Is Your Body Trying to Tell You Something?

In this episode of Raw & Embodied Podcast, I talk about what can begin to happen to our bodies when we suppress our emotions, silence our voices, and abandon ourselves for too long. So many of us are carrying pain, grief, anger, resentment, fear, or unspoken truth in our bodies without even realizing it.

I share parts of my own journey with this and how I truly believe the body begins speaking when we are no longer listening to ourselves. I chat about stagnant energy, emotional weight, physical symptoms, and the practices that have helped me move energy through my body and reconnect back to myself in a more grounded and loving way.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Welcome to Ron Embody Podcast with Andrea Stamp. I believe in the power of our voices. And when we speak from the heart and embody love for ourselves and others, something shifts within us and all around us. This space is for real and honest conversations around spirituality, energy work, motherhood, womanhood, and what it truly means to live in alignment with who you truly are. No fluff. I'm not here to be perfect. I'm here to be authentically me. And to remind you that you get to be too fully and unapologetically. Today on the podcast, I want to talk about what it is like for your body when you suppress emotions, when you silence your voice, when you stuff a bunch of emotions down instead of handling them, whether you are like processing them, talking about them, crying it out, whatever it is, and how it can really affect your body, your nervous system, your organs, and your energetic body. I also want to state at the beginning of this: I am not a medical professional, and I am not giving you medical advice. I am just speaking on my truth and how these things have showed up for me. So I feel like this is an important topic. We're not taught this since we were little, and we we really should. Um, you know, I uh I think that in the last 16 years that I've done this deeper work and dove headfirst into so many books about this, um you just start to realize how much your emotions and suppressed emotions and traumatic events and little things can really affect your nervous system, your organs, your tissues, your fascia, all of the things. Because, like they say all the time, the body keeps score. By the way, I've never read that book. I do need to read it. Um, I've been excited to read it and I forget about it all the time, but I do need to read it. Um so back in 2008, um, I was really trying to um get pregnant with my second son. And I just couldn't. And I'd had, you know, Western doctors tell me that the best thing for me to do was to get on some hormones, that my thyroid was a little bit off. So they thought it would be a really good idea for me to get on some a light dose of thyroid medicine, and that I would probably be on it for the rest of my life. And I will tell you that my soul was like, no, I don't, I just don't, I don't think this is a good idea. And I got the the this big like ping that I should go and try acupuncture first. Um, so I met a woman in Boulder. She is amazing. She is an acupuncturist and a Chinese medicine practitioner, and she'd been doing this for years. And it was like my soul just found her at the perfect time. And she was the person that brought to my attention my mental health and my emotions and how they were affecting my body. And I end up working with this lady for years, but she was the first person that explained to me that everything can be affected by us not expressing ourselves, by us suppressing our emotions, stuffing things down, always like being a people pleaser or being overly available, draining our energy, like doing all of these things and how much it can deplete the kidneys, our spleen, our liver, uh, all of these different things. And also not processing grief can affect the lungs, not processing the, you know, anger can affect the liver, uh, you know, not processing fear of things that we had when we were a child can affect our life force and our kidneys. And it blew my mind because I was like, I was able to then start to really bring awareness to how that was affecting my body and how it has been affecting my body since I was probably a kid. And it is just amazing to me that we do not get taught this since we are kids. Because do you know how much the world would be a different place if we were taught from day one that suppressing our emotions, not expressing ourselves, accommodating too much shit, and how much it affects our body. I get that, you know, eating correctly is super important, getting enough sleep, super important, dealing with our stress, all of these things. They're all so important and they all go together. They're all connected. But I think the piece that we just don't focus on is how is your mental health? How have you been processing your emotions? And you will usually get most of the people that I have helped, that isn't even in their field. It they do not even like think that that has something to do with it. And I can count on my hand more than once that times that I got really sick or I had Hashimoto, thyroid issues, lots of weight gain. And it was just emotions stored in my body that I hadn't processed, that I hadn't really brought to the surface to, you know, acknowledge, oh shit, I like had stuffed that down, and that makes sense about this now. So since I was a little kid, I had TMJ so bad. And then as I got older, I started to get thyroid issues. So of course, the first thing that a doctor's gonna say is, does you know your thyroid stuff run in your family? I'm gonna say yes. My dad, um, I mean, um, my dad had thyroid issues. Um, I think my mom does too. Um, and then like a couple of my cousins do, and they struggle really hard with it. All of the different things, right? So if we look at it just from a Western perspective, it makes sense. It runs in my family. So obviously I'm gonna get it too. So I go to the doctor and I start to, you know, just realize like, okay, yes, it does, but I don't really want to be on thyroid medicine for the rest of my life. I was young. And so I get this notion, like, no, and then that's when I found my acupuncturist. And she is the one that taught me about all of the different emotions and how they can affect our body and when our mental health is in that state, and how it can affect every part of our body. And so when I started working with this acupuncturist and Chinese medicine lady, and I start diving deep into all of this work, I start, and by the way, I wasn't perfect. I still would have many days where I'd be like, what's wrong with me? And then I would realize, like, oh, I've been suppressing things, not expressing myself, and then things. But anyway, so I had, you know, dealt with TMJ and um the thyroid stuff. And then when you start to realize that that not expressing yourself, suppressing your voice, being overaccommodating, they all have to do with the jaw, the throat chakra, and your shoulders, neck, everything. I had been struggling with a tight neck, TMJ, shoulder issues for as long as I can remember before I started this work. For as long as I can remember. But the first thing you will be told is, oh, your pillow is not great. Um, you probably grind your teeth, that's why you have TMJ. Um you, you know, you it runs in your family, that's why you have thyroid issues. But now that I've like stepped into this work and I do energy work for a living and I understand the chakra energy system, and I've taken energy medicine courses, yoga classes, like all of the different things that has taught me so much amazing wisdom. I realized, nope, it was because I never expressed myself. I was scared to use my voice. I suppressed it all the time. And then, you know, before I was going to do this podcast, I was really like sitting down and like I wrote down some questions. Um, so I could like kind of sit with it before I recorded. And I was like, I just sat there for a second. And I would like us to do that. So maybe like if you're not driving, if you are, obviously don't do this, but if you aren't, maybe like ground your feet on the ground, on the on the carpet, ground wherever you are. And take like a big deep belly breath, like all the way down to the base of your spine.

