In this episode, we are going to talk about how grief affects our health physically.
Episode Pointers:
- Grief, trauma, anxiety, and everything that came in between can cause stress. It will then manifest into physical symptoms.Thus, Grief can show up physically in our bodies.
- Emotions have a big role inside our bodies. So, processing your emotions are very important in dealing with grief.
- When you are stressed, have anxiety, fear, and of those emotions that put stress on your body, your immune system is lowered. So, you have a bigger chance of getting sick. It’s very common to feel all of those things after your child dies, your body has never had to go through such an painfully emotional experience.
- Emotions are truly a physical thing. Your body is connected with your emotions. Learn to sit with your emotions, feel, process, and experience them physically.
- According to the Emotion Code by Dr. Bradley Nelson, emotions can get trapped in your body, and then that part of your body can become physically sick. Think of the Broken Heart Syndrome. Your heart hurts so bad, that your heart begins to actually get stressed and sick.
- Other grieving moms feel these common symptoms: a pain in their chest, or their body, or horrific pain in their stomach, headache and more . And no matter how many medications they take, or they go to their doctor, and there’s nothing wrong with them. They can’t find a physical reason why they are wrong. It is when we need to take a look at the emotions inside of our bodies and answer these questions:
- What emotion is there in that part of your body?
- How can you begin to care for yourself?
- How can you release that emotion that’s trapped there?
- In the Emotion Code, it says that grief often settles into the lungs. And, a common thing that happens is that it’s hard to breathe when you are grieving. It’s like there is a big weight on your chest and you cannot get a full breath of air. I definitely had this, and when I would try to do a meditation or something like that where they had you breath in for 5 and out for 7, I was like what in the world? I can only breathe in for 3, it was really hard to get a full breath of air.
This is uncharted territory for you, and so give yourself grace as you navigate through it. And as you learn what works for you, and how you can begin to process the emotions.
Recommended book : The Emotion Code by Dr. Bradley Nelson
If you want more tools to help you, I have a workshop called Stop Talking Start Feeling, it’s a workshop that dives into emotions, what they are, and how you can begin to feel and process them and get them out of your body instead of stuffing them down. It also goes specifically into processing and releasing the emotions of guilt and sadness. You can get access to this workshop and all the extra things I have in there for only $27. Go to www.stoptalkingstartfeeling.com to check it out.
If you are a grieving mother and looking for others who know the pain of child loss, come join my free Grieving Moms Community Facebook group: www.meganhillukka.com/community