elements of our Emotions.

Pert was instrumental in mapping the mechanism our body uses to produce different emotional states with the identification of important receptor sites on cell membranes, which act like lock and key, similar to the way hormones interact within the body but specific to Emotion.

She showed how they function to cause changes in cells by acting as docking sites for what are now known as the neuropeptide ligands, these are now understood to be the specific “emotional chains”.

This confirmation of the way our body physically uses emotions validates their existence as being of the “real world” and therefore of importance to the functionality of the human body (our body, by design, only maintains parts of itself which are necessary for function/survival).

It’s All Relative

Everything is relational. How we differentiate one thing from another is through a comparison of the extremes on a scale, e.g. bigger/smaller, closer/further, longer/shorter etc.

So, the world we live in within our bodies could be looked at as being a physical map through which we all travel and experience, made up of the variations between extremes.

As “we” move through life, we too are inside of this relational paradigm.

What this means is that we all navigate through the same map differently depending on the associations we ourselves make through our unique internal neural and energetic networks, which are made up of our past experiences, genetic programming and unique Souls perspective.

We are relating ourselves to this map which is merely reflecting to us the connections we place upon it.

Our individual reaction to a situation can be different from someone else’s as our reactional cues come from what is stored within US and could be viewed as our own “emotional or life baggage”.

Each emotion is also on a successive scale of opposition, with love, joy and trust and emotions of these higher qualities on one side, and hate, fear, doubt and the like, sitting at the opposite end, with everything in between serving as “the many shades of gray”.

This scale has evolved through time as an outcome of growth and adaptation to changing circumstances and human reactivity due to our development.

We started with the basic primitive emotions of fear and love, and have grown into what is now a more complex variation of the two extremes as the scale has expanded in both directions.

The scale itself is ultimately the two pieces which create the whole. Yin and Yang. Ever expanding Oneness. Which YOU play a vital role within.

We cannot change our past experiences. However, the constructed beliefs we have built in response to them can be altered and reconstructed through conscious choice once we release the electrical charge of the emotion bound within us by simply just FEELING.

Once we release the emotional bond, a new perspective can then be seen and employed.

Our emotions are active energy and accumulate in potency when they stagnate, when we avoid “feeling” them. So, the secret to gaining new perspectives and truly changing your life is via the awareness and understanding that all emotions need to be known for exactly what they are – Energy in Motion.

Your Bags Are Packed….Where Are You Driving To?

The driver behind the direction of our thoughts is US and our DESIRES. Emotions are the fuel which aid in the actualization of our desires by trial and error. Let me clarify.

You may be thinking “But I don’t “desire” this bad relationship, these work troubles and this bodily dis-ease” this is true from your current perspective, however, in order to create your true desire (maybe a soulful relationship, meaningful work and a healthy body) you may need to know how you FEEL within these current not so comfortable scenarios (i.e. by trial and error) to start changing your thoughts to be more in alignment with your TRUE DESIRE.

If you are “stuck”, this is how to start moving.

In this world of duality (or experiencing life through this scale of oppositions as discussed above) knowing one side of the scale is a means by which we can understand the other.

The key factor sitting between you and the achievement of your highest desire is YOUR WILLINGNESS to exhaust the emotional aspect which is creating the gap between what you are currently going through, and where you want to be.

By allowing the energy of the emotion to be diffused fully through feeling it, you can create a new thought process which is not directed toward nor magnetically charged by the fear of your past experiences and the things “you don’t want”.

So, What Is In Your Emotional Baggage?

Your emotional baggage is every feeling you are holding on to, can’t let go of, have yet to acknowledge, every experience you have disassociated yourself from feeling or have blocked, every reaction you have had to an experience and have yet to find peace with, and any painful thought you have chosen to affiliate yourself with and believe to be your truth.

Are you ready to have a look inside to create change?

No matter how uncomfortable the emotional process you are currently experiencing is, know that by allowing yourself to FEEL the emotions you are fully utilizing and diffusing their power.

With regards to the emotions at the top end of the scale, once their power is diffused/neutralized, a higher potency can then be revealed and gravitated toward.

For the lower vibrational emotions, once neutralized, you are released from the anchor of that lower emotional field. In real terms this can mean your happiness, joy and love in life – your “highs” will be higher and your lows won’t last as long.

How To Declutter Your Emotional Baggage & Upgrade For Life:

1. Accept emotions as an important part of your physical and subtle anatomy whose function is to be identified (recognized), felt (processed/utilized) and let go of (eliminated).

2. After feeling a strongly charged emotion, reflect on any other experience you have had in your life which felt similar. Your mind can only make associations, so memories that you feel relate to an emotion ARE connected, it doesn’t matter whether you understand why.

