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Can Processing Emotions Improve Physical Health?

I completely believe processing emotions can improve physical health. In our culture, we tend to view physical ailments as problems to be solved with medication. It's becoming more popular to look at diet, but even then we're not always getting to the root cause. I recently read an article about how diet can affect migraines, but only when somebody is under stress. Meaning that certain foods are more likely to cause a migraine when someone is stressed, but if you remove the stress, they can eat anything and not get a migraine. I've always suspected that I'm particularly sensitive to emotions affecting me physically. Everyone seems to have a certain physical weakness, a way that your body tells you it's not happy. It could be digestive, psoriasis, migraines/headaches, acne, too much/too little appetite, being susceptible to the flu, etc. For me, it's my stomach. If I'm too lost in my thoughts or ignoring my emotions and instincts, my stomach will find a way to tell me. I can even give you a personal example that drives this point home.

By | February 14th, 2012|Categories: Dealing With Emotions|Tags: , , |7 Comments

How to Unclench When You’re Feeling Stressed

How do you know if you're "clenched"? Well if you're clenched, your body feels tense. There's a tightness in your stomach and shoulders. You are busy, busy, busy--focusing on getting things done or maybe even avoiding your feelings. These two tend to go together. We avoid feeling our emotions by staying busy. The problem with this is that not only are you avoiding your feelings, but clenching also creates internal conflict. The reason is that one part of you feels the right thing to do is stay busy and focus on "getting things done", while another part of you is really upset with this strategy. Another part of you just wants a break, just wants to relax, and just wants to feel whatever it is you are trying to avoid! This is more than just a bad coping strategy. Extreme forms of clenching actually involve your brain "locking up" in negative cycles. It's very possible that this is even happening to the average person in less extreme situations in an attempt to avoid feeling uncomfortable emotions

By | February 25th, 2011|Categories: Random Inspiration|Tags: , |Comments Off on How to Unclench When You’re Feeling Stressed