5 Reasons to Release Emotional Wounds from the Past

People are looking for ways to improve their lives and create more success. Many methods focus on changing thoughts and behaviors. Releasing emotional wounds from the past is another option. Could this option be right for you?

What causes emotional wounds?
Painful or traumatic events from childhood can leave us with emotional wounds that prevent us from living life to the fullest. An emotional wound is created anytime a child cannot feel an emotion and release it. These unresolved emotions become stuck in your mind and body. You may forget the original incident, but the emotional wound stays with you.

Situations that can create emotional wounds include:
Growing up with an alcoholic parent
Being bullied
Being neglected
Losses, such as a death in the family
Accidents or illnesses

Even minor incidents can leave a child with an emotional wound. Incidents that seem minor to an adult can be traumatic to a small child. Feeling unloved or rejected can create a lifelong wound. If your mother was having a bad day and ignored you when you felt needy, this hurt may still be affecting you today.

How do we store emotional wounds?
Emotional wounds are different from cognitive memories. According to Candace Pert (who wrote the Molecules of Emotion: The Science Behind Mind-Body Medicine and appeared in the movie, What the BLEEP Do We Know!?), emotional wounds are stored at the cellular level. The brain produces emotional chemicals called neuropeptides. These chemicals attach to the cells throughout your body. When you experience an emotion you are feeling the sensations in your body that are the result of these chemicals interacting with your cells.

Many of our wounds are stored in our heart and gut area. We often use poetic language to describe these sensations. We might say “my heart was broken” or “it was like a knife through my heart” or “I can’t stomach that.” These poetic descriptions describe a deeper reality in your body. Your body has an intelligence all its own.

You may believe that the past is over and done with, but the past will continue to affect you until you release it. Your mind may forget, but your body always remembers.

Here are 5 reasons to release emotional wounds from the past:

1. Emotional wounds grow over time.
If you were wounded in childhood, that wound continues to grow with each new unresolved emotion. For example, if you were rejected as a child, every new experience of rejection will be added to your wound. One client described this as a ball of pain that keeps getting bigger and bigger.

2. Emotional wounds act like triggers.
If you felt abandoned in childhood, you will be extra sensitive to being abandoned. If a loved one is late or a friend does not call back immediately, you fear the worst. Sometimes these triggers act more like landmines and you blow up over small incidents.

3. We seem to attract more fuel for our wounds.
We seem to find ourselves in the same situations over and over again. If your wound is feeling unloved, you will marry someone who is cold or you will pick friends who abandon you when you need them the most.

4. Emotional wounds increase our stress level.
Stress affects every area of life. Candace Pert tells us that our mind-body network can become taxed by suppressed trauma and unresolved emotions. When stress prevents our emotional molecules from flowing freely in the body, it disrupts our autonomic processes (such as breathing, blood flow, immune system, etc.) and upsets our normal healing processes. Pert says “All the unresolved thoughts, emotions, and negativity we hold on to shows up in the body and makes us sick.” (Molecules of Emotion)

5. Emotional wounds keep us from feeling positive life-affirming emotions.
If your wound tells you that you are unlovable, it is difficult to feel loved or to love others. If your wound tells you that you are not good enough, it is difficult to accept yourself. If your wound tells you that the world is a scary place, it is hard to feel safe. We forget our true nature.

When you release your emotional wounds and recover your true emotions, your life will change in ways that you cannot imagine. You are not your emotional wounds! You are much more wonderful than you can imagine.