Surprisingly, I am not a big sharer, especially when it comes to sharing my emotions, specifically the negative ones. It simply doesn't come easy to me, and for most of my life I simply accepted that. Instead of talking things out, I stuffed them down. Any and all negative emotions... fear, sadness, anxiety, and anger were suppressed with "I'm fines" and "It's okays" or silence as I ignored what I was feeling. I typically squashed them down extra firm with my favorite buffer, alcohol.
But here's the thing, all of those things we stuff down? All of those suppressed feelings and moments? Eventually, those things build up until there is no room left to hide anything else. The alcohol, or food, or exercise, or shopping we turned to no longer create a buffer, and all of those negative emotions, stressors, and traumas sit within our bodies waiting to be acknowledged. Waiting to break free. They build up and become more and more volatile until they are bleeding out and hurting not only us, but the people around us.
Ideally we would work through things and not suppress them, but let's be real... we suppress things every day, and it takes a serious toll.
Listen, breathwork is like a workout, and you have to put in the effort for it to work, but it's nowhere near as hard or draining as trying to hold it all in. Breathwork takes you out of your thinking brain. It allows you to connect to yourself - mentally, emotionally, spiritually - in a way that is so personal and pure. It's an outlet for you to face and release all of the things you've been suppressing, and you don't have to do a thing except breathe and allow your body to feel and express whatever is coming up. You don't have to explain yourself. You don't have to utter a single word! Yes, it is work, but it's internal and beautiful and so so so freeing.
It's time we all realize that it's okay to let go. It's okay to express ourselves. And if you're someone, like me, who is basically incapable of verbally doing so, I challenge you to give somatic breathwork a go because a healthy mind, heart, and spirit will positively impact every other aspect of your life.
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