SPEAKER_01 10:29

Eyes can be closed or open, whatever feels good for you. And I want you to just think about a time that when you were growing up, where you were taught to be good, quiet, accommodating, forgiving, easygoing when you knew that it didn't feel good to you, and that you were abandoning yourself when you did it.

SPEAKER_00 11:07

And I want you to keep breathing, so keep breathing into your belly.

SPEAKER_01 11:13

And I want you to think of a time that that happened and where you were possibly feeling it in your body.

SPEAKER_00 11:25

And then remember an instance of a time that you did it, where you felt it in your body, and maybe where something happened afterwards, where you got sick, where your hips hurt, where your belly didn't feel good, your neck, your shoulders, your jaw, all of these different places in your body where it possibly could have showed up.

SPEAKER_01 11:58

And just bring awareness to that. Because again, a lot of us were taught that it was because of this.

SPEAKER_00 12:09

It was because of that, instead of just acknowledging that maybe there was an emotion tied and connected to it in the background. And again, if you're not driving, and if you are, you can do this without closing your eyes. Um but imagine a time now that you just swallowed anger when you were growing up instead of being able to freely express it in a safe way, and imagine what that did to your body. So start to look back at how bitter you got, how resentful you got, and just acknowledge how it probably showed up in your body, or showed up how you communicated, or lack of. Just acknowledge those things because these are all going to be examples of how the emotions and suppressed voice, like silencing ourselves, can show up in our body and how we function in the world.

SPEAKER_01 13:31

So if you closed your eyes, you can reopen them.

SPEAKER_00 13:34

But just imagine how many people are disconnected to their intuition and their body body wisdom because we are never really taught to understand that these things matter. It's not just the food that we eat, it's not just how we're sleeping, it's not just the water we're drinking. It is the fact that we do not acknowledge that emotions, silencing ourselves, abandoning ourselves, can affect our body on a physical and energetic level.

SPEAKER_01 14:11

You know, I think that grief is a big thing for me.

SPEAKER_00 14:16

Um when I would, you know, leave a relationship, whether it was friendship or relationships with uh men in the past before I was married, I would hold so much in there. And I remember now that if I look back, I would get chronic bronchitis all the time.

SPEAKER_01 14:38

Well, we hold grief in our lungs.

