Release Negative Emotions that Affect Health

Different Self Help Methods Improve Emotions in Similar Ways

Aug 29, 2009

Three self help techniques guide individuals to connect with and release emotions. These methods create improvements in mood and this has been shown to improve health.

The Sedona Method, The “Two by Two” method of Raphael Cushnir and the “Cut Through” method of the Institute of Heartmath seem quite different on the surface, but all help an individual to access and release feelings, especially those which are commonly avoided, resisted or denied. The benefit of experiencing these feelings may not seem obvious, since it is common for one to repress unpleasant feelings. However research by the Institute of Heartmath shows that what are commonly considered unpleasant feelings have a direct effect on health, so moving through them and releasing them can have health benefits.

Even Suppressed Negative Emotions Affect the Body

Emotions register in the body as a physical sensation, most often in the heart and solar plexus. Researchers at the Institute of Heartmath have discovered that unpleasant feelings make the heart’s rhythms less coherent. Since the heart rhythms are the strongest in the body, they entrain all other physical systems. The heart also contains neurons much like those in the brain and both sends and receives messages from the brain. So, the emotional center affects thought and is affected by thoughts. (Childre, D and Martin, H. The Heartmath Solution pp. 30-42.)

When an individual avoids experiencing feelings that seem unpleasant, they nonetheless register in the body. They affect the heart rhythms and brainwaves; they raise levels of cortisol, the stress hormone; and lower DHEA, the anti aging hormone. There is even evidence that these unpleasant emotional states can be perceived by others up to ten feet away. (Childre, D and Martin, H. p. 159.)

Feeling and Releasing Emotions Improves Health

Releasing the feelings produces opposite results, improving the hormonal balance, the communication between the brain and the heart, and making the person easier to be around. The Heartmath Institute (Childre, D and Martin, H. p. 196.) teaches a method called “Cut Through” which allows a person to use a pleasant state such as appreciation to permeate their heart (the center of feelings) which seems to dissolve the unpleasant feelings. In The One Thing Holding You Back, Raphael Cushnir outlines a “Two by Two” process (p. 35) in which the individual contacts the emotion, by feeling it physically, examines it closely and this seems to let it dissipate. Using the Sedona Method®, (Dwoskin, Hale. The Sedona Method. Sedona, AZ: The Sedona Press. 2007.) the individual “welcomes” the feeling, examines it in terms of the basic need to which it relates, and allows it to release by simple intention.

The Heartmath Institute has researched individuals using its methods and discovered that the experience of pleasant emotions results in immediate decreases in stress hormones, increases in anti aging hormone DHEA, more coherent heart waves and brainwaves.

Subjective experiences reported by people using these methods seem quite similar. They report feeling more centered and balanced, feeling less stressed and being more intuitive. These methods are outlined in detail in the books about them. Kushnir (p. 1) and Dwoskin (pp 49-50) both also maintain that denied or repressed feelings about goals often keep one from achieving them. So use of these methods can make an individual more successful as well.

Childre, Doc and Martin, Howard. The Heartmath Solution. San Francisco, CA: Harper Collins Publishers. 1999.

Cushnir, Raphael. The One Thing Holding You Back: Unleashing the Power of Emotional Connection. New York, NY: Harper Collins Publishers. 2008.

The copyright of the article Release Negative Emotions that Affect Health in Mind/Body Fitness is owned by Ruth Wilson Zamierowski. Permission to republish Release Negative Emotions that Affect Health in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.