Repressed emotions lead to physical aches & pains

Repressed emotions lead to physical aches & pains

We all know that Pilates is a movement method rebalancing and acting on the Mind, the Body & the Spirit.

Thinking that we can address each on if those bodies independently and separately would be rather foolish as the body acts as one complete and holistic being, integrating our Mind and our Emotions at all times in everything we do and whenever we move. We are just as much what we think, as what we feel and what we do every day, every hour, every second of our life.

Joseph Pilates dealt mainly with people suffering from mechanical and physical distress which caused pains. But in today's times, I cannot stop noticing how much more people suffer from emotional and mental distress causing pains and chronic aches. Joseph was aware of this fast growing world and that men would eventually suffer from the imbalances in the body caused by stress.

Elder Master Teacher Mary Bowen was one of my teachers who has helped me understand and experience how much my own emotions and my subconscious affect my body and my postural behaviour. Our emotional body isway more powerful on us that we possibly are aware of or we want to recognise. Giving it acknowledgement is the first step to better health, I believe. Being aware on which body parts act as a sponge to our emotions and how mobilising these body parts can lead to good emotional health was a life saviour to me in some moments of my life.

I hope that with this sample of information about the science of our emotions affecting our health, based on kinesiology, you will be more aware of the subtleties of the relationship emotions have with our body and our mind.

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Think & Feel for Health

Our emotions affect us physically whether we are aware of it or not.

It might be easy to understand that a scary thought gets our heart beating faster, but it can be harder to realise that loneliness, sadness or depression can also affect us physically, and when it comes to more complex emotions or illnesses few of us consider our emotions to have any relevance.

Emotions that are freely experienced and expressed without judgment or attachment tend to flow fluidly. On the other hand, repressed emotions (especially fearful or negative ones) can zap mental energy and lead to health problems...

It's important to recognise our thoughts and emotions and be aware of the impact they have - not only on each other, but also on our bodies, behaviour, and relationships.

Generally speaking, we tend to think of our bodies and minds as separate systems and believe they function, for the most part, independently. Yet instinctively we know that is not the whole story. Understanding the body-mind relationship won’t necessarily cure all our physical difficulties, but by learning the language of symptoms and illness we can discover what is being repressed or ignored in our psyche and emotions, and how this is influencing our well-being. From this vantage point we can discover that there is an extraordinarily intimate three-way communication going on between our body, our mind and our emotions that affects both our physical state and our mental and emotional health.

By brining your attention to our emotions, I am not trying to convince anyone that the sole reason for illness is in our emotions. Nor am I saying that by understanding how the mind, body and emotions work together that we’ll be able to miraculously cure ourselves.

What I believe although is that the role of the mind and emotions in our state of health is a vital one. By understanding this relationship they have to one an other we can claim a greater role in our own well-being. It is only a part of the overall picture, but it is the part that is invariably overlooked.

The Pilates method helps us move from the inside to the outside. Being able to integrate how we feel when we move with the method is creating that inner flow from the inside to the outside. Being more sensitive to our inner balance will strengthen our immune system, strengthen us from within and evacuate any repressed tensions for better general health and for the “Greater Enjoyment of Life”, like Joe would claim!

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ILLNESS CAUSED BY REPRESSED EMOTIONS

In this very brief and short description of different emotions leading to illnesses you will be able to awaken you awareness to the power of repressing your emotions. So try to detect your inner emotional state as soon as possible evacuating the tension physically through movement or mentally through positive thinking.

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PANIC

can cause diarrhea

Repressed ANGER or RESENTMENT‍

kidney failure

DIFFICULTY FINDING YOUR PLACE OR TAKING YOUR PLACE

can cause repeated urinary infections

SOMETHING THAT YOU DO NOT WANT TO HEAR OR WHEN YOU DON’T WANT TO LISTEN

otitis or earache

SOMETHING THAT YOU CANNOT SAY OR SOMETHING HAS BEEN REVEALED

angina or chest pain

A REFUSAL TO GIVE IN, TO COMPROMISE, TO OBEY OR TO SUBMIT

knee problems

FEAR OF THE FUTURE, FEAR OF CHANGE OR FEAR OF LOSING MONEY

lumbar pain

INFLEXIBILITY OR RIGIDITY

back pain and stiff neck

CONFLICT WITH AUTHORITY

shoulder pain

DOING EVERYTHING YOURSELF

also shoulder pains and a burdening sensation

GRINDING THE TEETH TO CONFRONT SOMEONE OR A SITUATION WITHOUT SAYING ANYTHING

dental pain, ulcers and abscess

FEAR OF THE FUTURE

difficulty moving forward, or needing to lift the feet. Pain in the legs, feet or ankles

KNEES

Knee pain, knees that break, knees that crack, pains in the meniscus: refusal to bend and to “fall to the knees" (to submit) to yield, pride, ego, inflexible character or being contrary, you submit by not saying anything, or abstaining but our knees tell us whether or not we agree with this situation.

- Difficulty accepting comments or criticism from others.
- Problems with authority and rank, ego problems, pride.
- Having to concede in order to save the peace.
- Suppressed or frustrated ambition due to an exterior cause, stubbornness, humiliation.
- Guilty for being right.
- Anger at being too influenceable.

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ARMS

There are several emotional causes linked to pains and arm problems. The arms are an extension of the heart and are linked to the action of giving and receiving, as well as authority and power. Pains in the arms can be linked to difficulty loving what I am doing. Feeling useless, doubting your abilities, which leads the person to retreat into themselves and to take pity on their own suffering.

