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How to Release ‘Emotional Baggage’ Was

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Illustration by Maya Chastain

You’ve probably heard the term “emotional baggage.”

It’s sometimes used to describe the phenomenon of carrying past trauma or so-called negative
experiences through life, relationships, or a career.

You may see this reflected in someone’s posture, as if they’re carrying around an unbearable
weight. It may even prevent them from moving forward in life.

Everyone carries unprocessed emotions from experiences to some degree. However,

emotions that aren’t dealt with don’t just go away.

They can affect:

the way you think about yourself

how you react to stress
your physical well-being
your relationships with others

After all, emotional baggage gets its name from somewhere, right?

Let’s unpack the layers of how and where emotions get stuck, so you can release what’s
weighing you down.

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What does it mean to have ‘trapped’

emotions?
Perhaps you’ve heard of people crying during yoga, massage, or acupuncture treatment
because of a tender spot that, when activated, appears to lead to an emotional release.

Though some may refer to trauma being “stored” or “trapped” in the body, that isn’t necessarily
a scientific way to put it.

However, the symptoms of traumatic stress can manifest physically.

This may be because the brain associates this area with a particular memory — often on a
subconscious level.

Activating certain areas of the body may trigger these memories, according to Mark Olson,
PhD, LMT, the owner and director of the Pacific Center for Awareness & Bodywork.
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“Emotions are constantly being generated — subconsciously or consciously — in response to

the reactivation of memories or unsatisfied goals,” Olson says. “The touch to X area is simply a
reliable stimulus to reconstruct the pattern associated with that traumatic event.”

Touch may bring up emotions or a memory may create sensations in a particular area
of the body. While this is usually associated with a bodily location, Olson believes that
everything is happening in the brain.

Alternatively, some believe that trauma and difficult emotions can, in fact, become literally stuck
energy in the body, though this isn’t supported by scientific evidence.

According to Bradley Nelson, DC, trapped emotional vibrations cause surrounding tissues to
vibrate at the same frequency, known as resonance.

In his book “The Emotion Code,” Nelson writes, “Each trapped emotion resides in a specific
location in the body, vibrating at its own particular frequency.”

This may cause you to attract more of that emotion, he says, creating a build-up or blockage.

Still, Nelson’s stance remains theoretical until further research can be done.

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How do emotions get trapped?

That said, research as early as 1992 ! along with more current research supports the mind-
body connection, or the belief that a person’s mental and emotional health impacts the state of
their physical health.

A classic example of this is fear.

If you’re in a situation where you’re afraid, your body generates a physical response to this
emotion by activating the fight-flight-freeze response.

According to Nelson, three things happen when an emotion is experienced.

1. We develop an emotional vibration.

2. We feel the emotion and any thoughts or physical sensations associated with it. This is
where the mind and body’s interconnectedness comes into play.
3. We move on from the emotion by processing it.

According to Olson and other research ! , emotional processing occurs in the limbic structures
of the brain.

We’re constantly taking in information, which generates pre-conscious autonomic nervous

system responses. This sends a signal to the body activating the corresponding emotion.

In other words, your “feeling” comes from what your nervous system is telling you.

According to Nelson, when the second or third step mentioned above gets interrupted, the
energy of the emotion becomes trapped in the body. As a result, you might experience muscle
tension, pain, or other ailments.
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The higher the emotional intensity, the more likely it is to become trapped.

“The phrase ‘trapped emotions’ usually means that the true self wants to express something
that the false self doesn’t want us to express,” Olson says. “In psychology, we think of the true
self as the part of us that we are born with that is naturally open, curious, and trusting, while the
false self emerges as a set of adaptive strategies to deal with pain and loss.”

This repressed negative emotional energy can express as:

resentment
poor decision-making
self-sabotage
overreaction
increased stress and anxiety
depression
fatigue

Mind-body therapist Kelly Vincent, PsyD, compares trapped emotions to carrying around a
large backpack. It weighs us down, impacts our mood, and drains our energy.

Additionally, she notes that it can also destroy body tissues and prevent normal functions of
organs and glands.

“It’s just like a giant roadblock on the freeway,” Vincent says. “It is hard for energy to flow
naturally through.” ADVERTISEMENT

Trapped emotions and trauma

It’s impossible to have a conversation about trapped emotions without exploring trauma,
especially how the brain experiences it.

Nearly everyone experiences trauma at some point in their lives.

