How to feel your feelings physically, and why it matters in TMS recovery

Not feeling your feelings or your body's response to emotions isn't a lack of connection; it's the presence of protection. Disconnection is wisdom, not weakness!

Feeling your feelings physically is a simple concept, but it might not come easily. A big part of my own emotional exploration journey involved journaling about repressed emotions, through JournalSpeak taught me how to access my stories and ultimately led me to feel them. It allowed me to bring up experiences that I knew triggered me and allowed those feelings to properly surface.

BUT. And this is a big BUT. I was so "up in my head" that I didn't feel those experiences. Much like many of you are, I'm an analyser, a deep thinker who requires reason and explanation of complex topics. But thinking too much keeps you locked in your stories, memories, and beliefs that live in your head. It took me a while to get this, but FEELINGS ARE MEANT TO BE FELT, not THOUGHT. Literally in the physical body. I was recalling them, but I wasn't tuned into physically feeling at all. 

Why feelings are important for chronic condition recovery

Once we can feel our feelings instead of just thinking about them, they help us to release the pressure of the trapped stress-energy in our bodies - the nervous system's fight-or-flight mode that keeps our chronic symptoms firing.

Noticing how our bodies react to triggering situations can really help us realise just how bodily our feelings are expressed. The next time you feel angry or sad or particularly joyful, tune into how your body actually feels. Describe how it feels from a sensory point of view. This is the mind-body language! Drop out of your head and into your body, and start taking notice of what's going on there.

This is what I taught myself to do to notice the feelings surfacing

1. Sit in a quiet spot and write out an experience you want to address on a piece of paper/computer, or just bring it to mind. Let the details of the experience build until you feel that it's as clear as it can be in your mind.

2. Stop writing and close your eyes. Let the experience live in your imagination and turn your attention to your body. Tune in to your physical self. Have a little scan around your body somatically and notice what's happening, whilst keeping the experience present in your mind. It might be subtle sensations or changes, but see what comes up and allow yourself to just be a witness.

3. Sit with it for a couple of minutes and see if anything moves or shifts.

Some of the things I feel physically when journaling: heaviness, tiredness, pressure in the head or eyes, heat, clammy hands, shaky chest, tingling, breathing pattern changes, belly tightness, restricted throat, runny nose or eyes, heartrate changes, numb legs, numbness in general, nausea, dizziness, a physical urge to leave, tummy ache or pelvic tightness.

Try journaling with your eyes closed

Once you get the hang of this, you might want to try journaling or any type of self-inquiry practice with your eyes closed from the get-go. I sit typing with my eyes closed often. It allows me to stop reading/correcting what I'm writing and just tune into the feelings in my body.

Practice practice

It takes some practice, so don't worry if nothing comes up for you as you start this; nothingness can be a feeling too. We've learnt to disassociate with our feelings to avoid them to protect ourselves, so it's normal not to notice or block out anything at first.

Give it a go now for a couple of minutes. Just sit with a memory, see what comes up. Maybe it's nothing, maybe it's something really small that you can work on. You'll then start to really notice your physical feelings a lot more frequently in your everyday.

What feeling physically does

Once you can feel your feelings, they flow through you so much quicker and don't hang around anywhere near as long. They have the opportunity to start to no longer trigger you as much. Whatever comes up for you, know it's not dangerous or something to be feared. It's like a download of data from the nervous system, it's meant to be allowed out of your body, so let it flow.

My Membership

I created the Emotional Embodiment series of guided classes specifically to help with this kind of work. If you struggle with this, let me help you figure it out and shift some emotional energy. You can purchase this series outright as a course with lifetime access, or enjoy it along with 200+ other valuable resources as part of my Mind-Body Mastery Membership.