We are more than a physical body! Our health and well-being depends on so much more than simply satisfying our physical needs.

Emotions have an important influence on our physical health. When our system holds a lot of anger, sadness, fear or guilt — even if we don’t think about it or are unaware that we still carry these unresolved emotions, they can wreck havoc and in our physical body. True healing includes balancing the mental and emotional aspects.

Emotions respond to our thoughts.

Think of a time when you were critical of another. Do those thoughts make you feel happy, joyful and lighthearted? Probably not. They probably take you down the road of anger, frustration, resentment, or something else that doesn’t feel good.

If you think critically of yourself, you create guilt, and feelings of unacceptable or unworthy or unloveable. It feels awful when we think this way, so why do we think those thoughts? Especially when we know that if we think positive, kind thoughts, we feel better, happier and more peaceful.

Our mind is a powerful tool but for many it seems to have a mind of its own! The unconscious holds our thought patterns, programming and beliefs, but it is also our humble servant. It beats our heart, digests our food, breathes our body, and activates our natural healing response. And it remembers and stores everything—everything we have seen, thought, heard, experienced and felt.

So if the unconscious is our humble servant, why do we have a hard time controlling our mind? Perhaps it is all that emotional baggage we carry…

When we are young, it is easier to hide or suppress those emotions or traumas, but as we get older, there’s more baggage to suppress. It takes a great deal of energy to keep everything below the surface. Held for over time, things can crop up in our emotional (over)reactions, behaviours, and even in the body as pain or disease. All those times you got frustrated and said someone was a pain in the neck can actually cause physical issues. After all, you’ve just told your unconscious mind where to store that feeling!

Emotions can become lodged in our bodies or our energy field when we don’t fully process them. How do you process an emotion? You feel it! Allowing it to surface and feeling it, even if it’s uncomfortable, moves the energy. Deep breathing is an excellent way to move emotion while we are in an emotional experience. So many of us hold our breath or breathe very shallow when we are in the midst of challenging emotion.

We’ve spent a lifetime holding on to old emotions and distorting them by over-thinking or over-verbalizing our pain and traumas. Sometimes we even become attached to them, making them a part of our identity. But they are not who we are, and in fact, take us further away from who we really are.

We can balance and heal much faster if all levels are congruent. If there is conflict between the conscious and unconscious mind, the unconscious always wins. It may be holding on to trauma you have long since forgotten… or it might even link it to something current in your life that has similarities. If happens, you’ll find yourself reacting in the same old unconscious patterns.

I believe that most physical imbalances begin in the mind. Negative emotions or thought patterns can influence our physical condition, and many physical ailments can improve when those mental and emotional aspects are balanced. How we think about our past, present of future experiences can increase or decrease distress levels.

Once you start clearing out your emotional closet and create supportive thoughts and beliefs, your unconscious will respond positively. As you clear, you begin to feel lighter and more relaxed… You may find you have more self acceptance and self love, more patience and acceptance for others… You experience more motivation, more joy, more happiness… You might start to breathe deeper, sleep better and perhaps those aches and pains diminish… once you change your mind…

Being Well on Many Levels was originally published in The Magic Happens: http://themagichappensnow.com/being-well-on-many-levels/