Are you looking for it services & solution provider?

Ashima Sharda Mahindra • 23 Aug 2024

How To Release Emotional Baggage And The Tension That It Brings

Emotional baggage is an unprocessed trauma that can be stigmatizing as it generally tends to have negative connotations

Many times, in life, you may not be able to let go of certain situations and issues and have emotional baggage which refers to unfinished emotional issues, stressors, pain, and difficulties. According to experts, these feelings can continue to take up space in your mind for a long time and affect present relationships.
Psychologists refer to emotional baggage as an unprocessed trauma that can be stigmatizing as it generally tends to have negative connotations. And so, your trapped emotions can affect:
  • The way you think about yourself
  • The way you react to stress and other mental health issues
  • Your physical well-being
  • Your relationships with others
  • Emotional baggage can affect you physically
Experts say the trauma of storing or trapping emotions can also have a physical effect in the long run. The symptoms of traumatic stress manifest on a subconscious level causing either anxiety, depression in some people or a fight-flight-freeze response in many others.
Negative emotional energy is also expressed as:
  • Resentment against a person or feelings
  • Not being able to make decisions
  • self-sabotaging
  • Always overreacting
  • Always fatigued and feeling tired
Many therapists also compare trapped emotions to carrying around a large backpack –which weighs you down, impacts mood, and drains energy.

How to release your emotional baggage?

While it is not difficult to set your inner feelings free, it isn't that easy as well. While you may cry, scream, laugh, punch a pillow, or dance it out, you can also bury your pain and soldier on. However, with time, this leads to repressed emotions, also known as unconscious avoidance.
According to studies, there is a connection between emotional repression and decreased immune system function. And so, to feel light and healthy, a few ways to release your repressed feelings include:

Acknowledging your feelings

As a first step, it is important to understand your emotions to enable them to let go. Experts say those with repressed emotions may have trouble identifying their feelings, which is why it can be valuable to talk with a mental health professional.

Working through trauma

Past trauma can always pull you back towards your past no matter how future-loving you may be. Often, there are things one carries around for years, which include abuse, neglect, loss of a loved one, separation, or even bullying.
To work through your trauma, experts recommend it is important to first feel the grief and then let it go.

Try shadow work

According to experts, shadow work helps you explore different parts of yourself that you may hide from the rest of the world due to shame, fear, or unacceptance.

Making intentional movements

Intentional movements are somatic experiences that, according to experts, are simple ways to address any unprocessed tension or emotion that may be lingering in your body.
To free these feelings, you can take up activities like dancing, yoga, or martial arts.

Practicing stillness

Stillness is one of the best ways to understand your thoughts and feelings clearly in the present state. It helps tap into your brain’s default mode, triggering a self-generated cognition - which includes things like daydreaming.
Get Latest News Live on Times Now along with Breaking News and Top Headlines from Mental Health, Health and around the world.