Rooting Out Causes of Emotional Distress

Do you struggle with sadness, worry, loneliness, or other emotional distress? Fighting these feelings day in and day out may be harmful to your health and well-being.

Research has linked feelings of isolation and loneliness to higher risks for high blood pressure, heart disease, obesity, anxiety, depression, weakened immunity, and even premature death. Persistent feelings of worry and anxiousness also increase stress levels and prevent people from living life as fully and joyfully as they might otherwise.

If you find yourself unable to shake feelings such as these, there is a good chance you are suffering from Trapped Emotions, commonly known as “emotional baggage.”

Trapped Emotions are energies from feelings such as grief, anger, frustration, fear, hopelessness, and other negative emotions that can reverberate through the subconscious even years after the events that sparked them.

Sometimes people are not able to fully process emotions and move on. In these cases, the energy of the emotion becomes “trapped” within the physical body. So instead of moving beyond an angry moment, or a temporary bout with grief or depression, you may find yourself struggling with ongoing feelings you are unable to shake.

Trapped Emotions can cause you to make the wrong assumptions, overreact to innocent remarks, misinterpret behavior, and damage your physical health and relationships.
Fortunately, you can take steps that may free you from the hold of these emotional energies. These include:

1. Take an inventory of your feelings: Next time you feel anxious, fearful, or sad, take a minute to write down what you are feeling. Though it will may be emotionally and mentally taxing to dig deep into these emotions, make a commitment to list any emotions that plague your thoughts and actions. Nobody will be reading this but you, so make your list as complete as possible.

2. Reflect on the sources: Once you’ve completed your list, go through it and identify where you think these feelings originated. Was it a certain experience? Is it something you picked up from your upbringing? Are there self-limiting beliefs that contribute? Is there a grudge or forgiveness issue? For example, maybe you fear trusting others because of a betrayal you suffered years ago. Or maybe you felt unloved by your parents, and find it hard to love yourself. Don’t wallow in what you identify, just acknowledge it and write it all down.

3. Look for the silver lining: Go back through your list and note at least one positive lesson or outcome that resulted from the hurtful experiences, situations, and memories. Maybe the lack of attention from your parents helped you become independent. Maybe betrayal taught you how to stand up for yourself and not let others take advantage of you. The beauty of this exercise is finding out how adversity has made you stronger. Focusing on the positive allows you to have power over what you learn from the experience and no longer feel like a victim.

4. Affirm what you’ve learned: Reflect on the list you have made and transform these positives into affirmations you can use when emotional baggage starts weighing you down. When you’re able to make a positive affirmation or statement of intent, such as “I will be patient and kind,” or “I’m proud to practice showing more love,” it may help you override feelings of negativity, fear, anxiousness, or sadness.

5. Get help if you need to: At one time or another, everyone needs help to overcome emotional baggage from the past. Releasing trapped emotional energy is one easy, accessible form of support. For more information on how to find and release trapped emotions, visit www.emotioncodegift.com and download the free Emotion Code eBook. If you need assistance, you can contact a Certified Emotion Code Practitioner and schedule a session to release your Trapped Emotions by visiting www.discoverhealing.com/practitioner-map.

Ultimately, it’s important for each of us to acknowledge that you have control over your emotions. It might be difficult in the moment, but you can choose to make intelligent and balanced decisions. When you find yourself automatically being guided toward the emotion of anger, for example, wait a few seconds and ask yourself if it would better serve you to choose a more positive emotion, such as empathy or curiosity.

The ability to choose more positive emotions is something all of us have, but it's like a muscle that needs regular exercise. When you focus on flexing this muscle, you may learn to become more mindful of your feelings, and your emotions can enhance your life instead of controlling it.