According to a 2015 survey ! of almost 69,000 adults across six continents, over 70
percent of respondents reported exposure to a traumatic event, while 30.5 percent
were exposed to four or more.

Trauma can come about through life experiences like:

a breakup
a major life change
the death of a loved one
infidelity in a relationship
loss of a job
an experience of violence, discrimination, or racism

Trauma can impact cognitive processes.

It especially affects memory processing and the ability to recall factual information, or explicit
memory. As a result, the traumatic experience or memory is not “logged” properly in the brain.

“When it comes to an extremely overwhelming experience, like a trauma, the brain encodes
the traumatic memories as pictures or body sensations,” Vincent says.

When triggered, the brain may disconnect from reality or replay the traumatic event in the form
of a flashback.

This is known as dissociation, or psychological disconnect.

These sensory fragments remain in the mind and interrupt the brain’s natural recovery process.

Vincent compares traumatic memories to a virus in our encoding system, where

unprocessed events can cause our mental and physical processes to malfunction.

When trauma isn’t processed or resolved on its own, it may linger far past the actual event.

This is often seen in people with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), a condition that
develops after a person undergoes terrifying or life-threatening events.

Research ! shows that those with current PTSD have a smaller hippocampus, a center for
emotions and memory in the brain.

Stress leads to the release of the hormone cortisol, which is a part of the fight-flight-freeze
response.

Research from 2011 ! showed that prolonged stress damages the hippocampus, which may
show up as abnormal blood flow or reduced size. As a result, your body may remain in this
hypervigilant state even if you’re not consciously thinking of the traumatic event.

Where are trapped emotions stored in the

body?
Ever feel a tightness in your chest during an anxiety-inducing situation? Or do you notice that it
feels good to stretch your hips after an emotionally draining day?

Where one person feels tension or sensitivity in their bodies might not be the same for another.

Some studies, however, provide a baseline for where emotions are generally experienced. But
there’s still more research needed on this subject for conclusive takeaways.

One such study from 2013 led by a team of biomedical engineers in Finland sought to explain
where emotions are felt in the body.

They mapped bodily reactions to emotions in about 700 individuals by asking them to color in
regions where they felt reactions increasing or decreasing due to various stimuli.

They found that different emotions were associated with different bodily sensations
that were generally the same for participants across the board.

For example, anger, fear, and anxiety showed increased activity in the chest and upper body.

This may explain the origins of expressions like “hot-headed” or “carrying the weight of the
world on your shoulders.”

These emotions can also kickstart the sympathetic nervous system to create a quick response
in the body. That’s why you may feel your heart pulsing or your muscles tightening when you
become nervous or stressed.

A chart in the study references where these feelings were found to be experienced in the
body. See a summary below:

Illustration by Maya Chastain

Additionally, the same researchers conducted a follow-up study that found the intensity of a
feeling directly correlated with the intensity of physical and mental sensations.

They categorized feelings into five groups:

negative, such as stress, anger, and shame

positive, such as happiness, love, and pride
cognition, such as attention and perception
homeostatic states, or a balanced, regulated internal state
illnesses and somatic states

Feelings are ever-changing, and this research may be helpful for those who have trouble
understanding their emotions.

Unprocessed emotions
Emotions that aren’t dealt with may become stored in your unconscious, and may even affect
your body posture.

“Your head is in a different position when you’re confident and when you’re confused,” Olson
says. “Your spine takes on a different shape when you’re defeated or victorious.”

Olson says that people may subconsciously default to specific postures that block their
awareness of painful feelings.

“Muscle tension emerges to create and maintain postures that keep oneself safe or unaware of
unpleasant feelings,” he says.

Certain postures and gestures also relate to specific feelings and social meanings. Think of a
warm embrace versus crossed arms.

This may help us understand why some believe tension in the body is associated with specific
areas. However, Olson advises against using this to create general narratives.

“This puts a very shallow limit on how far one can explore as they defer to a [list] rather than
what they can find within themselves,” he says.

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How to release emotions from the body

Ever feel like you need to cry, scream, laugh, punch a pillow, or dance it out?

We’re often taught to bury our pain and soldier on. Over time, this can lead to repressed
emotions, also known as unconscious avoidance.

Research from 2019 linked emotional repression with decreased immune system function.

Here are a few ways to release repressed emotions:

acknowledging your feelings

working through trauma
trying shadow work
making intentional movement
practicing stillness

Acknowledge your feelings

The more you understand your emotional world, the more you can digest your feelings in
healthy ways.

