Are you Emotionally Blocked?

Maybe you keep having an emotional response to something even though it doesn’t serve you? Or you repeatedly find yourself in some kind of loop that keeps rolling on and leaves you feeling stuck and powerless when it comes to solving it.

Nowadays people are smart. Usually between Google, and the many personal development books and resources available, we can come up with answers to those things that are reasonably easy to solve. However, if you keep running up against the same problems or situations you just keep struggling to change things , or you know you're carrying latent emotional baggage and you're really struggling to shift it, then the chances are that you're holding something in a blind spot. 

Such blocks can be caused by deeply held limiting beliefs, an accumulation of negative emotions that have become ‘hardwired’ into your neurology, or significant emotional events that have lodged habitual reactions but that you are unable to pinpoint because your subconscious is protecting you from the source event that caused the blockage - usually because it is too painful to recall.

In these situations, we are often seeing and trying to tackle the symptoms of the issue rather than the issue itself. Those symptoms might look like a problem that we feel we can't solve or a loop that keeps playing out in our life, or a feeling that we carry around that we can't quite put our finger on - but we know just doesn't feel good. 

 

When this is the case, conscious practices can only go so far in creating a shift. Trying to shift it through personal development or talk therapies can relieve some of the symptoms, but ultimately bring us back around to the same place if we haven’t dealt with the root issue. Even extensive counseling, therapy and coaching can prove limited when it comes to such issues because the key to unlocking the shift we want lies in working directly with the subconscious mind. Our conscious cognitive capacity only represents a tiny fraction of our overall processing capability, creativity and mental resources. And when the conscious and subconscious mind are at war with one another, the subconscious will win every time. 

Think of your mind as being like an iceberg. You can see and understand the very top of it, but there's an awful lot that sits beneath the surface. So when you’re carrying an energetic, emotional or cognitive block that you've done so much work on and still feel stuck with, usually the answer is to connect with your subconscious - as Albert Einstein said, “You cannot solve a problem with the same mind that created it”.

The reason I love NLP [Neuro-Linguistic Programming] and Timeline Therapy(R) is because they allow us to work at the intersection between conscious and unconscious thought - and access that massive iceberg under the surface of our conscious resources. This allows us to release those blocks - often without even having to reveal the original events or reasons for their existence - which is a far gentler way of setting ourselves free than having to go back to our childhood and dig up all those painful old memories! 

To really make progress, you need to work with an experienced Master NLP practitioner or Timeline Therapist who is skilled at helping you access all of those unconscious resources, so that you can both locate and release whatever blocks you are holding. Typically this will require a course of 3-4 months work, with subconscious shifts being activated during sessions and conscious rewiring exercises being practiced between sessions. 

However, there are a couple of things you can do yourself:

This exercise is designed to get your conscious mind out of the way and allow your unconscious mind and intuition to get to work. One of the simplest ways to do this is to practice accessing a state of peaceful contemplation. Sit in a quiet space where you won’t be disturbed and use some breathing, mindfulness or grounding exercises to get calm, relaxed and open minded. 

Then gently pose yourself a question such as:  

‘Why do I still struggle with X?’ or ‘Why do I keep finding myself in X kind of situation?’, ‘What do I need to learn to move forward with X?’ (or whatever the problem is that you are struggling with).

Your goal is to just sit there, gently holding the question in your mind and allowing thoughts to flow in - a journal or notebook to jot your thoughts in can be really helpful, but is not completely necessary. 

What tends to happen is that as you hold that question in mind from that relaxed state, abstract and new thoughts begin to present themselves. They might not make complete sense initially, so your job is just to sit with them and see if you can catch the edge of something that helps - that perhaps you couldn't see when you were trying to look squarely at the problem.

This can lead to lines of inquiry that weren't visible before. It’s essentially about connecting to your intuition and deeper resources and allowing yourself to hear an answer that would otherwise be hidden behind all of our thoughts, assumptions and beliefs.

The body holds the key….

The second way to flush out a block is to use the body as an access route into where and how you are holding the block. This method begins with you making a statement or declaration, as if you'd already released the block and moved forward. You state the thing you would be doing if you had absolutely no resistance. It can require a bit more courage as it can feel challenging to make these statements out loud as declarations, but it is a great way to flush out exactly where you are holding an energetic or emotional blockage.

You can have a go at this yourself.

So let's say that you really want to do something but you feel completely unable to take the step. Make a declaration of something that the block is holding you back from or that directly runs into that stuck feeling. For example, if you wanted to leave a job you are unhappy in, but you just couldn’t bring yourself to take the leap. You might declare out loud: ‘I'm going to resign on Monday’. Say it as if you really believe it and are going to take that step (even though it scares the sh!t out of you!). 

Now, as you make this declaration, notice what happens in your body. Perhaps you feel your throat tighten up, or your stomach begins to churn - really observe and listen carefully to what your body tells you. This allows you to locate the physical area of the blockage - which might be fear, or some more specific negative energy or belief, but it gives you a clue as to where you are holding the block within the fabric of your system. You can attempt to work with this block by exploring its size, shape, weight, energy, texture and movement and then from that same relaxed state as in the exercise above, breathe into those qualities and invite them to soften, lighten and release. You might even ask that block “What are you here to protect me from or communicate to me?”.

As an NLP Master, I often support clients to release their blocks by working in this way, helping shift the physical expression of the block at the subconscious level, so that it can be released.

If you are interested to find out more about how these processes work and how I can support you to get unstuck using the power of your subconscious, I have a number of useful resources and information just click the here to find out more. If you'd like a discussion about what you are struggling with please get in touch.