Letting Go of Emotional Baggage

At the root of all self-limiting emotions - anger, fear, anxiety, chronic depression, phobias and addictions, is our "emotional baggage," or un-felt feelings. These un-felt feelings may be buried in the unconscious, yet they never die. They manifest as the physical disease and emotional blocks that rob us from the experience of being radically alive.

Excerpt from Michael's Article titled, JUST FEEL IT!

Today I know that unfelt feelings do not go away. They become buried in the unconscious and are the largest cause of physical, emotional, mental and spiritual disease. I've built my SOULutions practice around helping people find safe and effective ways to release repressed feelings from the past and learn how to be fully present to their current feeling state. Our emotions come from the part of us that I call vulnerability, the innocent child like part of us that is very close to our Essence. Think about it with me, you are vulnerable (emotionally unprotected) in the moment when you are consumed with an honest laugh or cry. You are in a state of vulnerability in a moment of shock, scare, surprise, wonder, awe or extreme pleasure. If we over protect ourselves from experiencing the flow of so called "negative emotions" (I prefer the term "contracted States of consciousness") such as anger, fear, sadness and grief, we unwittingly block ourselves from fully experiencing Life's "expanded states " which I've named the 5P's; peace, passion, purpose, power and presence. I suggest to clients that they be the kind of strong, compassionate and present "Parents" to their vulnerable feelings today as they would have most wanted from their own parents when they were children. You don't need to wallow in your ?E-motions?(energy in motion) or have them overwhelm you in any way. You simply need to be present to them as they actually are in your body and sensations, with out story, judgment strategizing or avoiding. I will give you a simple formula for this at the end of the article. For now, please read on. The next paragraph talks about the characteristics of the Cancer Personality.
From a physical perspective, blocking emotions stop the flow of life energy from naturally moving through the body and releasing (or technically speaking, integrating) therefore becoming stuck in the bodies' tissue. This creates physical stress and muscular tension before metastasizing to the organs. We have an affectionate name for the extreme cases. You can spot them just by watching them walk across the room. We call them "Anal Retentive."
A medical label also exists for a person who demonstrates the emotional characteristics of cutting themselves off from experiencing and expressing their emotions. When this occurs it results in the repressed energy moving deeper into the organs and becoming physical disease. The medical name given to this is "The C personality" aka, "Cancer Personality." This name was originated from a study conducted back in 1998.
"The characteristics associated with the Type C personality all represent emotional repression, a pushing down of necessary emotions. In contrast, self-assertion is important to having our needs met. Avoiding conflict and wanting to be liked lead to the denial of these needs.

How do emotional traits translate into cancerous skin lesions or other malignancies? The answer is that biology and psychology are not independent; each represents the functioning of a super system with components that can no longer be thought of as separate or autonomous mechanisms. The past quarter century of scientific inquiry has supplanted the traditional Western medical view of a split between body and mind with a truer, more unitary perspective. Our mind and body are one and our physiology, including our immune system, is directly affected by our emotions.

Thus the repression of emotions threatens not only our psychological health but also our physical well-being. It does so by suppressing our immune response. In turn, immune suppression leaves us susceptible to bacterial or viral invaders, or to malignant changes from within."
Gabor Mate, MD, is a Vancouver physician and author of the best-selling When the Body Says No: The Cost of Hidden Stress (Vintage Canada, 2004).