The fact that your brain is associating to THEM means that THEY are linked to the result (which may be the negative behavior or thought that you want to change). If an emotion is negatively affecting you or holds an “energetic charge” within your body, it will be beneficial to release it.

3. Next, remember the associated experience as vividly as is comfortable and play the memory of it back like a movie inside your mind’s eye. Notice how “you” or the “characters” feel while watching the movie. Allow yourself to really FEEL the emotion and – as you do you will notice it subside. This is the release of the potency/power of the emotion from your body/energy field.

You may notice your logical mind step in and start rationalizing or even building evidence toward a new higher belief system. Our goal here is to release the accumulation of your blocked emotions to allow a new awareness and higher grade emotions to be felt.

You may need to repeat this process a few times, remember our issues are built over time and in layers and that they may need to be released layer by layer also.

4. To accelerate this process, ask yourself “What is the opposing emotion to what I am experiencing. And what would I need to think to be able to experience that now?” Sit with the new thought and imagine how that new emotion would feel inside every cell in your body and breathe deeply.

5. Then, notice the small things in your life that change. It may be that you don’t get as angry when someone cuts you off in traffic, or that you are more patient while waiting to be served at the supermarket.

Or if you are diffusing your emotional reaction to the “victim” type thought processes (thoughts symptomatic of this type of belief are things like – “Why do people do this to me all the time? No matter what I do I just can’t win, I have no control” etc).

After doing these steps you likely will notice your “luck” changing.

Ultimately, by learning to acknowledge and process emotions when we notice them, we will enable the full
“life cycle” of the emotion to occur – fast. In other words, we can disable the emotional block and resulting magnetism creating a smoother ride in our journey through for life.

All baggage serves a purpose, it gives us the means to facilitate our travels, gives us the space to add new things to our life and allows us to carry with us the things that will enhance our journey.

You 100% have the power to choose the way you experience your journey and achieve your desires during this life.

The latest baggage available today is versatile, has an unlimited capacity, is transparent, adaptable and filled with potential – are you willing to trade your current version in for this? Upgrade yours for life TODAY!

Pregnancy and childbirth mark a significant life transition for a woman and her family. The profound changes that take place occur on many levels, including the physical, emotional, social, and spiritual.

Whilst most of the focus is on the amazing physical changes that occur in pregnancy for women, it is affirming and important to acknowledge the very normal and even universal emotional themes that run through the trimesters of pregnancy and the preparation for birth.

Pregnancy is a time of acute and heightened emotions due to the massive amount of circulating hormones that are integral to the normal growth and development of the unborn baby.

The first hormone to make its appearance after conception is human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG); it is hCG that is picked up by a urine or blood test to determine pregnancy.

In a normal pregnancy, the level of hCG approximately doubles about every two days during the first 10 weeks, this is indeed tiring and emotional work!!!

hCG keeps the predominant pregnancy hormones known as oestrogen and progesterone at their appropriate levels until the placenta has developed enough to take over this function.

This occurs at around the 12-week mark, or at the beginning of the second trimester.

Oestrogen is considered as the big kahuna of pregnancy hormones and is vital to the healthy progression of a pregnancy.

This busy hormone produced by the ovaries and later by the placenta, helps the uterus to grow, maintains the uterine lining and activates and regulates the production of other essential hormones.

The other predominant hormone of pregnancy is progesterone, which is manufactured first by the ovaries and then the placenta, where it takes over around the beginning of the second trimester.

Progesterone keeps the placenta functioning properly and the uterine lining healthy and thick and promotes the growth of breast tissue.

It is no surprise that given the enormous surges and fluctuations in these circulating hormones during pregnancy, that pregnancy is often described as an emotional rollercoaster, where women can experience rapid highs and lows, sometimes even in the course of minutes.

Let’s explore some common emotions that may arise for women trimester by trimester.

A sense of trust and gratitude that all of the emotional intensity of pregnancy is also paving the way for an adjustment to the equally challenging emotional pathways of motherhood is reassuring too.

So next time you come across a tired, cranky and emotional pregnant mama, give her a big hug, listen to her and reassure her that it is all worth it once she looks upon her baby’s shining face!

The question of what emotions are can be a bit tricky to nail down. It depends on who you ask really. I’ve heard it said that emotions reside in the body and feelings reside in the mind.

But I think we would all agree that there’s a bit more to it than that.

What we know for sure through Bruce Lipton’s work and Candace Pert’s great book “Molecules of Emotion”, is that emotions are not just about our non-physical reality, but that they also create biochemical reactions in our body.

Turning negative emotions into positive emotions, is it possible?

What I personally know for sure is that I’ve had a complex relationship with emotions for most of my life. I know that I need to give you some background here so that you can make sense of this.

