What are blocked emotions and how do they effect you?
An emotional blockage is a defense mechanism of our ego that prevents us from feeling emotions normally.
These emotional blocks can be caused by an initial trauma around emotions. We learn that having unpleasant emotions is bad, or having emotions at all is not ok. Suppressing emotions can be numbing out all emotions to feel nothing, or suppressing specific emotions like sadness because "it is not ok to cry". Unpleasant emotions have been demonized by us but feeling our emotions is actually very important. Emotions are a compass that are giving you important information about yourself. Emotions show you what you do want and what you don't want. If you neglect your emotions you can get into some pretty hot water. Your compass that is pointing you to your North Star is now out of alignment and taking you in the opposite direct of where you want to go, or worse you have no direction at all and your life has become you just spinning in circles.
The demands of daily life often don’t leave much room for feeling our feelings — as a result, we end up suppressing things in order to be able to wake up, go to work, take care of our families, do the dishes, and just get through the day. Suppressing emotions in order to get through life has become our coping mechanism for so long that we have trained ourselves out of how to work with emotions all together. We neglect our emotions in order to get by and in turn we neglect ourselves. We no longer know how to work with emotions instead of against them. We instead reject their existence, which in the longer term causes us an immense more amount of pain just so we can get through our short term circumstance. Every time you push down an emotion in order to not feel it, you are just adding to a pile of suppressed emotions, that can then come out in stronger ways later. We may wish that by not feeling it then it doesn't exist, but if you've every reached a tipping point where you've exploded either in anger or sadness and your confused about why your emotions were so extreme, those moments show you how much your adding to your pile until it over flows.
Thinking your way out of an emotion is not the answer, even though that is what we've all been taught, it is however a huge cause of the problem. Instead of trying to think away how we feel, we need to go into the emotions and discover what they are trying to tell us about ourselves. Emotions carry our personal truths, and until you understand their message and make a change, they will always be there trying to alert you. How you're thinking about life or yourself can actually be false, but emotions never lie. So thinking your way out of an emotion is you lying to yourself, this can spiral you into a cycle because the more you lie about how you feel, the more your feeling come up to try and alert you to the truth.
Practices to unblock emotions:
The Moon
I'm adding in the moon here because the moon has always been a indicator for revealing emotions. The term lunatic came from people becoming emotionally unstable during the full moon. Full moons seem to shine a light on our suppressed emotions by pulling them out of us. So let's use this to our advantage, use the time of the full moons to work on your emotions, it might make it easier to tap into them.
Journaling
If you're bottling up all you're emotions, writing down how you feel and getting it all out can be very relieving. For one it gets you into the energy of actually feeling emotions and letting them exist. Once you start ranting them all out you might find out why they are there also.
With this journalling process sink deep into the emotions that come up and start automatic writing everything that comes to your mind, any sensations you feel, get out how frustrated you are and why, or how sad or mad something made you. Just get it all out! It doesn't matter if what your writing even makes sense, just sink deep into it and start uncovering it.
After you get it all out, you can then burn the pages you wrote and release them. (This step is optional)
If you are so disconnected from emotions that you feel nothing at all, first you need to feel emotions in order to start working with them. Doing a day journaling to start checking in with the sensations you feel in your body, every hour or in the morning and at night, can start helping you consciously become aware of them again.
Shadow Work
Doing Shadow Work with your emotions is the best way to start integrating them. Shadow work with emotions helps you tap into the sensations you can feel in your body and can help you find resolves for your trauma so that it no longer causes problems in your life. Trauma isn't necessary for expansion, while expansion is necessary for the evolution of humans. While negative experiences are necessary because it shows you experiences where you decide what you do want and what you dont want. Negative experiences and trauma are not the same things however even though these start to seem like they are the same. Trauma is an unresolved negative experience. Hopefully by breaking it down this way you can better understand how to navigate this, and why finding resolves for your trauma is the most beneficial thing you can do for yourself. Working with your emotions isn't about becoming emotional all the time or "controlling" them so you don't have any emotions at all, It's about learning how to self soothe and find solutions, doesn't that sound like a better plan? Learning this way of working with emotions can radically change your life.