The first step is to connect with and understand your emotions. People with repressed
emotions may have trouble identifying their feelings, which is why it can be valuable to talk with
a mental health professional.

A 2007 study ! showed that labeling your emotions can decrease their intensity.

You can do this by using psychological tools, like the cognitive distortion categories, or by
exploring ways to categorize your emotions to help you make sense of them.

Work through past trauma

Often, there are things we carry around for years that stem back to childhood. Some examples
of past trauma include:

abuse, including mental, emotional, physical, or sexual

neglect
loss of a loved one
separation from a parent or caregiver
bullying
dysfunction at home

Unresolved childhood trauma can show up in many ways, including:

self-blaming
casting blame on others
feeling depressed
withdrawing from social activities

In order to work through trauma, Olson says it’s crucial to feel the grief about the fact that you
may never get what you wanted or deserved years ago.

Once you’ve allowed yourself that grief, you can acknowledge the adaptive strategy you
developed as a result.

For example, you may have developed a coping strategy to be independent that eventually
results in feelings of isolation. Without recognizing your strategy, you might think you’re being
alienated by others.

On the other hand, if you realize your isolation comes from your adaptive strategy, you can
identify the root of the issue and modify your strategy to better meet your true needs.

Shadow work
Similar to exploring childhood trauma, shadow work offers another lens of exploring different
parts of ourselves that we keep hidden, typically due to shame or inadequacy.

People tend to hide the parts of themselves that they believe are unacceptable.

For example, were you told to “calm down” or “stop crying” when you were upset as a kid?
This emotional invalidation may cause you to feel ashamed of your emotions or to downplay
them.

Shadow work can be done in several ways, though it’s generally recommended to
work with a therapist.

You can find a few shadow work exercises here.

Intentional movement
Somatic experiencing (SE) is a way to address any unprocessed tension or emotion that may
be lingering in your body.

SE uses a body-first approach to address symptoms, with the idea that freeing unprocessed
trauma can promote emotional healing.

One way to do this is through intentional movement, according to Vincent.

“When we intentionally move, we can create a sense of safety in our bodies that we may not
have experienced before, especially individuals who have stored trauma,” Vincent says.

Examples of intentional movement include:

dance
stretching
yoga
shaking
martial arts
qi gong
tai chi
meditative walking
belly breathing exercises

Vincent notes that intentional movement releases any stored energy while helping the brain
recognize the difference between tension and relaxation.

Practicing stillness
Being still allows us to be with our thoughts and feelings in a present state.

It taps into the brain’s default mode network ! , which is when your brain briefly enters an idle
state. This triggers what scientists call “self-generated cognition,” which includes things like
daydreaming or letting your mind wander.

By momentarily disengaging from external stimuli, research ! says people can better
connect with their inner thoughts, emotions, and desires.

“We live in a world where stillness isn’t practiced enough, nor is it valued, but can be so
nourishing to our minds and bodies,” Vincent says. “It also allows space for emotions to come
into… consciousness.”
Some ways to practice stillness are:

meditation
breathing exercises
sitting in nature
listening to calming music
repeating affirmations
progressive muscle relaxation

The bottom line

When an emotion is not fully processed, it may become “stuck” in the body.

However, it’s the limbic structures of the brain where emotional processing occurs. While some
areas of your body undoubtedly hold tension or may be associated with an emotional
experience, ultimately it’s the brain that’s reconstructing the emotion.

By using techniques to work through your emotions, like therapy, intentional movement, and
shadow work, you can learn to move on from past traumas and release the associated bodily
tension.

Watch more from the Youth in Focus video

series

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Youth In Focus - Episode 1: The

Struggle
Some young people use the term "struggle" to describe their discomfort

!
over something in their lives. Mental health is one obvious struggle that
most youth have dealt with and continue to navigate. We hit the streets
and schools to talk with mental health experts and students to learn more
about how they have dealt with COVID-19, world events, and their personal
struggles.

" 4:39 " 6:04 " 6:20

Youth In Focus - Episode 1: Youth In Focus - Episode 2: Youth In Focus - Episode 3:

The Struggle The Acceptance The Solution

Julianne Ishler is a freelance writer, creative mentor, and

certified Enneagram practitioner. Her work revolves around
helping people live more mindfully and aligned with
themselves. You can follow her on Instagram for self-
discovery resources or visit her website.

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