I’ll start be telling you that I hit a particularly rocky patch in the road at the end of 2014, when I found myself having to contend with the consequences of being made redundant from a well-paying job that I’d held for over 15 years.

This coincided with the fact that my daughter was going into adolescence, and I was going into menopause at the same time.

To be honest I felt like I was in the middle of a perfect storm with both my own and my daughter’s hormones going crazy, and unemployment stretching out in front of me.

After going through all of the emotions that were triggered by my redundancy, I decided to make use of the ‘spare’ time I had on my hands by writing a book about my experience of menopause.

My thinking was that I could put the struggle I’d been having to good use by writing about the improvements I’d achieved by focusing on the fundamentals of diet, exercise, stress management, and mindset.

The thing I didn’t realise at the time was that I was going to have to build a business around my book to keep the family’s finances afloat.

The long and the short of it is that after unsuccessfully applying for over 30 jobs that I was eminently qualified for, I decided to bite the bullet and save my energy for more fruitful endeavours.

In others words, I processed the feelings of rejection and loss completely and quickly, and then got on with my life.

One of the unexpected consequences of this was that I experienced two incredibly poignant pieces of healing, as a result of writing my story down for the book that became “Thrive in Midlife”.

One of these cathartic experiences came about as I was considering the options I had for handling menopause in 2014, compared with the options my mother had when she was in the same position in the early 1980s.

The stark reality here was that in mum’s day, synthetic hormones were prescribed without a second thought, and sadly she was one of the many women who paid the price in terms of being diagnosed with breast cancer in her late 60s.

At the time, I was surprised to feel a sense of gratitude to Tamoxifen which is still the drug of choice for treating breast cancer. The gratitude was due to the fact that it bought mum some extra time, and that gave her a chance to get to know my daughter Lucy.

It also gave Lucy a chance to get to know her grandmother. I only wish it wasn’t such a short window of opportunity though, because Lucy was only one when mum passed away.

I share this part of my story with you, because I felt my heart split open when I wrote about mum’s brief relationship with Lucy in my book.

This was a huge deal for me because there were a couple of traumas around my entry into the world that fundamentally shaped the way I experienced my emotions right up to the time when I stumbled on tools like Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP).

NLP helped me to work through some of the baggage I’d accumulated over time. I was aware of one of these traumas, but the other one came as a complete shock to me.

The one that I was aware of had to do with the fact that mum almost died from a blood clot that travelled to her lung just after giving birth to me.

Meanwhile, the bigger piece of the puzzle relates to the fact that I was the surviving twin in a case of Vanishing Twin Syndrome. This didn’t come to light until I was 45 and training to be a NLP Master Practitioner.

In fact, my awareness around the fact that I’d internalised the trauma of losing my twin in utero came about when I was helping the demonstrate Time Line Therapy.

Time Line Therapy is one of the fundamental processes in NLP. Its power lies in the fact that it helps people to access material that’s stored deep in the unconscious part of their mind.

That’s certainly where the trauma around my lost twin was sitting before Time Line Therapy made it possible for me to access it.

As the name suggests, Vanishing Twin Syndrome comes about when a twin disappears in the uterus during pregnancy. Most mothers don’t even know this has happened because the fetal tissue is either absorbed by the other twin, or absorbed into the placenta.

So if this happens before an ultrasound has been done, there’s no evidence whatsoever that the twin ever existed.

What this means is that I could have gone through my whole life without finding out what caused the gnawing feeling of emptiness that I’d been harbouring in my body for my whole life.

One of the consequences of this is that before I was even born, I learnt how to shut my feelings off to avoid the pain of abandonment that I felt in the first instance when my twin left me, and then again when my mother was absent in the early weeks of my life because she was teetering on the brink of death herself.

The problem with shutting our feelings off is that you can’t just block the bad ones out. It’s an all or nothing proposition.

So our ability to feel emotions like joy, love, and bliss for example, is compromised when we numb ourselves in order to avoid feeling emotional pain.

Looking back on all of this now, I feel sad when I think about spending so much of my life in an emotionally numb state. I also feel very sad about the fact that mum and I never really got around to bonding while she was alive.

More important though is the fact that I’m truly grateful for finally making up for that in the process of writing my book some 10 years after mum passed away.

Among other things, what this experience of reconnecting did was loosen the grip of the toxic relationship with food that I’d developed as a numbing strategy very early on in my life.

This was a fantastic result in and of itself, but even better still was the fact that the universe stepped up to the mark at the end of 2014 by opening up a spot for me in clinical trials that were being run by Sydney University to gauge the efficacy of EMDR in the treatment of binge eating disorder.

Some would say that the fact that this happened two days after the cathartic experience I had in relation to posthumously bonding with my mother was a coincidence, but I think not.

