What Are Trapped Emotions
Emotions are vibrations of pure energy and one way we experience them is through sensations we feel in our body. Because each emotion has its own unique energetic frequency, each one feels different than the other when we experience them.
Let’s take an example of a positive emotion.
My husband recently organized the first boys volleyball team at my kids’ elementary school. Let me tell you..it has been a BIG DEAL. All the boys on the team, the parents and even siblings have been having so much fun watching this journey evolve. The excitement of being on an inaugural team is palpable.
And there’s something fun about being immersed in the journey that comes with starting something new. We’ve experienced not having enough players to having too many players. Not having gym time to playing outdoors at a park. We’ve experienced not knowing if we’d be officially registered to seeing our school name on the official game schedule. We’ve watched most of the boys try volleyball for the first time to all of them falling in love with the sport.
The boys had their first game last weekend and they came away with the WIN. The energy was so high. What did that excitement feel like? It came with a buzzing feeling, an increased heart rate, a rush of adrenaline and a burst of energy. That prompted some jumping around and loud cheering. So fun!
Notice those sensations. Notice how that particular excitement felt like. Now, notice the different sensations in this next story.
I remember telling my mom I wanted to major in Business in college. I’ll never forget that conversation. She looked so worried as she asked me what I was planning to do with that degree. She brought up nursing and law school as options she thought I should consider instead. As I reflect back, I understand her desire for wanting to steer me to a different degree. I get it. To her, nursing and law school represented stability and safety. A sure thing.
That was common guidance coming from first generation filipino parents. It’s what many of them learned and what they knew to teach their kids. To them, this is what support looks like. It looks like painting a specific picture of success with a specific path to get there. It makes sense right? “Here are the careers that will yield a certain lifestyle. Pick one of these and you’ll live a good life. Let’s not gamble. Pick the path where the outcome is certain.”
The funny thing is, majoring in Business was MY version of stability and safety. I was probably better suited pursuing something creative, but that’s a story and lesson for another day. For this story, a Business degree is what I wanted to go after. So, what did this conversation feel like? It felt like twists in my tummy, a deep beating in my heart, tension in my jaw. It felt like falling from the sky. It felt like swirls in my head. Tightness in my shoulders. It felt like no air in my lungs.
How Emotions Become Trapped
Emotions are meant to be experienced and felt. Then, they are meant to eventually travel through and be released. That’s the natural cycle of an emotion.
When an emotion doesn’t run it’s natural cycle, there’s a good chance that the emotion, which is an energy, can become trapped in our body. It becomes a trapped emotion, a term coined by Dr. Bradley Nelson (D.C., ret).
When we stop ourselves from feeling an emotion, we run the risk of trapping the energy of the emotion in our body.
Imagine sitting around at a conference table at work and feeling put down by a colleague in the middle of a meeting. You start to sense the emotions of humiliation, unworthy and rejection. You sense tears starting to well up. But, because you learned not to show these types of emotions at work, you quickly “stuff these emotions down.” The problem is, if you never return to these emotions, there’s a chance that the energy behind the emotions of humiliation, unworthy and rejection can become trapped in your body.
A trapped emotion can also occur when we DO allow ourselves to feel an emotion, but it doesn’t fully release. This can be due to a number of reasons. One is when we continue to amplify the emotion through our actions. We may say things like “No! I’m NOT over it.” or “I’m STILL pissed.” We might continue to dwell on the situation and return to it time and time again through our thoughts or talking about it with others. This can add to the energy that exists from that emotion.
Other times, it doesn’t fully release because of the intensity of the emotions we feel from tumultuous situations. When we experience really charged emotions, sometimes the emotional energy sticks simply because of how intense it is.
The Effects of Trapped Emotions
Emotions are pure energy. Because our bodies are also made of energy, we are affected by the emotional energy that travels through our bodies. We are also affected, perhaps even more so, by the emotions that become stuck in our bodies.
A trapped emotion is constantly vibrating at the frequency of the negative emotion. Going back to the work meeting example, if you trap the emotions of humiliation, unworthy and rejection, those emotions would be constantly vibrating in your body at the location where those emotions become trapped. Because “like attracts like,” this could continue to attract the same types of emotions. You could continue to attract additional emotions of humiliation, unworthy and rejection.
Remember, trapped emotions are energy. As such, they distort your body’s energy field. As it lodges in your body, it has the potential to create an imbalance in your energy field. Some of the issues that trapped emotions have been found to be a possible contributing factor are:
Anxiousness, such as those in social situations as well as general anxiousness
Low self-esteem
Difficulty breathing
Emotional detachment
Heightened nervousness
Avoidance of situations that cause new instances of the emotion that was trapped
Magnetic attraction to situations that cause new instances of the emotion that was trapped
Back discomfort
Self-sabotage
Emotional imbalances
Chest discomfort
Nightmares
Always feeling on the edge
Bowel difficulties
Sadness
Unexplained changes in one’s mood
Digestive trouble
Constant fatigue
Prolonged recovery from various injuries and sickness
Hip discomfort
Head hurting frequently and intensely
Neck discomfort
Unexplained fears
Heightened emotional response to situations
While this is not an exhaustive list, it gives you an idea of how trapped emotions can have a physical and emotional effect on you.
Emotion Code
The Emotion Code system, is an energy healing modality developed by Dr. Nelson (DC, ret), that provides the opportunity to release trapped emotional energy, restoring balance back to your energy field. It is a simple, non-invasive and powerful way for you to get rid of the emotional baggage from your past.
Schedule a free clarity call with Anna Salumbides, certified Emotion Code Practitioner, to explore if the Emotion Code is right for you. Sessions are done remotely via Zoom and can be done with clients all over the globe.