Feeling emotions

Hi,


How do we “feel” emotions? I cant seem to do this i end up suppressing them.

 

Hi @Bsarkar welcome

I answered your similar question in another thread so I am going to post the same thing here, because the theory behind TMS is more than just "feeling" pressured emotions, and to get a good grasp of what is going on with your chronic pain and symptoms, the best place to start is to read a book by Dr. Sarno.
No matter what your symptoms are, (he often mentions back pain, but his books are for any chronic pain or symptom) his books are the #1 place to start - here is is biography and a bibliography: https://www.tmswiki.org/ppd/John_E._Sarno,_MD (John E. Sarno, MD)

The theory behind TMS is not just feeling "supressed" emotions, which is why I recommend one of his books. There is also much more emergent science behind TMS (his books were written many years ago) but his method is the basis of all self-healing from TMS.

Once you have read one of his books (The Divided Mind is easy to get and describes a myriad of symptoms) please come back and ask us any questions at all, and let us know what you think about it!

 

Hi,

thank you again for the reply would you be able to recommend a book i start with as he has a few?

 

"Once you have read one of his books (The Divided Mind is easy to get and describes a myriad of symptoms) please come back and ask us any questions at all, and let us know what you think about it"

I would also suggest that you stop asking about various methods of doing things on the forum, until you really understand what is going. This is not something that you just "do" a bunch of things and it's "fixed". When we are anxious it's really hard to realize that part of this process is slowing down and beginning to accept the uncomfortable feelings, both physical and mental so that you can really grasp the rather simple method Dr. Sarno suggests. The method is simple, but the challenge is having a completely new shift in mindset.

Why not practice that shift now by calming and centering yourself. Sit still and take a few slow, deep breaths with very long exhales and recognize that simply by considering a new way of being, and by reading a book by Dr. Sarno you are doing enough right now. You'll need to slow down and learn to grasp the method step by step instead of looking for immediate answers to "fix" whatever you are judging as "wrong". That's hard to do when you have a myriad of symptoms, but now is a great time to begin. Deep breaths.


One of the techniques I use is EFT tapping when I feel really anxious and my mind is whirling. Here is a nice, calming practice to try once a day and see if you feel a little more centered afterwards.

 

Thank you so much i got the book by dr. Sarno on audiobook looking forward to listening to it.

 

After I read Sarno's book, I realized that my emotions were all frozen. I did not feel any of them. It took me a long time of observing myself to figure out that emotions are a rush of hormones through my body and if I pay close attention I can catch that split-second moment when I feel the emotion before repressing it. (By the way, suppressing and repressing are different. Suppression is a conscious act of ignoring an emotion, while repression is when suppression becomes automatic). It then took me another long time to not take my attention from the unpleasant feeling of emotion when it came. You need to start being very mindful about your reactions in life situations.

 

Thank you this is helpful. Healing is a Journey to be taken and i like this forum, glad I found it. Thanks

 

TG, this is SO helpful! I have only really caught myself at the exact moment of suppression one time. All the rest of the times, I’ve looked at a situation a couple of days later and said, “Is that really how you feel about that? You’re fine?” Then I’ve journaled and realized I suppressed a big feeling. At least it wasn’t years or even decades later! I’m going to work hard at being “mindful of my life situations.”

 

It takes some time to figure out how each emotion feels physiologically. My anxiety manifests itself as a rush of unpleasant sensations in the upper back and shaky feeling in the stomach. But when I force myself to let it be and to acknowledge its existence, it eventually goes away. That's exactly what we are looking for: let the emotion be, don't dwell on it and be free of it in 20 minutes!