Allwoing vs Looking for an emotion?

I suffer from " long covid" there are different mind body programs out there.

Some say behind a symptom is directly an emotion, which when released the symptom will be gone.

Others say that you just need to allow and feel the symptoms over the time the accomlative stress will go down and the mindbody symptoms will start to fade away. by allowing you allow every sensation and emotion and the body mind will losen its grip on them.

I already tried to journal and dig for my stuck emtions , listend to anger/sahme/fear meditations without anything coming up ( for 8 months).

What worked best so far and improved my symptoms is just to sit with them, to allow them and to trust in myself/ in life / being authentic getting self worth from the inside and so on.

But I never had a release or had the feeling that journaling really helped me. I write down stuff that triggers me though ( in a note)


Can somebody help me understand how it is supposed to work ??

 

This is a really good video interviewing a doctor who recently ran the Kaiser Permanente long covid program. She left to become a TMS physician in a private practice. In this interview, she describes near the end of the video, about how accessing emotions is important, and how she helps her patients to do it. Maybe it will help? I think it’s really interesting.


Also, check out today’s thread. You might find this interesting in light of your question. https://www.tmswiki.org/forum/threads/sarnos-theory-is-wrong.30319/

 

Thank you very much. I will check out your materials. But I have to say that there are very many doctors and coaches out there who talk about emotions. I want to k is if there is maybe difference how to feel them ? Maybe for men it’s more a bodily sensation then a big emotional outbursts?

maybe I am just to repressed … I don’t know what to belive.

 

Well, I can say, for me, it has been a very hard thing to learn. I still can’t feel emotions in my body very well. Maybe someone else will chime in.

 

Try asking yourself regularly throughout your day "what am I experiencing?" (rather than 'what am feeling?' or 'what emotion am I feeling?'). Each time you notice something uncomfortable in your body or anxious thoughts in your mind, say (preferably out loud but to yourself is okay): "What am I experiencing?". In reply, for example, your response might be something like: "I am feeling the beat of my heart. I am feeling a tightening in my chest. I feel like I want to run and hide. I am feeling fear. These feelings are okay. They may be uncomfortable, but I am not in danger. I am here to listen to my feelings." This approach is from the book 'The Secret Language of the Body: Regulate your nervous system, heal your body' by Jennifer Mann and Karden Rabin, which I suggest you check out https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0CLKXBKT7/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_d_asin_title_351_o04?ie=UTF8&psc=1.

 

How did you journal? It might be one of those counter-intuitive things--and frustrating--but trying to dig up stuff when journaling can prevent that stuff from coming up.
Nicole Sachs has those JournalSpeak techniques that are incredibly useful.
https://www.yourbreakawake.com/journalspeak-info (JournalSpeak | BreakAwake by Nicole Sachs)

And, one thing that has hung me up is focusing on time too much--on how much time I've struggled with a symptom, or tried a specific practice, etc. When you mentioned the 8 months of journaling, that triggered something in me. Just an observation....

 

Yes, there's a lot of reasoning behind the symptoms, sometimes contradictory. Unfortunately we don't have a fit-for-all answer yet, if there is one...
What we know is that emotions release the same chemicals in the brain that cause discomfort or pain. Dr. David Hanscom explains that pretty well.

So the treatment is on the emotions themselves, and that's where we start to see a lot of different approaches. Expressive writing (identifying the emotion), somatic tracking (eliminating fear of the symptom), meditation (separation from the feelings), physical activity (teaching safety through movement), pendulation (bringing positive feelings to the experience) etc. They're all oriented at cutting off the fuel for an over sensitized nervous system.

One thing that I see people losing their minds with is when they're all the time trying to find the hidden emotion, in the hope that finding it will bring healing right away. The brain doesn't produce symptoms out of pure decision, there are millions of neurons and synapses attached to it. A lot of times you'll feel pain just because that's how your brain is operating, seeing danger everywhere. Healing takes time and one of the hardest things in this journey is to accept uncertainty and stop trying to find the trigger every time some symptom increases.