I’m now just about to publish my second book called “Weight Loss in Midlife”, and I run book writing workshops for other people who want to tease out their own stories.

I’m truly grateful that I’ve finally come to the point where I love myself and my life. That’s no mean feat given where I’ve come from.

It’s not easy to deal with painful emotions, it is sometimes much easier to keep them bottled up inside of you and pretend they don’t exist. What we don’t know doesn’t hurt us, right? Wrong.

From my personal experience and through working with my clients, I have learned that if we don’t deal with pain when it occurs, it will resurface as compounded emotional toxicity later on in life, showing up as disease or DIS-EASE in your body and showing up as anger, fear, anxiety, or skin conditions, gut conditions, throat conditions etc.

These trapped emotions will lower your immune system and other functions in your body.

When you experience physical discomfort, it means that something is not in balance, emotionally, physically, mentally or spiritually.

Your body knows it, every cell in your body knows it. You may not know it consciously, but if you listen (and I mean truly listen), your body will start speaking to you.

Start to listen to these sensations and listen to their wisdom, because the pain or discomfort is telling you something is not right and leading you to change.

You can see it is key to good health and well-being to be physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually free from these emotions that have been trapped in your cells.

The reason being, if you do not deal with these emotions outwardly, you will turn them inward and project the anger, fear etc. at yourself. This will start sabotaging you in your life.

You may not even realise this is happening to you. It happens subconsciously and very deeply.

How Do You Access These Emotions? Who Do You Get To Help You When Releasing Emotions From Your Body?

There are many different modalities to help you in releasing emotions. I use massage, NLP, Hypnotherapy, Timeline therapy, Journey therapy and energy work with my clients. I have used these techniques on myself in the past as well and I find them very effective.

I did however find that after doing years of this work on myself, the emotional blocks were gone but they were still showing up as blocks in my physical body as stuck energy, so I have started doing bodywork for myself.

No one therapy is the thing that will clear every emotion as we have to work on different levels.

I am seeing a therapist who uses breathwork, massage therapy, energy healing and sound therapy to help release the emotions that are still trapped in my body. It is amazing how these methods works for me right now.

I feel the way I have worked on myself is perfect for me as the body will only release what it is capable of releasing and I lived my early years in terror.

I managed to clear the emotions and can tell my ‘story’ without feeling emotional but I know that the trauma is still in my body and manifesting as throat/thyroid/adrenal issues.

For me to explain this further I feel like I have to tell you part of my story… My biological mother was schizophrenic and back in the 70’s the treatment was not as good as it is today.

My mother used to lock me in cupboards and forget to feed me and I remember that I had to stay really still and quiet or she would hurt me.

You would have heard of fight/flight/freeze. This is the natural fear response we have in our body but when someone has lived in terror, this switch does not always switch off.

This causes issues physically and having adrenalin constantly running through your body causes the adrenals to burn out and usually the person will suffer high levels of anxiety. This is very common in today’s society, where our stress levels are so high.

So even as a young baby, my subconscious mind gave me a strategy to keep me safe, but I took that into my adult life. For most of my adult life, I did not want to be seen or heard.

In fact I started building my business showcasing other experts because I wanted my message out there but did not want to be seen.

I have done a lot of personal development on myself and have realised that even though not everyone will ‘like’ me, it is OK and it is safe for me to be seen and heard.

So I am still in the process of healing my adrenals and thyroid. I have so much more of an understanding of how far I have come and still there is a way to go.

I have been doing breathwork or rebirthing and the trauma that was stuck in my body as a baby is starting to release.

It feels strange and a little scary (as I have never felt these emotions releasing before) and sometimes I get triggered and regress back to that baby, but as the sessions go on, I am more and more able to express myself vocally.

I learnt as a small child that it was ‘unsafe’ for me to be heard, so I have had issues speaking my truth and standing up for myself.

This is changing, the more inner work I do. I have also been getting a release of energy around my ears (a crazy tingling sensation) and my hearing has also started getting better.

I didn’t even think my hearing issues were connected but it turns out they are!

It is amazing whether you do the subconscious mind work or the breathing, meditation, massage or whatever therapy you choose to use, if you set the intention to release emotions that are trapped inside of you, it will happen.

Often people are fearful of who they might be without the ‘stuff’ that they are holding onto. In my experience, letting go of the old gives you a sense of freedom and you are more able to move forward to live the life you want.

Remember that our limits are set to our beliefs, so when you expand your beliefs, you expand the limits to your personal growth.

Find the therapist and therapy that resonates with you, book a session and give it a go.

The beauty of this life is, it is a journey and you have choices, so you can chose what works for you and who you want to work with.

I wish you all the best on your journey to uncovering any trapped or hidden emotions that are holding you back in your life and if you feel like I am the one to help you, please get in touch and book a session.