Ruminations on Repressed Emotions

A question regarding the relationship of repressed anger to liver diseases helps focus attention on our cultural propensity in the West to separate somatic and emotional issues, when in fact they go hand in hand. Emotions are considered the black sheep in a world that places great value on the intellect. This prejudice against actually feeling and acknowledging emotions keeps us disconnected from them. The paradox is that when we refuse to acknowledge them, emotions are stored in the body’s tissues where they can cause blockages to energy flow and result in pathological changes. While this is a general description of an important process, I do not mean to imply a linear relationship between a disease process and a specific emotion. But I must say I am much taken with a bumper sticker that I saw recently: "BEGIN WITHIN".

Over many years I have written articles about emotions, and been both amused and fascinated by the appearance of a frequent typographical error in which the word “emotions” appears as “emotino’s”. I have come to imagine that this is not so much a mispelling as an invitation to reframe my understanding of emotions. Perhaps they are actually an as yet unidentified particle, like protons, electrons, and neutrons. Emotions come to us, perhaps out of the ethers, and arise in response to circumstances. They come as messengers, inviting us to acknowledge their message and address the content. Once heeded, “emotino’s” want nothing more than to be freed and returned to their source in the cosmos.

Through observation, the Taoists came to identify correspondences between specific emotions, seasons, and organ pairs. These observations were not limited, but included planets and mythological and symbolic creatures, such as dragons, the phoenix, tigers, and the tortoise. From this understanding, the cosmos is built upon relationships.

In the many Law of Attraction materials produced by Abraham-Hicks the importance of acknowledging one’s vibrational set point is repeatedly emphasized, using a variety of metaphors to bring home the point. The idea is that if one is aware of one’s vibration, as indicated by the emotion one is experiencing, one can then deliberately change that set point. They go on to offer a number of means for doing so. They apply this basic premise as the means to reframe whatever a person in “the hot seat” at one of their conferences has identified as a “problem.”

In the Healing Tao as taught by Mantak Chia, the first level of transforming emotions corresponding to the organs of the five elements involves the use of sound. When he first taught this practice, he referred to the practice as “Mouth Kung Fu” because each sound requires that the mouth be held in a different position. The sounds, in flow cycle order, are lung: sssssssss; kidney: chooooo; liver: shhhhhhhhh; heart: haaaaaaaaa; and spleen-pancreas; ohhhhhhh. Triple Warmer has its own sound as well – heeeeeee. If you practice making these sounds you will notice the various positions of the mouth required to make them. These sounds vibrate the respective yin organs. With practice and focused attention, one begins to actually feel these internal vibrations when making the sounds. The result of the practice is very calming, as the sounds relax the sympathetic nervous system and awaken the parasympathetic. (To remember which is which - S is for stress; and P is for peace). One of the many benefits of the practice is the bridge it helps create between mind and body.

I believe that if we had been encouraged from an early age to center our consciousness within the body (below the neck!) we would find it very natural to notice immediately when we weren’t feeling quite up to snuff. Whether we experienced this on the emotional level, as an energetic twinge, or as somatic discomfort, once we had an awareness that something was “off” we would then access one of the many simple yet elegant tools that exist to assist in addressing such discomfort. This would take us a long way to improving health outcomes!

But why do we repress emotions in the first place? In our earliest years we learn that others are not happy to have us express them. Small children are offered a bottle, a breast, or a pacifier to quiet them down. Sometimes that is expedient. But if it happens every time an infant tries to express discomfort the infant soon learns to suppress that expression. And this pattern is continued throughout childhood. Once of school age, the emphasis is on development of intellectual skills, and other forms of expression receive less attention. With budget constraints art and music classes and even recess and physical education programs have become sparse or have even been eliminated from the curriculum. Most children are highly and rigidly scheduled, in part because no one is home to supervise them after school. These are just a few of the indicators that we have lost a sense of connection and balance. The result is consequences that were not anticipated, including a rise in stress-related illnesses.

When emotions are repressed there are a number of indicators that this has occurred. “Blocked Access to Emotions”, an expression possibly coined by Judith Swack, means that instead of feeling a particular emotion we have “decided” to either feel a different emotion entirely instead, or we dissociate and don’t feel anything at all. The trouble with the latter is that it is an ungrounded state, leaving very little vitality for the body to use for optimal physiological functioning. Transferring a blocked emotion to one that is more acceptable leads to confusion, miscommunication, and disrupted relationships. Knowing what we are feeling allows us to a) release the energy of that emotion, which raises our vibration. And b) from that higher vibrational state we are more likely to access the creativity that allows us to come up with a solution to the problem that the emotion(s) are making us aware of.

One can see that the application of this philosophy can do much as a preventive measure. But what if one already has been diagnosed with a serious condition, such as cirrhosis of the liver, a cancer, or an autoimmune disorder? In fact, the same principles apply. The body has the ability to prevent and heal from disease. By choosing to be aware of and to transform emotions as they arise, one is making more resources available to the body so that it can perform its own healing magic, restoring the body to balance.

Perhaps one good place to start, if one is already dealing with a health challenge, is to take an inventory of the feelings that the condition has stimulated – fear, disappointment, a sense of loss, guilt, anger and even fatigue (which likely has a component of apathy). Allow yourself to focus on each emotion in turn. Locate it in the tissue of the body. While holding that focus, remember that the emotion is an energy. Let that energy dissipate. In doing so the process will lift your personal vibration. The result is a natural reinstatement of hope and optimism. This raised vibration provides the body with the resources it needs to aid its healing efforts. It makes laughter possible, which brings with it additional, seemingly magical, curative powers.