During my meditation at the end of the day I release what is not mine to carry. Lately I decided to also release old feelings and trauma that have been stored in my body. I said, “I’m ready now to feel it and let it go.” Here I am about a week or so later and I notice I’ve been so sad and I can’t figure out why! Nothing in my life right now seems to warrant this much sadness… and then this morning I woke up thinking that this must be the old stuff I’ve been trying to release! (That goes back to that old saying, be careful what you ask for!)
There is no timestamp on trauma. There isn’t a formula that you can insert yourself into to get away from horror to be healed. Be patient. Take up space. Let your journey be the balm.
Dawn Serra
I am working on just that, letting the journey be the balm. But what do you do with all the feelings that come up on that journey? I often try to teach people I work with how to experience and release those feelings. I think there are three steps: allow, explore and release.
Allow: I told you I’ve been sad and I didn’t know why, but that’s okay. I just need to be sad. I also decided that since I’m so sad it’s a good time to figure out what type of self care is good for me right now. I gave myself permission to be sad…I allowed it.
Explore: this next step is about noticing what the emotion feels like in your body. Is it a sensation of feeling sick to your stomach? Do you get tension in your shoulders? A sensation of heat or a headache? This is also about noticing how you show up when you’re feeling this emotion. I’ve noticed that in my sadness I’m more lethargic, irritated and way less motivated. Strangely, I’ve also noticed that things just don’t taste right anymore. I don’t know how or why that happened, I just noticed that it does. I’ve found myself ruminating and being really hard on myself. It’s hard to connect to my gratitude in the sadness. These are the things I’ve discovered from exploring.
Release: the last step is to release the feeling. Now that’ I’m allowing and exploring I’m also making an effort to release it. My daughter said, “you know that feeling when you always want to cry for no reason? Even when things are happy?” I was like, yes! Crying is a great way to release emotion. Sometimes if the tears won’t come, watching a sad movie can help let them out. I love to talk to friends when I’m stressed or overwhelmed but not as much when I’m sad. Writing is a powerful way to release…like writing this blog post! Going for a drive, getting some exercise, listening to music, these are all great ways to release our emotions.
I am so thankful that my body stored and held onto things I was not able to deal with at the time. Anniversaries are important and powerful, and they are a natural time for old stuff to rise to the surface. When old emotions, memories or experiences come up to the surface try to allow, explore and release them. When we do this we can find a path to healing and wholeness through our…
feelings
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