Where Your Body Stores Emotions

Where are emotions stored in the body? Maybe it's the middle of a workday. The messages don't stop, the list keeps growing, and your shoulders are up near your ears. The short answer, for me, is this. People carry too much, and they don't release enough. So they hold it in their body. One study mapped where we feel our emotions. I'll share that, what I see in my sessions, and a small practice at the end. I'm Fernanda. I've been an energy healer for over twenty years. In my sessions, I ask people to notice where in their body they feel the tension. One thing first. This is a complementary practice. It sits alongside your doctor, never instead of them.

Let's start with something I read. In 2014, a team at Aalto University in Finland, led by Lauri Nummenmaa, asked about seven hundred people to do something very simple. They gave each person a blank outline of a body. And they asked them to colour in where they felt each emotion. The people came from Finland, from Sweden, and from Taiwan. Anger, fear, sadness, love. Each one had its own map. And the maps looked alike, from one country to the next. So an emotion is something we feel in the body. That study shows where we feel an emotion. What I see in my sessions is what happens when we hold on to it for too long.

In my sessions, I often say people carry too much, and they don't release enough. Modern life is just so busy, so overwhelming. We don't have the time to settle down, to calm down, to get back to ourselves. So we accumulate all of it. All that exhaustion, all that stress. All those feelings, all the experiences we didn't manage. And we hold it in our body. For me, energy is the vibration and the frequency of each organ. If that word doesn't sit well with you, call it discomfort, or heaviness. Somewhere in between my definition and yours. When I work on someone, I can actually feel the density of the air changing, where that energy, that heaviness, is stagnated.

So where does it show up? And remember, there's a small practice at the end, so you can check your own body as we go. Let me name four places. The first is the shoulders. Shoulder pain, like heaviness. The tense muscles. The second is the chest. Some people have their chest very tight. And that one I know from the inside. When I notice I'm getting agitated, my chest starts tightening up, and my anxiety kicks in. Before, I just exploded and went to the extreme. Now I notice in my body when the change starts happening. I slow down my breathing, and everything starts changing. Even my brain stops complaining. The third is the head. Some people have headaches. And the fourth is the lower back. Other people feel it in their lower back.

So which one is yours? Instead of me telling you where, I ask you to notice. Each person perceives stress in a different way in their body. It normally happens in the organ, or the part of the body, that is more sensitive. So it really depends on each person. Everybody feels in a different way. It's all about awareness. Bringing more awareness of how you feel, and where you feel everything. Because when you're aware of where you feel the tension and the pain, you can focus, accept it, and release it.

So how do you let it go? In my sessions, it goes like this. First, you notice where you feel the heaviness. You hold that feeling for a little bit. Then feel it. Feel it with all your cells. That pain, or that discomfort. You accept it. At one point, we do have to accept what is happening, and let go. And then, after accepting it, with the breathing, you let it go. The breath out longer than it came in, like the tide going out. Hand it over. Down your arms, out of your palms, into the ground. And ask Mother Earth to look after it. The earth has held mountains for millions and millions of years. Your Tuesday is not too heavy for it.

Let's try a small version now, wherever you are. You need a chair, your breath, and a few minutes that are only yours. Let the chair hold you, the same way it holds you when you finally sit down at the end of a long day. Eyes closed, if it's comfortable. Start at the top of your head, and slowly pour your attention downwards, like warm water. Forehead, jaw. Let them soften as you pass. Shoulders. Just notice. Are they heavy or light? Holding, or resting? Then move down to your chest, your belly, your lower back. No need to fix. Only observing. All the way down, into the ground. Where do you feel the heaviness? Hold that feeling for a little bit. Feel it with all your cells. Accept it. Now take a deep breath in. Four, three, two, one. Hold. Five, four, three, two, one. And breathe out, longer than it came in, like the tide going out. Six, five, four, three, two, one. On the next breath out, hand it over. The earth can hold it. Take another deep breath in. Take another deep breath out. Name one thing you're grateful for. Just one. Even something small.

If these few minutes helped, imagine ten days. I've put my ten-day journey together. It's called The Nature Reset. I would love to guide you there. The link is below. And there's a link to book a gentle session too. In person, or from anywhere. People carry too much, and they don't release enough. Feel that little bit of space now. That's you, coming back. I'm Fernanda. Come as you are.