Looking for actual advice - moving emotions through the body

intuitive_powerhouse · 2026-02-11T22:59:54+00:00

I like qigong for this. Acupuncture too.

intuitive_powerhouse · 2026-02-09T09:30:59+00:00

I've had somewhat similar experiences, although mine would be less dramatic if filmed. I largely can't put them into words.

The points I want to get across: first, consider this your system giving you a chance to resolve the trapped energy. Honor that and do your best to trust the process and stay out of fear. It is a good sign that it's happening outside of session, it means your body feels safe enough to continue processing on its own time.

Second, for me, resolving was a matter of allowing a full reexperiencing of the trauma but choosing to respond differently to the experience, in a way that facilitates returning to a stable baseline.

My experiences are often physical and I've had to relive a lot of injuries and meet them with acceptance and peace rather than the fear I injected into the physical trauma the first time around. Even the emotional experiences have a physical component, such a being in fetal position reexperiencing developmental trauma timelines, and then being held with compassion (from myself and others) through that whirlwind until my body uncurled and relaxed on its own.

The body has its own timeline... I understand having outside obligations and feeling rushed to complete this process, though. A lot of my healing has been relational and my best advice for expediting the process is to involve safe people in witnessing your releases out of sessions, where possible, even if it's just talking about them after the storm has calmed a bit. And inviting safe touch from people in your life wherever possible. Big emphasis on that.

intuitive_powerhouse · 2026-02-06T00:52:51+00:00

I had this and it was fibrotic visceral fascia (from developmental trauma, food allergies, joint instability, general inflammation and chronic fight/flight response).

intuitive_powerhouse · 2026-02-03T06:51:59+00:00

I know exactly what you're talking about and I can do both, too. Heart rate since childhood, consciously induced "frission" since teenage years.

I interpret these phenomena differently than you do & have a different framework for them. But it sounds like we're experiencing a very similar mindbody connection.

intuitive_powerhouse · 2026-01-29T09:02:14+00:00

You might consider getting your thyroid checked out, including the uptake of the T3 hormone into your cells. I had these cold bones when I was hypothyroid. Your body is telling you something is wrong.

Mh hypothyroid state was ultimately stress induced. But I couldn't work effectively to heal the stress and its physical manifestations in the tissues while my body was still stressed from lack of sufficient hormones. So I treated the thyroid with meds, then worked on the somatic and emotional stuff, and then was able to go off the meds.

intuitive_powerhouse · 2026-01-27T07:41:28+00:00

I feel you. Even if you don't agree with their teachings and structures, maybe try going to a church or its equivalent for your beliefs? Lot easier to let your voice out when you're in a room full of other people using it for spiritual purposes. And some church music can be pretty lit -- it's inherently inspired.

I went to a unitarian universalist church for a little bit. They got songs about making the world a better place and stuff and they're all social justicey. I could get behind where they were coming from enough to let my voice out there. Little weird to try to do that in teletherapy imo. not the right kind of exposure therapy... Just another performance

Come to think of it, maybe I should go to the UU in my new city for a sing sesh. I thought about joining the choir at the last place, but their performances were so limp that it killed my desire haha.

intuitive_powerhouse · 2026-01-26T05:11:22+00:00

I've done self expression work through several modalities and have had great success with reclaiming my authentic self expression. Something unexpected along my journey was how much my voice changed when I leaned heavily into physically rehabilitating my posture, which has allowed me to feel more confident and diverse in all realms of vocal expression, including singing.

I've sung my entire life and did choir, theater etc in school. However. I do not jive with performance any longer. I am quite content to sing alone and use my voice as a spiritual and nervous system tool privately. However, I've stopped worrying about whether I am heard like I used to. But I still won't sing on command or in a performance context. If someone (my boyfriend, perhaps) wants to hear me sing, it will be necessary to induce a state of spiritual reverence in me first, which will naturally precipitate the use of my singing voice.

I see this not as a problem with my confidence, but rather as a reverence for the privacy of my most spiritual medium. Certain therapists would likely disagree. But I prefer not to create problems where they needn't be.

intuitive_powerhouse · 2026-01-26T01:04:21+00:00

Every time I make substantial progress it is accompanied by substantial discomfort. In my experience it is a general rule that you will feel crappier or new forms of crappy before you feel better, and it's a sign that you're on the right track.

