Emotions are energy

Emotions are energy. 

We feel that...right?

There is power in both positive and negative emotions that can be physically felt in our bodies.

It is also possible for emotions to "get stuck" in our bodies.

This idea was introduced to me in yoga. I've experienced it (and have seen others experience it) when a series of hip openers, heart openers or long holds produces a burst of tears followed by the lightness of release.  Massage therapists describe a similar phenomena where deep work in the tissues elicits emotional release.

Even if you don't take yoga or do bodywork, you may have experienced an emotional release after an intense workout.

We don't always take time to process our emotions. After all, it would be very inconvenient to let out a primordial scream every time we are angry or to cry at a business meeting. The challenge comes when we never take time to process. When denial, mistrust of our emotions or sheer lack of care for ourselves causes patterns of avoidance.

In Ayurveda there is the idea of ama, a toxic byproduct generated due to improper or incomplete digestion. When it comes to digestion, Ayuveda doesn't discriminate between food products, emotions or life experiences.  Our bodies have to digest everything they take in to keep what is useful and to discard what is not as waste. In Ayurveda, it is thought that ama is responsible for disease so digestion is really important.

What if one key to improving our health and our lives is to get better at digestion--especially when it comes to processing emotions?

Albert Einstein said: Energy cannot be created or destroyed, it can only be changed from one form to another.  If that is true, and emotion is energy, then it is likely we have work to do. 

(To go deep on this topic of emotions in the body, I recommend Candice Pert's book: Molecules Of Emotion: The Science Behind Mind-Body Medicine )