Suppressed emotions are destroying our minds, bodies, and relationships. Expressing emotions is a vital aspect of our mental, physical and social health; are yours stuck?
Learn how to let go of the emotions holding you back, and make room for balanced moods and deeper emotional fulfillment.
Emotional repression drains energy - release the pressure and feel stress fade away with Dr. Sebi's Full Spectrum Hemp products - let Hemp-CBD ease you into a better state of mind and body.
“Keep going every day. Remember that progress is progress, no matter how small.” – Dr. Sebi.
Emotions Can Kill
Suppressing ‘negative’ emotions increases the risk of disease. Unexpressed emotions destroy us from the inside out. Feelings like anger, sadness, guilt, and fear are stressful for the mind and body, and it’s much worse when they aren't acknowledged or expressed.
When the stress response is continually activated it wears the body out. Chronic stress significantly reduces your lifespan (number of years you live), healthspan (number of healthy years you live), and quality of life (how much you enjoy life.)
Calling some emotions ‘negative’ is misleading: we’re meant to experience a spectrum of emotions as they guide us ‘away from’ or ‘towards’ specific experiences and individuals. It's not possible to appreciate enjoyable emotions without experiencing less enjoyable ones. Emotionally expressive individuals (feeling the highs and the lows) have a much lower risk of disease.
The Impact of Suppression
If you put a ‘cork’ in a kettle when it’s boiling, you’d expect the steam to build up enough pressure to explode. Storing emotions takes energy, and eventually something has to give.
Destructive Habits to Distract
We hide from unwanted emotions. This includes addictions, like excessive shopping, internet use, TV watching, alcohol, and drug consumption, or any compulsive behavior that doesn’t serve us.
Numbness to All Emotions
Suppressing unpleasant emotions stops us from fully feeling the ones we enjoy, so we feel ‘numb’ - either we experience all emotions or none, you can’t selectively choose.
Less Energy, More Stress
It takes a tremendous amount of energy to ignore difficult emotions – like holding balloons underwater! The focus needed to ‘not think about it’ creates an energetic drain that adds more stress to the system.
Migraines & Headaches
Emotional stress limits oxygen and blood flow in the brain. Oxygen deprivation changes our mental state; we stop using the ‘thinking’ neo-cortex and rely on the ‘reactive’ and fearful “reptilian” brain. This neurological stress causes physical symptoms like migraines and headaches.
Sleep Deprivation
Unresolved emotions keep us awake at night trying to process them. Sleep deprivation reduces your ability to ‘digest’ (consolidate) mental and emotional data. Memories get ‘tagged’ as more emotional than they really are, just because you haven’t slept well.
Weight Gain/Weight Loss
Unprocessed fear, anxiety, and nervousness are often felt in the stomach as a sickly feeling, and left long enough can interfere with our digestive system, resulting in unwanted weight gain or weight loss.
Dealing with Emotions
We evolved to focus on negative experiences to help us stay alive. Unfortunately, our minds are still programmed to emphasize potential threats and release stress hormones when they arise.
Fortunately, you master your emotional state with some simple methods that work really quickly.
1. Move!
Emotions are energy in motion, and motion moves emotions. Emotions get trapped, and when we dance, run, jump and move we create energy that displaces them. Endorphins released from exercise also go a long way to balancing our emotional state.
2. Climbing the Emotional Scale
Use this technique when you're feeling stressed or experiencing unwanted emotions. By guiding your mind through a ‘ladder’ of emotions you change the mental focus and nourish deoxygenated parts of your brain.
Start with anger because it’s an ‘active’ emotion encouraging change (unwanted emotions are usually passive, like shame and guilt). Complete each emotional sentence below with what comes to mind - say it out loud for greater effect!
- "I feel angry that…"
- "I feel sad that…"
- "I feel fearful that…"
- "I feel guilty that…"
- "I feel grateful that…"
- "I feel happy that…"
- "I feel secure that…"
Expressing negative feelings releases their hold over you, while seeking positive emotions reinforces a healthier emotional state. Ensure you find things to feel grateful, happy, and secure about – these ideas and emotions need a bit of effort, like stretching muscles that haven’t been used in a while.
BTW: You may need to climb the emotional ladder a few times to return to a balanced emotional state.
3. Feel Emotions as they Come Up
One of the most effective methods to rapidly process emotions is to feel them (in their entirety) when they first arise. But, it takes practice to tune into your emotional state and allow the experience. The next time an emotion is triggered, focus on how it feels.
- Can you identify which emotion it is?
- Where do you feel the emotion in your body?
- What does the emotion feel like? Does it have a color or texture?
- When else do you feel this emotion? When did you first feel it?
- Observe the emotional wave, it will pass; do not judge it, or yourself.
- Breathe calmly and ‘watch’ your experience with loving eyes.
- After the experience has subsided, you may like to write about it.
4. Deal with the Source
Emotions are there to tell us something. What can you do to resolve the issue that preceded your emotional reaction? Maybe you need to:
- Change something about your life.
- Confront someone about a problem.
- Acknowledge an issue you’ve been ignoring.
- Establish a clear boundary with yourself or others.
5. Focus on Self-Care
Self-care helps you manage stress, anxiety, and unwelcome emotions by communicating to yourself that you’re worth the effort. Treat yourself to a massage, buy yourself some new clothes, or take a relaxing hot bath.
Nourishing Emotions
Focus on the emotions you want to experience. Reset your emotional state by seeking the positive, life-affirming, connecting, expansive and joyous experiences you desire and deserve – give yourself permission to seek pleasure, comfort, fun, intimacy, and adventure! Nourish yourself emotionally.
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Hemp-derived CBD can reset your stress and help you develop relaxing rituals to release tension so you don’t need to suppress emotions. Evolve your mental state with CBD and choose relaxation over repression. Let hemp help you flow with emotions so you never get stuck.
Emotions are a challenging domain to master, and we’re rarely taught how to deal with them! With consistent effort, you can enhance your emotional appreciation, enjoying all their unique qualities, without getting too attached to them. Where are you on the emotional spectrum? Where will you be next?
