Feelings are much like waves, we can’t stop them from coming but we can choose which ones to surf. – Jonatan Mårtensson
It’s easy to forget that our bodies are containers – and we tend to fill them with a lot of emotional tension and stress. On occasion I feel tired and sore, even when I haven’t done anything particularly strenuous. I wrack my brain trying to figure out what physical act caused my mysterious aches, but it’s not physical strain that causes my pain. If emotional tension is not let out, then it will be stored in the body and will continue to build up over time. Eventually, when the container (the body) is full, these stored up emotions will find a way to be let out.
Have you ever seen a surfer keep a wave in a jar?
Many years of keeping emotions in a jar will take a toll on the body. And even when emotions are expressed, they are remembered and stored – particularly when the expression happens in an unhealthy way.
I’m beginning to understand that even when I think I’m handling them, emotionally tapping situations are affecting me physically. If I don’t really acknowledge this AS it is happening, then those emotions get all tied up in my neck and shoulders, digestive system, or wherever they go. Sometimes a small injury has a big impact because it triggers a much-needed, yet painful, release.
When you celebrate a milestone birthday, get laid off from your job, deal with unpleasant legal papers, or feel estranged from a love one, emotions are a natural response. Emotions are just energy in motion. We’re thwarting healthy movement of energy when we try to suppress them, hide them, and keep them in a jar, or when we release them negatively.
A pitcher of still water turns stale when it sits too long.
Laugher and tears serve as great energy releasers and balancers. It’s healthy and natural to laugh and to cry. Like night and day, crying and laughing are not opposites but rather different sides of the same coin – two ends of the same stick – and both sometimes result in tears. Tears refresh and clean the body. They help you get your energy in motion again.
Laughter and tears are meant to turn the wheels of the same machinery of sensibility; one is wind-power, and the other water-power; and that is all.
-Oliver Wendell Holmes