Chakra
Sacral Chakra - The Sacral Chakra governs the emotional body, this is where all our emotions are stored. Working with this chakra can really help you tap into your emotions, if they are blocked or suppressed. This chakra and opening it, can jump start your trauma healing and bring you emotional stability.
Crystals
Crystals can help with aura cleansing, chakra balancing, and uncanny ability to bring your vibrations to a healing level. The frequency of the crystals can help you with whatever emotions your trying to feel, relieve or unblock.
These stones have been picked for their savvy stress management, their ability to strengthen intuition, and for their gentle energy that brings strength, resilience, and personal power to those who place their trust in holistic healing. These are the best crystals for sorting through emotional trauma so you can find inner peace and self-esteem.
Moldavite
Moldavite works very strongly with the heart and can pull your emotions out for you. Moldavite is the stone of change and transformation, so it pulls emotions up in order for you to transform them. This stone is also a catalyst for helping you get into alignment with your highest good, let it help you.
Kunzite
Kunzite is a pinkish stone that can help you connect to the source of love. It’s a very good crystal for resolving repressed emotions related to heartbreak, which can result in emotional blockages that keep you from establishing healthy relationships in the future.
It’s very good at helping you feel loved and supported as you go through the healing process.
Kyanite
Kyanite is a blue stone commonly sold in the form of thin “blades.” It’s a very powerful crystal, and one of the few that some users claim never needs to be cleansed. This crystal can help remove blockages that manifest physically. It’s said to act on the nervous system, so it can be useful when repressed emotions start to appear as aches, pains, and tension — especially if these blockages affect the head or throat area.
Rutilated Quartz
Rutilated quartz is quartz that contains needle- or hairlike inclusions of various colors of rutile. Rutilated quartz is recommended for blockages of all kinds, including emotional ones. Some smoky quartz also has inclusions of rutile, which combines the grounding, negativity-transforming properties of smoky quartz with the blockage-breaking properties of rutile.
Amethyst
Amethyst is one of the most serene stones you can find. Soft violet hues and big crown chakra energy help you to find your wisdom, trust your third eye, and to learn to let go of negative emotions that can weigh us down.
Carnelian
Full of life-giving energy, Carnelian is all about stirring up your chi. This stone is awesome for survivors looking to bring healing to old scars and reclaim their power.
Rose Quartz
Rose quartz is a wonderful stone for general emotional healing, including of repressed emotions. It’s associated with love and the heart chakra, and is excellent for increasing feelings of self-love and self-compassion. Uncovering and healing emotional blockages is often a difficult process, and rose quartz can help provide some loving support during this time. It’s a way to be gentler with yourself while you navigate a very trying time.
Obsidian
Obsidian isn’t just a metaphysical healing stone, it’s historically been everything from a weapon, to a focus for divination, to a surgical tool. It’s especially helpful for people who suffer from repressed emotions and blockages.
It can help remove negative attachments to the people and patterns that are the roots of these issues, and combats fear. Mahogany obsidian and Apache tears are said to be particularly useful for healing repressed emotions.
As a word of caution, this crystal works very quickly and powerfully on blockages — it may leave you feeling a bit overwhelmed by what you uncover. Pair it with gentler crystals to help you accept and heal during this process.
Malachite
Malachite is a green stone that’s rich in copper. Copper is associated with Venus, and the color green ties this stone to the heart chakra. This stone is said to help refresh and revitalize this energy center, as well as remove energetic blockages. It allows you to experience repressed feelings and memories that need to be observed and let go.
Lapis Lazuli
Lapis lazuli is a deep blue stone flecked with pyrite. It’s commonly associated with communication, eloquence, creativity, and nobility. It also helps bring repressed emotions to the surface, so you can release buried pain, sorrow, or anger.
Because of its associations with communication and the throat chakra, it’s also good at helping you communicate your feelings in an honest, effective way.
Bloodstone
The warrior stone takes it’ name from its ability to fill your heart with endurance and power. Instead of falling apart in the face of emotional upheaval, it will keep you centered, solid, and grounded.
Other crystals that help with blocked emotions:
Howlite
Moonstone
Lepidolite
Aquamarine
Morganite
Clear Quartz
Chrysoprase
Smokey Quartz
Labradorite
Rhodochrosite
Citrine