07/24/2025
Have you tried all the things to "release" your stored stress and trauma, but still feel stuck?
Rather than thinking about how we can release our emotions, let’s instead consider how we can ~relate~ to them.
When we learn to sit with our emotions, bit-by-bit in small, manageable ways, we build capacity to be with them. This is very different from viewing our emotions as a problem, something to be fixed or to try to rid ourselves of.
This is helpful for many reasons, in part because this is not a one-and-done process. The sadness, anger, grief, shame, and pain you feel are purposeful and part of the human experience. When we relate instead of "release," we affirm to our body that it's not wrong for feeling how it feels.
While an emotion itself is not something we can “release,” what we can learn to do is release, or discharge, is the energetic charge that accompanies these emotions—the adrenaline, cortisol, and other physiological responses. Discharge happens through natural expressions like tears, heat, sweating, shaking, vocalizing, and laughter. This type of release happens organically when we create the capacity and safety in our body to allow this experience.
It’s through turning towards our discomfort, rather than away, that the emotions naturally unfold and transmute into something different, something life-giving. This is how you are given back your vitality and life-force energy that is otherwise being used to suppress emotions, keeping you stuck in a survival response.
I can't wait to dive deeper into this material at the Somatic Healing Retreat, this fall in the White Mountains! Click below to learn more & register!
https://feltsense.co/somatic-healing-retreat