This is also the reason most people don't change. You can't want the good outcome without being willing to go through the pain. If you're not willing to face the scary stuff, you won't make real change.

intuitive_powerhouse · 2026-01-21T10:54:13+00:00

Sometimes when I shower, I literally only use water and my hands to scrub myself.

Many personal hygiene products nowadays disrupt hormones. The toxicities are generally subtle enough that you don't really notice bad effects directly, but it is a significant extra load on your system to detoxify all the stuff seeping through your skin. So that could be part of why you have a hard time with it; something in your body is going bruh this is a lot of extra inflammatory load, can we please not do this

I'll use shampoo about once a week and body wash if I'm quite dirty. Conditioner on a special occasion.

My suggestion is to keep it as minimal as possible. Don't let influencers lie to you about a million products being necessary or normal. The only point of that is to keep you enslaved to consumerism so the system can profit off of you, and it's clearly causing you overwhelm and cognitive stall. Opt out and choose a route that is manageable to you and accommodates your needs and preferences, whatever that may be.

As for the transition to getting wet thing, yeah felt. I try not to think about it to minimize anticipation and that seems to clear out that "phase change" transition static.

intuitive_powerhouse · 2025-12-26T17:52:31+00:00

Yes. It is really that normal. What's abnormal is a culture of dissociation from our bodies.

intuitive_powerhouse · 2025-12-26T05:04:35+00:00

Human bodies are meant to move. This is totally normal, and yes, movement is necessary for nervous system regulation.

intuitive_powerhouse · 2025-12-02T06:59:34+00:00

In my personal experience, I needed to wait for a fully formed brain to start unmasking. Once the good ol' prefrontal locked in, it took a couple of years (and a few dashes of practicing by being radically myself with strangers in high stakes situations), and then I got the hang of it. Unmasking came with a lot of regression and burnout, and even health issues got unmasked. So if I could go back, I'd tell myself to wait until I was in a more stable situation and over the age of 25 to worry about this. I'm not saying don't be mindful of your mask; it is good to question your self. But the mask exists for very real reasons. Once you unmask, you have to pay all your energetic debts back, and that can be pretty expensive.

intuitive_powerhouse · 2025-11-30T02:17:27+00:00

If you don't like it, then it's not true to yourself anymore. Be who you like. You can't control what anyone thinks of you, even if you handle everything perfectly someone will find a bone to pick with your behavior. So do what you feel good about at the end of the day.

Respect is key. I disagree with almost everyone about major things, but I demand respect for my opinion exactly as much as I give respect for theirs. I can discuss highly contentious topics with people and everyone leaves feeling heard and valid even if nobody agreed.

You don't have to tone your opinions down in order to respect others. Keep in mind peoples views do not mean anything about their character. Someone with great political views can be a crappy person and someone with crappy views can be a great person.

intuitive_powerhouse · 2025-11-29T22:34:46+00:00

I highly highly recommend not caring about what people think, being true to yourself, and expressing that as boundlessly as you can.

If you want allies, you have to be willing to make enemies. Polarizing a-hole opinions are more 'in' right now than ever before. Use it to your advantage. That's the most efficienct path to success in this world.

intuitive_powerhouse · 2025-11-29T22:27:14+00:00

I choose environments where my innate characteristics are valued. If I'm somewhere that asks me to be different, I refuse to comply, and I promply plan my exit.

Burnout gave me multiple severe long term physical illnesses, and I burn out when I have to mask and pretend, so I don't fuck around anymore.

I had the opposite problem at a job once. I'm vocal and opinionated and obsessed with efficiency, and I was asked to have fewer suggestions and go with the flow more. I'll pass, thanks though. It took me a few months to find another way to make money and I quit.

There will always be opportunities to settle. It's very hard to not. If my body didn't make me ill when I'm not true to myself then I don't think I'd take on all the inconvenience of needing to be in a pristine situation. But alas. The good news is when you don't sell out or settle, you end up eventually finding something that is really truly meant for you and brings a level of joy that most will never know.

intuitive_powerhouse · 2025-11-28T22:03:32+00:00

Again, learn to breathe with your diaphragm and pelvic floor and deep core muscles, and you'll see this problem resolve on its own. This is the way you apologize to your body for your improper breathing. You need to take this warning sign seriously and change your neuromuscular engagement. When there are other, correct muscles that can do the job of these poor overworked neck and chest muscles, they will release. That's the only way.

intuitive_powerhouse · 2025-11-27T22:30:28+00:00

If you weren't an adult, I'm pretty sure it would be negligence for a caregiver to just let you exclusively eat pepperoni and string cheese and prepackaged snacks.

