I’ve been on a bit of a journey over the last year. I had unexpectedly taken on the role of full time carer for my Mum, which brought with it an intense and confusing mixture of emotions.

In one moment I was overcome with waves of compassion, then all of a sudden, red hot anger would take a-hold. 

These emotions were effecting my work, my relationship, my health and my social life, so I decided to lock them up as best I could. I didn’t know what else to do with them, not really.

I tried some journalling and some crying, but in the throws of facing the daily dread, it was so much easier and more peaceful to lock it all away. Thing is, these energies we call emotions don’t just vanish. If you choose to not deal with stuff now, it will wait there until it can be acknowledged.

Some emotions will stew away, and if they’re strong & continually ignored, they can manifest as mental and physical illnesses.

And that’s what they did to me.

These strong emotions that I didn’t acknowledge at the time, were starting to manifest as vertigo & anxiety. After getting some advice from one of my awesome mentors, I created a list of 10 questions that would unlock my emotions. I answered these everyday, and sure enough, started to feel more free and healthy.

Everyone deals with emotions in different ways, but 2 things are for sure: we ALL have them, and we all need to release them. Here are 5 ideas to help you access your emotions. If one resonates with you, give yourself 5 minutes to give it a go.

Journalling / Writing

The old favourite of the mind-filing team. Through journalling, you can ask yourself questions and dig deep with no judgement. How do I feel? What emotions am I feeling? And how does that make me feel?

Dig deep and keep digging, until you start to ping on a nerve. This is a sign you’ve accessed an emotion. At that point, try writing about it until the feel subsides, which is a sign of having released the emotion. Use your intuition here.

Body Scan

After getting very comfortable and relaxed, gently run your attention through your body. Pause on any areas that feel stuck, heavy, tight, knotted or full. Spend time breathing into this area, giving it space to be.

Breathe in love and breathe out tightness. Allow any feelings to come up and be expressed – this may or may not happen. After a while the area you have paused on will feel lighter, and you’ll feel that you can move on.

Music & Movies

Scan Spotify and see which tracks resonate with your soul right now. Without logic or reason, the music will acknowledge your emotions and give them space to be, so they can be released.

In the same way, a movie can unlock your pent up emotions, by hitting on a particular vibrational chord. This is why we find some movies so emotional, and others not so much. Watch a movie you feel drawn to and notice how you feel afterwards.

Talking

There are heaps of counsellors, psychotherapists and therapists out there for this very purpose. This isn’t a new thing I’ve discovered, there are careers based on this shizam! Which is amazing and great, so utilise these services.

I understand that it could be embarrassing needing to see a therapist for some people, so just book one session, don’t tell anyone and see how it goes. If you feel lighter & better afterwards, then it was worth it.

Exercise

My fiance’s first port of call, if he’s ever feeling stressed, is to go for a run. This blasts out any pent up emotion from the day and is a really great and healthy way to release anger and frustration.

You could try different types of exercise classes. I find dancing really therapeutic and freeing.

How do you access your emotions?