SPEAKER_00 14:42

And again, we're not trained these things when we're little, so we don't understand why it is showing up for us now. And how we hold grief and resentment and heartbreak and betrayal, burnout, self-abandonment, they can all manifest in different ways in our body, especially if we are not, we do not have the knowledge to understand that that is happening. We're gonna look outside at so many things because we're immediately gonna go to a Western doctor and say, this hurts, or this is happening, or that is happening. And again, there's nothing wrong with that. Okay. I'm just saying that sometimes that is not gonna give you the answer that you need, and it's not gonna be helpful because now you're gonna go through a long process of all of these other things instead of really going to the root problem. And you know, sometimes even going to a functioning medicine doctor, you may not go immediately to a root problem there. You may in your gut, you may, you know, realize that your gut is not in alignment and all of these things, but okay, why is your gut continuously giving you problems? Why are you continuously having things show up in your digestive tract where you do not digest? I mean, I'll tell you as someone that is massively sensitive to the energy around her, that it is a very big deal when we are not, when we do not understand that we are probably processing so many other people's emotions around us as well. We're not just processing ours. So if we do not have that big boundary, that energetic boundary to keep us out of other people's too, we're not just processing our own emotions and suppressed emotions, we're processing everyone's. And a lot of us are that energetically sensitive, even if we're not like called the quote unquote empath. A lot of us are energetically sensitive. And our children are very energetically sensitive. So understand like what they may not just be processing their own little emotions, they're processing everyone in the home's emotions as well. And imagine how that can show up in their body. Chronic illnesses, things that you can't explain in your kids, rashes, things that just show up because they have no other way to express it. I mean, think about that. Think about that. I mean, I just I I think it's crazy that we're not taught these things when we're growing up. It just doesn't, most people don't even think about it. And I if I didn't step into this world almost 17 years ago, I don't know. I mean, I think I would have found it anyway, because my soul's like, nope, we're gonna, we're gonna go this direction. But, you know, I don't know. So some of the ways that I've been able to really process these things is obviously energy work. Um, you know, Reiki has been such a beautiful way for me to heal before I even thought about becoming a practitioner or an energy worker at all. And I've done some way more in-depth uh training and work since then. But what I teach a lot of my students is understand that when you start doing this energy work, it's going to start to open up the layers of suppressed shit that we've left in our body for a really long time. And it's gonna start coming to the surface for you to acknowledge it. Yeah, the chronic, you know, illnesses that you keep getting, the autoimmune diseases, the hip pain, the foot pain, the jaw pain, you know, these things are gonna start to come up to the surface for you to acknowledge them because you are starting to work on an energetic level. So your body is getting it's it's like softening a little bit. So these things can come up. Um learning how to communicate and speak honestly. That's gonna be really helpful for some of that silencing of the voice. Crying instead of holding it in. I mean, I have some beautiful friends that I've been friends with for years that have the hardest time crying. I cry all the fucking time. I've never suppressed that. But back when I was younger, I would feel so much shame for crying. Like I was overly emotional, I was dramatic, I was so, you know, so annoying. And so even my poor tears that I would be crying would be shamed. So imagine what that did every single time that I cried. But I started to understand that crying instead of suppressing was so important for me and being able to just let it flow like a waterfall. And I will say that energy, I have a lot of credit to doing energy work on myself and giving myself that permission was super freaking helpful. Movement is massively important for your body. When you have so much suppressed emotions and stagnant shit inside your body, just not literally shit, but like, I mean, maybe for some, but like stuff and uh like stagnant energy and stuff that has just not been moved for a really long time, finding a movement practice that you love, not one that you hate, because that is not going to be helpful, but one that you love, like dancing, yoga, umides, something that just helps the body like move so that way some of those things can come to the surface. So you can really like start to acknowledge them and process them. Breath work is super helpful for many people. Um, I like to stick to things that are a little bit more somatic and slower and supportive for me, but there is so many people that uh holotrophic breathwork is extremely helpful for them because it is intense and it can bring up a lot of the emotions and trauma and stuff to the surface during those things that you have suppressed. Please note that if you decide to do um more intensive and um intense breath work, that you have a beautiful facilitator that does understand the things that are coming up for you. Um I would not suggest if you have a lot of rage and a lot of trauma in your past, I would highly recommend not going to big group breath works. They're not supportive for you. Um, I would find someone that can do it with you on a more one on one experience because they're going to be able to give you the they're gonna be able to hold you in the way that you are going to need. And I would definitely work with someone that is highly trained in trauma and in somatics to bring you down in. Into a more neutral state before you just leave. Because that is going to be very helpful for you and your growth. Because if you do some of these harder breath works