- They believe that they have to take care of someone.
- Not feeling superior when they have the ”upper hand" on someone.
- Difficulty taking others in their arms and showing them affection.
- I do not allow myself to do things for myself because I judge myself and I remember my strict up bringing, which has damaged me.
- I do not allow myself to take things or I regret having taken something, or I think that I have taken something that I don’t deserve.
- Or something has been given to me out of duty, that I haven’t taken, I feel angry.
- This is linked to having been judged by one’s parents.
- Wanting to trap someone in your arms to have them under your control, but having to let them go again, and then not being able to love them and protect them (a child, for example...).
- Reliving a failed situation, wanting to lower the arms.

SHOULDERS

These are the parts that carry. The shoulders carry the joys, the pains, the responsibilities and the insecurities. The burden of our actions and everything we wish to do, but we are not permitted to, or what we are afraid to do... We become responsible for the happiness of others, we take everything on ourselves, we have too much to do, we feel overwhelmed, not carried, not supported.

- Possible pains also when you are prevented from acting or when things are imposed on you.
- When you are in a situation you no longer want to be in, you want to do something else, but the lack of self-confidence stops us.
- You lack support, you lack the means. You do not feel assisted.
- A loved one or one of our parents is sad and we would like to take their sadness and their problems and take it away.
- Repressed anger towards a child or another person who which is simmering gently while we do not even give ourselves the right to take a break.
- At work or at home, with our spouse, we feel obliged to submit, we feel dominated and we don’t dare react.
- We feel emotional insecurity (pain in the left shoulder) or material insecurity (pain in the right shoulder).

Stiff and blocked shoulders:
a blockage in the circulation of the heart’s energy, which runs from the shoulder, then to the arm, the arm gives (the right arm) and receives (the left arm). The blockage of energy is often retained in an artery or tissue.

The energy must circulate from the heart towards the arm to enable us to realize our desires.
We wear masks, we lock our feelings, we keep grudges (pains in the trapezius, especially in the left) sometimes towards ourselves. We paralyze our shoulders to prevent ourselves from moving forward and from doing what we really want. We take the burden on ourselves, rather than expressing our demands and our thoughts, for fear of offending the other person. Difficulty or inability to life the arm: deep conflict in the family, difficulty flying with your own wings.
Try to modify, clarify or to let go in terms of the situation that is bothering you.

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HERNIAS

As a general rule:

distress implodes on the inside and demands to be released.
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- Desire to escape or to leave a situation where one feels trapped, but where one remains out of fear of missing something, generally material.
- Self-punishment because you do not have the ability to understand certain things you want.
- Frustration of working hard, feeling pushed to go too far, or or trying to reach your goal in an excessive waywhich demands too much. Mental pressure (stress) tries too escape.

However, in addition the place or the seat of the hernia indicates its emotional message in a more precise and detailed way:

Inguinal hernia:

(in the groin): difficulty expressing one’s creativity, a secret that one is keeping and that is making us suffer. A desire to escape with a person who is unpleasant but with whom we have a connection or with whom we are obliged to be in contact with. We would love to leave and to escape from this situation.

Umbilical hernia:

feelings of nostalgia for the mother’s womb where everything was easy and where we felt totally secure. Refusal to life.

Herniated disc:‍

interior conflict, too much responsibility, feeling devalued, not feeling on top of what is expected of us, projects and ideas not being recognized. The spinal column represents support. A need to be carried, supported, but difficulty or inability to ask for help.

Hiatus hernia:

feeling trapped in being able to express one’s feelings and experiences. Repressing one’s emotions. Wanting to control everything, not allowing yourself to be lead by life but rather controlling it.

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SKIN PROBLEMS‍

Skin problems very often have their origins at a badly managed or, badly experienced conflict of separation by either the mother or the child due to the fear of remaining alone and a lack of communication. The separation is also towards oneself: under appreciation of oneself as opposed to others around us. Paying too much attention to what others might think of us.

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Eczema:

- Anxiety, fear of the future,
- Difficulty in expressing oneself.
- Impatience and annoyance at not being able to resolve a conflict.
- Separation, grief or no contact with a loved one.

In children, eczema can result from too rapid a separation or from a difficulty by the mother in accepting that herchild is no longer "in her”.Weaning from the breast or the mother going back to work again and unexpressed guilt,that the child nonetheless senses and somatisizes as a result. Quarrels or tension in the family that the child senses.Insecurity.

Acne:

an indirect way of pushing others away out of fear of being discovered, of showing what one really is, because wethink that we cannot be loved the way we are. Because we are rejected, we create a barrier so that others cannot approach us.

- Refusal to have one’s own image, personality or new appearance.
- Ashamed at the transformation’s taking place in their body.
- Difficulty being alone, refusal to identify with the parent of the same sex.

Psoriasis:

the person is often hyper sensitive and does not fit well in their skin and would like to be someone else. Not feeling recognized, having an identity crisis. Psoriasis is like an arm or with which to defend yourself.

- Need to feel perfect in order to be loved.
- Often a double conflict of separation, either with two different people, or an old non-resolved conflict, which has been reactivated by a new separation situation.
- Feeling belittled or rejected, edgy.
- Protecting oneself from being approached physically, or protecting one’s vulnerability, putting up a barrier.

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Sources: books by Lise Bourbeau, Jacques Martel, Claudia Rainville, Philippe Dransart, Philippe Huraux, http://www.huffingtonpost.com.

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