Releasing Emotions

"Feelings are like a code that contains information. You have to name and befriend your feelings to decipher the code."

This language sounds more appropriate for an elementary school classroom, doesn't it? It's as if we've reserved feelings only for young children. Why do feelings and emotional processing become irrelevant after the 5th grade?

As adults, feeling our feelings sounds foreign because at some point in life we become numb and learn to operate without paying attention to them. Feelings aren't practical, and they often get in the way of progress.

"Fight or flight" takes over—the need to perform, conform, control, or survive. Feelings get stuffed. I remember the day when my Naturopath told me I was a "stuffer." A foreign concept at the time, but my inability to feel and process emotion was wreaking havoc on my energetic health and contributing to my inability to physically thrive.

The below exercise will prevent "stuffing," reconnect you to your adult feelings, and release the energy of difficult emotion, so that your heart energy can do what it needs to do—flow.

Step 1: Ask, "What am I feeling right now?"

Choose a consistent time of day to get still and check in with yourself. (Great for bedtime or during the commute home in preparation for your "second shift.")

Step 2: Try to name the feeling.

Naming the feeling slows it down versus letting it run rampant in your energy field. Kind of like catching a burglar in your house, it stops the emotion in its tracks. Although, it's important to simply observe the feeling in this step, NO JUDGMENT.

Step 3: Breathe out the emotion.

Hold the emotion in your heart space and with focused breathing, allow the emotion to slowly ease its way out of your chest. Don't force it.

Step 4: After 5 minutes, notice a lighter feeling in your chest.

The emotional energy may not empty completely with the first couple of tries, but over time as you become more and more present with yourself, these low vibrational emotions won't hold you back from Life nearly as much as they did before.

BONUS: Try to feel or intuit where the feeling originated—current day, a few days ago, last year, or maybe even childhood.

The answer or "knowing" you receive when you question this will come to you within the first 5 seconds. Try it! Intuition is a muscle that gets stronger with practice. 😉

Reference: https://www.heartmath.org/resources/heartmath-tools/notice-and-ease-tool/