What is emotional blockage & why does it occur?

Emotional Blockage is typically formed by stressors and traumas that you didn’t have the time, want or emotional capacity to deal with when the event originally occurred.

Emotional blockage forms when your “resistance to what is” becomes a regular way of coping with uncomfortable life circumstances. That means that, overtime, if you continue to deny, avoid or dismiss the reality of your life circumstances, you’ll continue to accumulate blockage within your body and spirit. This is so because nothing can be resolved when it doesn’t get the attention that it needs, which leads to a pile up of unresolved issues that lie within.

Emotional blockage represents where stuck energy, unawareness and stagnation lives. It’s where old hurts, emotions and unrepressed parts are being stored in your body. The more emotionally blocked you are, the more you tend to look outside yourself for your answers.

As you’ve probably heard before, looking outside yourself to fill up something or heal something that only you can heal is always going to lead you off course.

Reasons why you can’t “process your emotions” in the present moment

If you don’t have the emotional skills or when the situation is too intense and creates too much overwhelm, an inability to cope with your emotions in a healthy way will result. This effects your ability to process difficult emotions and handle situations with focus and clarity, which leaves emotions unresolved and trapped. This is how “emotional blockage” is formed overtime.

Signs that emotional blockage has become an issue in your life

When your unresolved emotions begin to impact your ability to function properly and enable your skills to make healthy choices, these are signs that your unresolved past is affecting your present.

The habit of prolonging and avoiding working through your emotions will eventually lead you to experience pain, discomfort or a sense of disconnect. Often, this numb feeling of “nothingness” is confusing as you won’t be able to pin point “why” you feel this way. As this feeling state becomes your normal, your quality of life lowers. Over time your sense of concentration, ability to cope both cognitively and socially will be compromised.

The consequences of remaining emotionally blocked for longer than necessary creates both emotional, behavioral and physical symptoms, as the mind/body connection is affected.

Here are some emotional & physical symptoms you may experience if you’re emotionally blocked:

Behavioral & Emotional Symptoms (MIND)

• Increased amount of negative emotions that feel intense or extreme for no apparent reason; deep resentment, guilt, shame.

• Substance use disorders

• Decreased level of self esteem; the way you think about yourself

• impaired health of your relationships with others/lack of fulfillment

• Lack of motivation to take action for change

• Isolation; avoidance of people or situations where you don’t want to feel or face certain emotions.

• Lack of clarity in your life; feeling lost ; unable to make clarifying decisions to move our life forward.

• Feeling your negative emotions more intensely, which ends up creating more negative reactions to the people, events and circumstances in your life

Physical Symptoms (BODY)

• Psychosomatic illness: physical pains, gastrointestinal issues and digestive disorders. 

• In some cases, more extreme physical symptoms such as; stomach ulcers, skin problems, asthma, colitis and a general impairment of the immune system.

• Increase in anxiety, stress and worry. (There are physical systems to these emotions such as shortness of breath, digestive issues, bloating, restless sleep, etc)

Options for Healing Your Emotionally Blocked Parts 

Cognitive behavioral therapy can be useful in overcoming cognitive distortions (distorted ways of thinking that are keeping you stuck.)

Talk therapy can be helpful in order to highlight the root cause of unresolved issues as well as teaching ways to increase emotional expression. Talk therapy also provides ways to cope with past and future stressors in a healthy way and generally can increase emotional intelligence and self awareness.

Somatic therapy works with the stored trauma in the body via energy work to release unresolved issues and heal past pains. Healing occurs via bodywork such as breath work, qigong practices, energy visualizations and much more.

Overall Healing (4 step process)

1. Acknowledgement / Acknowledge the traumatic or difficult experience.

2. Acceptance / Accept the traumatic or difficult experience. 

3. Find the Lesson & Point of Growth / Discover how the experience has worked “for you” or helped you grow character or perspective that you would not have grown without the hardship. 

4. Create A New Story / Create a new, empowering story that provides healing and an ability to move forward by releasing the old experience. 

Healing comes full circle when what you once considered as a “negative experience” is seen as a growth opportunity or experience. It’s when you can find the “silver lining” in the difficult circumstances that occur in your life. Ultimately, the healing mindset is learning how to view your life events and hardships as opportunities to grow and expand, rather than seeing them as situations “happening to you” that create your suffering and misery.

*I know and want to acknowledge how hard this can be. (Meaning, being hopeful, positive & healthy minded with a situation that breeds pain. It’s so hard.) This is why it’s important to remember that healing is a process. It can take time to arrive at a point of acceptance and healing. Please be patient and kind with yourself. You might need guided professional help in order to get to a point of relief and new perspective.

*If that’s the case for you, here’s a post on how to find the “right” mental health professional for you.

Ultimately, it’s important to work toward accepting that you can’t control things that are happening outside of you.

What you can put effort toward is keeping your body and mind “clean” and free of unnecessary, old emotional turmoil. A clean and clear mind, body & soul will optimize the experience of your life. Doing your part in keeping yourself healthy in the departments of body/mind/soul will support you in allowing for flow. It will help you trust how life events are unfolding for you. This is helpful when it comes to relieving your suffering and evoking your healing.

I hope this was helpful. Feel free to leave any comments or contact me for any future topic suggestions. As always, Cheers!

*Above image was taken by photographer & friend, Amy Lynn Bjornson.