Taking Distance from Memories
Separating ourselves from entangled emotions from our memories can help us to live a more peaceful life. We all have memories from our lives that are still supercharged with emotions. Some of them are wonderful, loving, warming memories, while others are cringe moments, filled with anger, jealousy, and sadness.
Keeping the good feeling memories can help empower us, but holding on to “bad” memories can be detrimental to our health — physically, emotionally, mentally, and energetically.
Did you know that the body holds onto everything? All words, thoughts, feelings, and actions, from yourself and others, get stored in our cells. It’s like we’re our own living Akashic Record of our life.
Over time, there can be a lot of build-up of all this stored energy and it can lead the body to be out of balance. This is often how dis-ease is developed — the cells are so busy with incongruent information that they don’t function properly on their normal jobs.
While there are many ways to release the entangled energy of denser (what we judge “negative”) emotions, here is one that is simple and can be done anywhere at any time. There’s always the possibility of an emotional reaction, so be sure to find a safe, comfortable place the first time you give it a go.
Separating Entangled Emotions and Energy
When you think of an unpleasant memory, what happens in your physical body? We’re not talking about the thoughts that come through or naming emotions like “anger/angry”, we’re looking for physical sensations associated with the thought. Where does that “anger/angry” live in the physical body?
The key is to stay out of the mind and be fully present in the body. Notice and be aware of what’s happening. Is there tightness? Restriction or constriction? Stabbing? Burning? Even if you can’t fully describe what you’re feeling, just be fully with it, noticing the intensity of the feeling in each and every moment.
Give it a number. How intense is it on a scale of 1-10? Can you find the most intense point and focus your complete attention on it?
Does anything change while your attention is focused? Does the sensation change or move? If so, let your attention move with it.
A lot of the time, when we remember something we don’t actually remember the facts of the experience, we remember the emotions we felt at that time. From there we construct a story that fits the emotions, even if that means changing around the details of the story to be more congruent. Our brains do this to keep us safe.
This is also how patterns and beliefs are formed. Something that happened in the past could have had such an emotional effect that you created a belief about life and who you were, and this continues to be “true” for you today, even if it obstructs your progress and success.
Releasing yourself from this emotional hold doesn’t have to be hard. Often, the emotion just wants to be acknowledged so it can be set free. That’s what this healing technique does. It gives you a chance to simply be aware of the connection between what you think and how you feel.
If what you think gives you an emotional charge in your body, then that’s a sign something could benefit from healing.
After sitting with the sensation for a while, return to the original thought. Notice what’s different this time around. Did the sensation lessen or change? Do you still hold it in the same place? Does anything else come up for you?
You can use this exercise to check in with yourself, especially when you get triggered. Working to heal that connection between thought and emotion neutralizes the energy so that you no longer hold the trigger, and can move on with clarity.
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