Emotions are physical energy - release them physically.

Knowing the right thing to do rarely changes your emotions and behaviors, leaving you feeling defeated. Because emotions are physical energy, no amount of intellectual insights will resolve the knot in your gut. In particular, persistent mood issues and trauma reactions require physical processing with Mindfulness to relieve suppressed emotions.

Emotion is primal physical energy rather than cognitive functioning.

Since Descartes, the father of western philosophy, declared cognitive functioning the basis of this life, Western psychology also focuses on cognitive, intellectual functioning to address mental health issues like cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT). However, life forms came way before the development of their prefrontal cortex; as evolutionary biologists confirm, our reptilian brain comes before intellectual functioning.

The amoeba, a single cell organism with no brain, can still somehow sense the light, avoiding it to prevent being harmed. Insects will be attracted to nutrients while moving away from threats. This is the fundamental characteristic of emotion: trying to move away (aversion) or toward (desire) in response to a stimulus. Buddha noted we perceive sensorial experience in three ways: “pleasant, neutral, and unpleasant,” leading to volition (energy to move). If you feel something is pleasant, you want to get closer. If it is neutral, stay, and if unpleasant, move away.

Why do we have these responses? Sadhguru eloquently states, “This body is built to do two things. Survive and procreate.”

If it is suitable for our survival or procreation, it is pleasant, and we want it. If it threatens our survival or procreation, we push it away. This is our Emotions.

The challenge happens when this energy is blocked. Imagine there’s a threat to your life, but you can’t get away from it. You will become angry and try to get rid of it. If your effort fails, then you will feel sad. If you fail repeatedly, you will feel depressed. As you can see here, anger and depression have the same root. 

Remember the first time you fell in love? You had some strong feelings. Then you tried to conceptualize the feeling, asking yourself, “Is it love?” This is how things happen. Your emotions are from your physical experience. You perceive them, feel the urge (volition), and conceptualize them into your beliefs and identity.

People with complex trauma or persistent mood issues have a hard time describing their negative physical experiences adequately in words. Dr. van der Kolk describes the challenge as below:

“I am continually impressed by how difficult it is for people who have gone through the unspeakable to convey the essence of their experience. It is so much easier for them to talk about what has been done to them—to tell a story of victimization and revenge—than to notice, feel, and put into words the reality of their internal experience. Our scans had revealed how their dread persisted and could be triggered by multiple aspects of daily experience. They had not integrated their experience into the ongoing stream of their life. They continued to be “there” and did not know how to be “here”—fully alive in the present.”

Repressed emotions and beliefs formed from negative emotions become violence to yourself 

Look outside! Is there any life form that grows outward to inward, from big to small? Every life on earth, including us humans, needs to expand. We have the innate energy to expand and grow. When this life energy is held back and repressed, it grows inward. It is like an ingrown hair or nail. This repressed energy creates friction against your life, generating inflammation and lasting pain. It is like you are waging war against yourself rather than engaging in the life process. 

As I described in the previous blog, your energy is mainly focused on suppressing this pain, like building a dam in the river of emotions. Rain continues as life happens. The water level rises to the limit. Deeper pools of water grow stagnant, and they can become toxic and start to stink. You are constantly worrying if this dam may break. With any round of heavy rain, the dam breaks, and the field of your life is flooded with toxic water. Once the flood is over, you build the dam back in place. Now, the fields in your life are suffering from either drought or flood. In terms of psychology, you would be depressed, irritable, shut down, hypervigilant, experiencing outbursts of anger, and so on.

Then what would be the outcome? Many studies have shown that psychological stress often results in fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue, and other autoimmune diseases. How about your brain? This quote from Dr. Van der Kolk’s book illustrates the outcome:

“The contrast with the scans of the eighteen chronic PTSD patients with severe early-life trauma was startling. There was almost no activation of any of the self-sensing areas of the brain: The MPFC, the anterior cingulate, the parietal cortex, and the insula did not light up at all; the only area that showed a slight activation was the posterior cingulate, which is responsible for basic orientation in space. There could be only one explanation for such results: In response to the trauma itself, and in coping with the dread that persisted long afterward, these patients had learned to shut down the brain areas that transmit the visceral feelings and emotions that accompany and define terror. Yet in everyday life, those same brain areas are responsible for registering the entire range of emotions and sensations that form the foundation of our self-awareness, our sense of who we are. What we witnessed here was a tragic adaptation: In an effort to shut off terrifying sensations, they also deadened their capacity to feel fully alive.”

Process the old emotions with mindful physical practice.

The first part of recovery starts with a sense of safety. Hence, Mindfulness, conscious awareness of the life and the present, is the first step. With this awareness, “pay attention” to the present experience of your life. The threats are gone. You are safe and feel comfortable. Pay attention to the body and consciously relax it. The past is not here. The future has innumerable possibilities. At this moment, nothing can be changed; therefore, accept whatever there is in this moment. Again, the threat is not here. Old beliefs are not here unless I bring them back to this moment. This moment to the next moment is as good as new. 

With this Mindfulness, we need to address old tendencies, both psychological and physical. Karma, which means Action, is accumulated tendencies created by memories. Sadhguru says, “Every moment of your life, you perform action – physically, mentally, emotionally, and energy-wise. Each action creates a certain memory. That is karma… Karma functions through certain tendencies. But with some awareness and focus, you can push it in a different direction… Karma is like old recordings that keep replaying. Yoga means to make life not just a replay but a profound possibility and experience.”

Yoga, meaning Union, particularly Union of You and the Divine, is a profound spiritual process rather than just twisting your arms and legs. It has many different practices beyond physical forms (asanas). 

Buddhists leverage Yoga practice as well. A fraction of them was developed into emotion regulation skills in dialectical behavior therapy (DBT). These DBT skills are helpful but not comprehensive to help people with trauma and persistent emotional challenges.

For people with complex trauma and persistent mood issues, Bhakti Yoga (devotion practice) is often utilized. As one form of Bhakti Yoga, Buddhist traditions heavily leveraged mindful prostration. For example, anyone trying to become a monk was frequently asked to prostrate a thousand times a day with repentance and gratitude. With this intense practice, you will find the emotion being released, and the physical experience strengthens the Mindfulness during the day. Raja Yoga (asanas and breathing) practice will create different physical alignment and experiences, allowing the suppressed emotions to flow out.

To augment the intellectual side of changes, Hypnotherapy can help if you are too entangled with certain narratives and stories that perpetuate the past experience.

Reclaim your life in full color! 

It is time to stop the war against yourself. The way you’ve been tackling your issues needs to be changed. No amount of insights or intellectual exercise will address your emotions. Emotions are created energy in response to our physical experience. This energy is like a river that can enrich and grow your life or destroy everything. Now, You are the creator of this field of life. What would you like to do?

Even the Amazon river reversed its direction from West to East with the Andes rising. With conscious actions with the right help, you can reclaim your life and build it in the way you want.