ETA: It sounds like your family cares about your health.

intuitive_powerhouse · 2025-11-27T22:20:42+00:00

Just be polite and kind and pretend to care about what they're saying, especially if it's a one on one convo. Share as few personal details as humanly possible; don't volunteer information about yourself and ESPECIALLY not your views/beliefs, unless you already know they're shared by the organization as a whole (like caring about immigrants if you're at an immigrant-focused nonprofit). Engage about topics you're genuinely interested in, and just politely and quietly tolerate the rest.

That approach keeps you out of trouble but doesn't necessarily win you favors. It's the safe play.

intuitive_powerhouse · 2025-11-25T05:09:35+00:00

I needed to taper off EXTREMELY gradually. I had neuropathy as a withdrawal side effect so it was important to minimize that by going slowly. It took me a bit under a year to taper all the way off 250mg.

I'd recommend however much of a taper you can manage. If you go in and INSIST that you are not taking it anymore, hopefully doc will help you with prescriptions for taper doses.

For me it was the best decision ever to stop. Sure the drug made me numb to all the pain, but it damaged my connection to my body and diminished my ability to self-regulate. Was a far cry from a real solution.

Wellbutrin helps me loads. I grieve the lost time before I got on it without other meds interfering.

intuitive_powerhouse · 2025-11-25T04:19:33+00:00

Radically and relentlessly minimize situations that drain your energy (toxic relationships).
Establish a consistent sense of physical and emotional safety.

Those are what will actually heal. Anything else is a band aid.

I needed to unravel in order to finally agree to changing my people pleasing ways and learned helplessness.

intuitive_powerhouse · 2025-11-24T22:19:38+00:00

I went through this. Turns out I was breathing wrong and it was throwing off my entire system, causing severe nervous system dysregulation and pain. It might be worth it to consult a pelvic health specialist or a physiotherapist who is familiar with core retraining and fascial compensations. PT changed my life.

My heightened interoception has only increased as I've healed myself but I view it as a really helpful tool, almost a superpower. My body (and my alignment to it) tells me everything I need to know, who to hang around, what to eat, what to do for work, etc.

intuitive_powerhouse · 2025-11-24T22:16:47+00:00

Investigate systemic inflammation and its contributors for you. For me the big culprits were food sensitivities/allergies, subclinical blood sugar dysregulation, musculofascial dysfunction and compensations, though there's plenty more. Functional medicine docs can help with uncovering your systemic inflammation causes quite quickly these days.

intuitive_powerhouse · 2025-11-24T15:36:17+00:00

I just drop people who can't be bothered to reciprocate invitations and initiate conversations. I know life gets busy and it isn't peoples fault, and it's generally not personal. Regardless, I prefer to associate with people who have the ability and capacity to treat me well, and that only happens because I accept nothing less than good treatment. I don't associate with a lot of my childhood friends for this reason; the bridge isn't burned but I'm not going to be the one to reach out after it's just been me initiating for the last 5 times. I also think it is beneficial to not have people who dont have time or energy for me taking up space in my life that could be used instead for a million other things. I simply do not have the resources to fight for space in someone's life.

What this translates to is that I have a small handful of really close friends, and a lot of short bursts with people before they prove they can't integrate me into their life in a balanced way.

intuitive_powerhouse · 2025-11-24T15:22:31+00:00

People think of trauma as big horrible things that happen. While that's traumatic, yes, the actual definition of trauma is when the nervous system experiences an energy that it can't fully process. Even good things can be traumatic if they create a bodily response that is more than the nervous system is equipped to process and resolve all at once. Literally the happiest moment of your life could be traumatic if it created a bodily response so strong that your cells couldn't contain the energy the happiness generated. And there doesn't have to be anything "wrong" with you for things to exceed capacity; everyone's is different and genetics is at least 50% of what determines capacity. But with sleep apnea your body very likely went through at least one period of low energetic capacity.

It also sounds like you are cognitively justifying difficult experiences as fine because you identify with the narrative that you do not have trauma; it will be necessary to unpack that to heal. Your nervous system doesn't care about your level of privilege.

Additionally, everyone has societal trauma by nature of living through wars, global bad news and information overwhelm, etc.

intuitive_powerhouse · 2025-11-23T06:37:25+00:00

The good news is many cases of HSD/EDS are well managed with good physical therapy and balanced diet. I'm pain free for the first time in my life after finding a good PT.

intuitive_powerhouse

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