Your Junk Drawer of Emotions, what’s inside yours?

Ok, I am going to get a little personal here, so you’ve been warned, but I promise this will be good, so keep reading…

Recently, I have noticed a little more tension in my hip area; not so much the joints, but in the muscles…tension in my muscles in spite of the stretching I do pretty regularly. This tension is noticeable and I am more aware of it when I am lying down in bed preparing to sleep…so I decided to Google what it means in the realm of spiritual healing.

Here’s what I learned, and my hope is that it helps you in some small way…

There is a clearing that needs to happen in my hips.

In yoga teachings, the hips are the ‘junk drawer of emotions.” The connection between the hip and one’s emotional state is quite profound and fascinating.

From the perspective of Hindu/Tantric/yoga – the pelvis area is where the second chakra is located, and is closely associated with emotions and the unconscious.

From the physical perspective – the brain is connected to the hipbone via the nervous system.

Hip muscles are programmed to be easily activated for ‘fight, flight, or freeze” response – you will either kick the assailant, run away, curl up in the fetal position and cry.

When the body suffers trauma, our instinctual reflex is to clench these deep muscles –

Back when I was married and living in Greece, I experienced a miscarriage about two months after we arrived. Not really understanding what happened and how it happened, I quickly put the experienced behind me – literally, I shoved it down and never spoke of it to anyone for a very long time. As I keep reading about hips, here’s what else I learned…

The problem is that we don't let go – and stay clenched and tight.

Was I still holding on to the trapped emotions of the miscarriage? As I continue to travel along my journey of inner healing, is this awareness of my hip discomfort telling me something?

“Trauma is a pervasive fact of modern life.” Says, Dr. Peter Levine. Trauma results from experiencing a natural disaster like a fire, being in an accident, falling down, suffering the loss of a loved one, undergoing surgery, and even the happiness of pregnancy and birth.

These traumas stay with us as a ‘frozen residue of energy that has not been resolved and discharged’ – this residue remains trapped in the nervous system where it can wreak havoc on our bodies and spirits, and causing long term and sometimes alarming symptoms like anxiety, back pain or insomnia.

Imagine this – your hips are a bowl catching and holding the residue of trauma or prolonged periods of stress. While loosening the hips helps to release deep trapped emotions, it is the first step to completely cleaning the big items out of your emotional junk drawer – now lets work on cleaning out the left over bits and pieces by cleaning up the emotional garbage.

Here are a few questions to help you determine if your second chakra needs some clearing:

·      How much are you prepared to embrace change?

·      How creative are you sexually?

·      What sacrifices do you make to suit others?

·      Do you respect your female and male sides?

·      Is it better to give than receive?

·      Do you believe that for your desires to be met you first have to make a sacrifice?

Take time with these questions and really look at how they are played out in your life, you may be amazed at what you’ll discover and how you can heal. If you find yourself stumped by this, then give me a call, send me an email, or find me online and let me know you could use some help.