|
It's my understanding that emotion sits in the region between the mind and the body, so to speak. For this reason:
1. the mind can influence our emotions - this is predominantly the notion that 'how we consciously choose to define our outlook determines the emotions that we feel'.
2. the body can influence our emotions - this is the notion that our physical health, whether it be endocrinological (hormones), kinesiological (posture and movement), neurological (sympathetic, proprioceptive, enteroceptive, nociceptive, etc.), or what be it, it can influence our emotional well-being.
These three areas (mind - emotion - body) are not individually separate, and in my experience, emotion is one of the modes by which mind and body interconnect.
For this reason, addressing your trapped emotion, is always best addressed from both sides of this conceptual spectrum. However, we can attempt to delineate the root of the emotion being felt. Usually emotions that can be put into words and attributed to a thing, can be said to have a root in the mind, or at least indicate to us that addressing the condition psychologically will be an effective means. In the case where the emotion(s) cannot be articulated or attributed to a 'thing', I usually zoom in my focus a little more on the body and the physical contributors. But never should this mean we entirely ignore the mind part
At the root, our emotions were born out of necessary response. Sometimes for survival, sometimes for courtship, sometimes for relationships and communication, sometimes for general physiological regulation, and other times for pleasure. I feel safe in saying that in all cases, the entirety of what comprises our emotional response is there to serve a purpose. The problem however, arises when we purposely put excessive stress on ourselves and put ourselves out of balance, or to put it better, when we allow a particular emotional response to predominate. In our day and age a lot of our emotional response is outdated and no longer serves the function it was originally there to serve. What used to assist us is now often just a silly unnecessary occurrence. But not without its consequences when it is excessively present.
A good doctor should be capable of discerning and diagnosing the root and manifestation of this emotional response, so to be able to provide you with several of the most effective treatments. But its difficult to find a general MD with this sort of insight, as it isn't particularly included in their education - or if it is, only to a small degree. For this reason we have to see several doctors and in most cases we must be our own doctor and do our own homework and searching.
In your case here, It seems to me, correct me if I'm wrong, you are referring to an emotion that is stored in the physical body and manifesting as pain. This emotion is the result of a somewhat conscious memory of an event that is difficult to understand and analyze. Is this correct? When emotion shows as pain or tension or tingling in the body, it is very interesting. It most of the time shows some connection to our interoceptive nerves, particularly those which end in our superficial connective tissue. I don't know entirely why it does so (e.g. I don't know why anger causes us and many animals to respond with a tense jaw) but it does, and it's my belief that we don't need to know why, or even how, in order to be able to effectively treat this sort of condition.
For these sort of cases where emotion is stored in the body in this way, I find more gentle and superficial treatments like heat, cold, hydro-therapy, gentle massage, 'energy' work, visceral osteopathy, particular yogas, and other things along these lines, to be helpful. But its just as important to tackle it from a psychological perspective, and you can't go wrong with trying acupuncture as it can focus in on these channels that issue the emotional responses.
But if its more pain, than other general sensations like tingling, heat, numbness, heaviness, etcetera, then it is likely that its not merely due to the interoceptive response, and so different techniques must be implemented. Still things like acupuncture, massage, and intentional movement are effective, but the treatment principle is different and the techniques must change accordingly. More deep tissue like active releasing, rolfing stretching, different methods of qigong and yoga, other functional movement therapies such as the right Pilates, Alexander, Feldenkrais and other techniques that recruit entire body lines, anatomy trains, tendinomuscular meridians or fascial networks (whatever you want to call it).
And I'll finish this reply off by making clear that it never hurts, and its always best to address the general constitution. We optimize this with lifestyle changes, and specific biohacks, precisely sleep regulation, exercise, methods of eating, temperature exposure, art, social interactions, etcetera, and to top it using herbal/dietary supplements and regulators.
|