and you're doing them in a big group setting and you do not have that support, that can cause you to really spiral in some of the emotions that may come up, the anger, the trauma. And if you don't have someone supporting you afterwards, it's just not going to be helpful for you. So I would find a breath work that works for you. I would find a facilitator that is very educated and is knowledgeable in all of the things that can hold you in that space. Otherwise, it may hurt you more than help you. That's just my personal opinion. Finding an energy worker that is trained in if these things are really suppressed in you and they are something that needs to be acknowledged, that you find a practitioner that is very knowledgeable, that is going to hold beautiful space for you and is going to be able to not rush the process because some of us have so much deep stuff in there. Yeah. Some of us are going to have things that just need to be processed and be brought to the surface. So a lot of energy workers are going to be able to help you go in and clear some stagnant energy and some emotions. But if you do have some deeper things, find a practitioner that actually works with those kinds of things, isn't doing surface level energy work with you, is able to dive deeper into those emotions with you and actually like process them and move them and shift them out. That's going to be super important. So make sure that you're just being very discerning who you are working with. Otherwise, it could just be a waste of your money if you are looking to really dive deeper into some of those things. Working with nervous system experts are really good for you. I mean, I have a client that works with me for the energy part, and then she has a nervous system practitioner. She knows that we both work completely different and that they are going to help her with different emotions, anger, frustration, all of the things. So she works with the nervous system practitioner for XYZ. She works with energy work for me to move stagnant energy out to help her process it in a different way. So both of us are serving for her in a different way, but it both serves and it's very helpful for her. Um creating boundaries. Boundaries are super important with our friends, our family, all of it. When we do not have boundaries with a lot of people, which most of us I'm sure from when we were little kids, we didn't have boundaries. We accommodated everything. We made sure that we did everything for everybody, we made sure that we showed up perfect or what we thought was perfect, and that we had zero boundaries. Now, what that can do is when we grow up and we don't have boundaries, then what can happen when we think that we are setting boundaries is we can be very rigid and bitter and resentful already because now we're coming up with this big boundary, and that is not going to be helpful for you in your relationships later in life. Creating those safe boundaries for yourself can show your body that you are not abandoning yourself. It will say to your nervous system, to your body, to your energetic boundary, I mean body, that these boundaries are set for me to feel balanced and at peace no matter what. So allowing yourself to have those boundaries without shame, without guilt, without judging yourself and realizing that those boundaries are in place with certain people to keep the peace in your body. So that way you don't have to start to experience some of these things that can happen when we don't have boundaries. Um, allowing anger to move safely. I do know that there is a lot of groups out there that will process rage and screaming and things. And I think that there is um something for every single person. And I, you know, punching a pillow, screaming into a pillow, doing all of these things, I think are beautiful practices. I also think that um when you do have a lot of rage and things, Kriya practices with yoga can be extremely helpful. I do not benefit from going to rage circles and um rage workshops. I feel that when people are screening and you're all around that energy and you're not in a safe container where there is like a big energetic boundary. There is just too many people in one space expressing those rage. Do you think that those emotions and that energy, where do you think it's going when somebody else releases it? Especially if you are very highly sensitive. Those emotions are going straight into you, especially if you're untrained and you do not understand boundaries, energetic boundaries, and really being grounded in your rage and in your anger. I just I do not suggest them. Again, each to their own. There is no judgment. You figure out what works for you. But Kria was a very beautiful way for me. And I know that there, it's not a very known practice, but I do know that in Colorado that there is at least like five women in the Denver area that if you live here, um, that really are that work with Kriya and breath and everything. And I will tell you that that is able to shift your energy so fast. It just there is some really intense Krias that can move you through that and shift that energy. I feel like it is so much more beneficial and helpful. Again, no judgment. I just don't support big rage screaming anger things because I just don't think for your body, your nervous system doesn't really understand the difference. And I think being like all raged out like that, it can cause so much more imbalance instead of like that center. I'm not saying don't express your emotions. I'm not saying suppress anything, I'm not saying bypass anything. I'm just saying I feel like there's other ways that you can learn to move and shift that energy without setting off like 10 other women's nervous systems at the same time. So that's just my personal opinion. But I I'm a very sensitive person. So that's just me. Um, listening to the body instead of fighting it is really super important when you are going through these things. So if you start to notice sensations when you're around certain people, notice how the body reacts when you um listen to certain music, notice it when you are having a certain conversation, things that are uncomfortable, noticing it into your body and acknowledging it and bringing awareness to it is amazing.

