Emotions are given a bad rap in Issaquah WA.

When someone is deemed “emotional,” it usually means they’re overdramatic or hypersensitive, or volatile. Men who express too much emotion are considered weak or not masculine.

essential to survival in Issaquah WA

The truth is, that emotions are essential to survival and they are a profound part of the healing process. Emotions are essential for a healthy nervous system. When babies are upset, what do they do? They cry, they make noise, they move around, and they get hot. They feel their feelings and express their needs. Babies allow emotion to move through them, make the necessary change in their system, and are then happy again.

When we’re children, we’re told to sit still, be quiet, and stop crying. Our emotions are trained out of us. By the time we’re adults, instead of expressing our emotions, we automatically shove them down. We smile and say we’re fine. When we shove down our emotions and don’t experience them, they don’t go away. We end up storing them deeper and deeper into our nervous systems. The more emotion we shove down, the greater the stress in our nervous system becomes.

Eventually, all of this unused energy from repressed emotion needs to come out; it needs to somehow manifest. Some of the ways it manifests could be as depression, anxiety, bursts of misguided anger, or addiction. It could also manifest as illnesses like cancer, auto-immune disease, chronic migraines, back pain, neck pain, joint pain…or any combination of the above.

The reason why we have a full range of emotions is because we’re supposed to experience this full range of emotions. That’s the beauty of the human experience.

The point is that a healthy expression of emotion isn’t a sign of weakness, it is a sign of strength. Healthy emotional expression is an indication that you are connected to yourself and in tune with your body-mind. Experiencing your full emotional range is an integral part of the healing journey.

My challenge to you is to truly feel your emotions when they come up, even when they’re painful or uncomfortable. Honor yourself by fully experiencing and exploring what it means to feel that emotion. You might find that you actually enjoy the experience. And you’ll definitely feel better afterward.