5 Weird Ways Your Body Warns You That Stagnant Emotions Are Weighing You Down, According To A Nervous System Coach
Our bodies often know about our emotions before we do.
Antonio Guillem | Shutterstock It's often hard for us to recognize and parse our emotions, especially if we're going through it or have a long history of struggles and trauma. Luckily, our bodies "keep the score" as psychiatrist Bessel van der Kolk famously put it.
New Zealand-based counselor bestselling author and coach Rebekah Bellaghn agrees. In a recent Instagram post, she shared valuable insights into the ways our bodies warn us about our emotions that often go unnoticed.
That may sound strange if you've always thought of emotions as simply feelings or thoughts — exclusively mental experiences. But our emotions also have physiological components and can get "trapped" in the body if they're not dealt with effectively. Extensive studies have even shown direct links between emotions and physical ailments.
So how do you know if you have emotional baggage stuck in your body? Look for one of these five signs, which Bellagh said are signals from your body that it might be time to take a breather and process some feelings.
Here are 5 weird ways your body warns you that stagnant emotions are weighing you down:
1. Frequent yawning
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There are lots of reasons for frequent yawning, of course — who among us isn't sleep-deprived nowadays? However, one of yawning's primary functions is to regulate energy and oxygen levels in everything from the brain to the heart. Since emotions, especially anxiety, impact these systems, yawning often follows.
Yawning is also triggered by the vagus nerve, which connects the brain to the heart and gut — and hence plays a crucial role in our emotional state.
2. Sudden itchiness
It turns out that the old phrase that something annoying or off-putting "makes me itch" might be informed by actual wisdom. As Bellagh put it, "It might not just be dry skin — it could be stagnant emotions trying to find a way out.
This is because itching is often a psychosomatic response to an emotional trigger, sometimes called "psychogenic itching." Emotional distress also releases a whole host of chemicals and hormones, among them histamines — things that make you itch, or even break out in hives.
3. Feeling like you're floating
Here, Bellagh referenced the sensation and experience of seeming to disconnect from your body and even float above yourself, often a form of dissociation.
Unresolved emotions or traumas can cause this to happen. It's a protective maneuver for your nervous system, especially if you're in a situation that is triggering past trauma. In more intense moments, it can even intensify to the point that you lose memory for a period of time.
4. Fidgeting
Much like yawning, sometimes fidgeting is just fidgeting. However, if you find yourself "constantly fidgeting with your hands or tapping your feet for some reason," as Bellagh put it, it may be pointing to something deeper.
Fidgeting is often a response to stress or anxiety, and one of the nervous system's ways of releasing pent-up emotions. Some studies have found that fidgeting has benefits, serving as a way for the mind and body to return to a semblance of focus after a stressful event.
Either way, where there's fidgeting, there's often a negative emotion, so it's a signal to be listened to.
5. Strange sensations in your limbs
Sensations like tingling, numbness, or heaviness in a part of your body are a major warning sign of an emotional blockage, Bellagh said, because they can result from the way stress and anxiety impact muscle and blood flow.
On the more extreme end, they're sometimes the result of major traumas, which can be "stored" in a part of the body. Such sensations are also often symptoms of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder or PTSD. In fact, one study found physical numbness was a primary symptom in those who'd developed the disorder after the 2015 Paris terrorist attacks.
Of course, all of these experiences can stem from lots of other factors. But if you come across them, it might be a good idea to stop and take a moment to take stock of your emotional state. It just might be your body trying to signal that you need a bit of emotional TLC.
John Sundholm is a writer, editor, and video personality with 20 years of experience in media and entertainment. He covers culture, mental health, and human interest topics.