SPEAKER_01 29:38

And it is so freaking helpful for you.

SPEAKER_00 29:44

Um one other thing that I really want to touch on is really acknowledge when things hurt your feelings, it is important. And allowing yourself to grieve when things come up. Like I just lost my dad in February. And I think two days ago, I just sat down and cried all day. I cried in the car, I cried when I went to the gas station, I cried when I was taking my mom to the post office. I cried when I drove home and I just I just allowed it. I didn't suppress any of it. I didn't tell myself that I was weak for crying. I I didn't, you know, go through this process of like beating myself up. I just I just let myself cry because there was just another wave that was coming through my body that I just needed to allow so I could, you know, not hold it in my body because it wasn't necessary. Just allow yourself to grieve. Um, another thing that is super helpful is just really start to be really honest with yourself.

SPEAKER_01 30:56

You know?

SPEAKER_00 30:58

Like really brutally honest with yourself. Don't try to sugarcoat shit. Like, if you were freaking mad yesterday, then just say it. You know, own it. Own the fact that you were really pissed off. And if you were really sad or you're really angry or you're really this, just be honest with yourself. Know that we don't need to please everybody else. No matter what line of work we're in, we are gonna have bad days and we are gonna be really pissed off on some days. We're gonna have rage, we're gonna have anger, we're gonna be disappointed, we're we're not gonna show up as our best selves and emotions may have overtook us one day. And instead of like beating ourselves up and like causing havoc in our body, we can just say, I'm bringing awareness that this happened. And instead of like beating myself up over it and like causing so much like pain in my body, I can just be like, okay, that showed up. And now I get to just like realize I was having an emotion. That's all it was. And instead of trying to suppress it and put it into my body and add shame and judgment and all these other things to it, I can just bring it into the awareness and let it go. Find a way to move my body, do a little bit of breath work, do a little bit of kriya, maybe some yoga, go for a walk. I talk to myself on my walks all the time. People probably think I'm crazy. I should like put headphones in my ears so people think I'm not talking to myself, but it helps. Just so you don't have to keep it inside your body. Um, because I mean, honestly, I don't feel like our bodies are against us. And also, we're not trained this from when we're kids. We have to just figure it out, which is so fun. And I can't even imagine what it's like for people that don't live in a state that, you know, has so many alternative medicines and alternative ways to help you heal. I don't know what I would do. And I'm so grateful and blessed that I live in a state that really has so many different modalities because that helps me. I it just helped me so much find a different way and a different path. And yeah, so I think that you get to give yourself an invitation to kind of slow down. And maybe after this podcast, you can sit down and start to really acknowledge where maybe it was showing up in your life. You know, not with shame, not with fear, not with guilt, not with judgment, but like maybe be able to sit down and really acknowledge how these kind of things have showed up in your body. Where have you maybe been suppressing things and you've noticed it showed up in your body? Not expressing yourself. Did it show up as a thyroid issue? Constantly stuffing everything down and not telling people about your emotions. Has it showed up somehow in your heart?

SPEAKER_01 34:15

Your breasts, your lungs.

SPEAKER_00 34:20

It just our body does show us. We just have to take the time to slow down and listen to it. And I know that's not that easy, especially in a world that is filling our head constantly, that you know, it's gotta be because of this, so you need to like do this, and da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da. There is a lot of noise out there. But we get to be like a sovereign being and understand that we can go within and maybe ask some questions before we run to the doctor. I mean, obviously, if you have an emergency, go to the doctor. That's not what I'm saying. But sometimes I think that we can sit down, slow down, and start to listen to our own inner guidance. Listen to our own inner guidance of what may be coming up in our body. And also notice that when we do start to process these things, how our body softens, how all of a sudden we don't have as much pain in our body, how all of a sudden we're sleeping better, how all of a sudden, when we've acknowledged these things, brought into awareness and not ignored them, really found a way to express them, if that's what you need, how all of a sudden you don't have TMJ anymore, you don't grind your teeth anymore, you don't have neck pain.

SPEAKER_01 35:52

Because you are slowly starting to process these things instead of ignoring them. So I know that in my lifetime they have showed up in so many different ways.

SPEAKER_00 36:07

And whether it be pain, thyroid, you know, just lots of anxiety and stress and fear. But maybe if we can just sit and really start to bring these things to awareness and use different tools to help us, we'll start to just see what is really happening in our body and bring awareness to it and help it. And know that it's not really against you. It just needs to be acknowledged. And then again, you can find a tool that works to help you move it. It can be body workers, acupuncturists, healers, energy workers, lots of movement, a therapist, whatever it works for you, but just help yourself process the things so you don't have to feel it in your body. It is an amazing thing when we start to really listen to our own inner guidance, acknowledge what's happening and listen to our bodies so we can help it and move it faster.

SPEAKER_01 37:19

So just acknowledge what's happening for you.

SPEAKER_00 37:23

Maybe sit with it today, tonight, whatever. Maybe bring in some questions to your morning practice, to your journaling practice, and start asking some questions and see how this shows up in your body. How things in the past have shown up for your body and maybe caused dis-ease and illness in your body.

SPEAKER_01 37:48

And then maybe find something, someone to help you process it and get it the hell out so it doesn't have to keep wreaking so much havoc in your body. I hope this was helpful. I feel like it's a really important topic. And until next time, have a beautiful day, evening, afternoon, wherever you are.