Move Your Emotions Through

Categories: Blog Jun 26, 2022

You ever get stressed out? Angry? Irritated? Sometimes our emotions can get the best of us. That is to say sometimes our emotions can hijack our ability to think clearly and act kindly, they can keep us from being the version of ourselves that we really want to be. 

Emotions can be wonderful energetic events as they allow us to experience the textures of life, especially when we can both acknowledge them and let them run their course and pass through us. Acknowledging them gives us the awareness that they are there so that we don’t get lost in them or used by them. Letting them run their course allows them to pass through us without them getting stuck in us. When they get stuck in us or bottled up, they can create a lot of damage and destruction later on, both physically in our bodies and socially in our relationships. 

You probably know this but intentional movement can be a way to handle strong emotions and allow them to flow through us. It can even be a way to help release emotions that may be stuck in us. Of course, it takes awareness to use intentional movement to allow the emotions to flow through you. Your body already knows how to do that, to move to let emotions run through you, but most of us have gotten so good at conforming to the expectations of society we learn how to stifle or stuff or bury our emotions instead. But if you see any animal get into a mad frenzy, you will also see them shake it off and release all the angry energy out of their body after the event is over. 

Anyway, we can move ourselves to a more peaceful, logical, creative state when our emotions come on strong, allowing ourselves to feel what they want us to feel, but letting them leave us in our safe, kindhearted default state. Here are just a few intentional movements we can do when the emotions hit the fan…

Humming - You’re probably wondering how humming is a movement. That’s a great wonder. Humming is a movement because it is created through breathing, specifically exhaling. Exhaling is where we let tension (and the emotions that caused it) out of our bodies. Humming while we exhale helps further move our bodies through soothing vibrations; very similar to how a mother might hum or sing a lullaby to an upset child. The act of humming can help the emotion we are experiencing pass through our bodies by releasing tension in our muscles and by returning our nervous system to the parasympathetic state, our rest, digest, be calm and carry on state. 

Rolling - Have you ever thought about rolling your cares away? Rolling stimulates everything. Not only is the body moving in wonderful ways when we roll, but almost all the body's sensory nerves are being stimulated while we roll. These sensory nerves, or proprioceptors, flood the brain with rich, nourishing information that helps the brain feel safe, again allowing the body to return to a state of peace and creativity, a state where we can logically and creatively find solutions to whatever it is that has upset us. Now, if you combine humming and rolling together, that’s a great “one-two punch” against getting hijacked by emotions. 

A Brisk Walk - this may be my favorite way to allow high-energy emotions like anger to pass through and out of my body. Nothing can use up the energy of anger like a very brisk walk. You can literally “walk it off” when you’re upset. Best of all, walking stimulates both halves of the brain, giving you the availability to tap into your creative, logical self to see your problem from a bird’s eye view. Solutions often seem to come out of nowhere when you walk out your emotions. If nothing else, allowing the angsty energy to pass through you with a vigorous walk feels quite amazing. You can add humming to a brisk walk, too. It’s powerful. Aaaannnnd it also helps build some serious cardiovascular conditioning! 

These are just a few movements you can try to prevent your emotions from getting the best of you. Again, your body already knows how to do this but most of us just get too good at stuffing things inside that we literally store up fear and anger into our muscles which leads to all kinds of problems, for everyone. Emotions can be rich experiences that allow us to enjoy life better, or they can be tyrants that end up pushing us around from the inside out. We can learn how to experience our emotions and let them pass through movement. This allows us to be the better versions of ourselves, and this is where everyone benefits. 

If you can, the next time you feel your emotions, don’t stifle them. Move with them. Feel the difference it makes. 

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