Emotions are Meant to Move – Why You Might Feel Stuck
- robynmurphy123
- May 22
- 3 min read
Most of us were never taught how to feel.
We were taught how to behave. How to be nice. How to push our feelings down to stop making others uncomfortable. We learned early in life which emotions were acceptable, and which were not. We learned to smile when we were breaking inside. We learned to rationalize our pain, to bury our anger, to replace fear with achievement, and to apologize for our tears.
And all the while, our emotions kept trying to move through us.
Emotions Are Energy in Motion
Because that's what emotions are meant to do. They are designed to rise, crest, and fall — to signal something important, ask something of us, and guide us toward what matters and away from what doesn’t. Despite what society teaches us, emotions are not enemies to be conquered. They are messengers, and they are an essential part of being human.
When we open ourselves up to feeling — especially the difficult emotions — we open the door to a fuller, more vibrant life.
Why You Might Feel Stuck
Without understanding, safety, and support, emotional energy can’t move. It gets caught in the places where we learned to hold back — in our stomachs, chests, and throats. It gets tangled in old stories and identities.
A single feeling can become a pattern, a personality, a prison:
“I shouldn’t be so sensitive.”
“Something’s wrong with me.”
“This always happens.”
“I’ll never get this right.”
“I’m not safe. I’m not enough. I’m too much.”
90 Seconds to Emotional Freedom
Neuroscience tells us that an emotion, when experienced without resistance, naturally moves through the body in about 90 seconds.
This idea was popularized by Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor, a Harvard-trained neuroscientist, in My Stroke of Insight:
“When a person has a reaction to something in their environment, there’s a 90-second chemical process that happens in the body. After that, any remaining emotional response is just the person choosing to stay in that emotional loop.”
What Keeps Us Stuck?
Our thoughts about the feeling
Our resistance to it
Our old programming
Our body's stress response
These prevent the emotion from completing its cycle. It becomes trapped, wrapped in judgment and story.
How Emotional Patterns Become Beliefs
Emotion arises → a natural human response.
Thoughts attach meaning → “This means I’m broken.”
Body reacts → stress hormones, tension, shallow breath.
Behaviour adapts → withdrawal, overachievement, numbing.
Belief solidifies → “I guess I am too sensitive.”
This creates a neural pathway — an emotional shortcut — that becomes automatic.
What If It Could Be Different?
What if you could feel sadness without collapsing under it? Let anger move cleanly through you? Allow joy without bracing for the fall?
How to Support Emotion to Move
Create safety in the body.
Shift focus from thoughts to sensations.
Ask: Where is it in my body? What does it feel like?
Breathe into it.
Move your body.
Try shaking, dancing, stretching, crying, humming.
Express it.
Talk, write, sob — let it move through.
Be present with it.
Let it last its 90 seconds.
When emotion moves, you return to flow.
Emotions Are Not the Enemy
They are biological signals meant to:
Let you know when something matters
Protect your safety
Connect you with others
Prompt meaningful action
Help you process life
Emotional Intelligence: What Each Feeling Offers
Emotion | Purpose |
Fear | Alerts you to danger, helps you stay safe |
Anger | Signals boundary violation, energizes change |
Sadness | Helps you let go, process loss, feel empathy |
Joy | Motivates connection, shows alignment |
Shame | Tries to protect belonging (though it misfires) |
Guilt | Encourages repair, aligns with values |
Love | Bonds you to others, creates safety and meaning |
This is the Work I Love
To sit with someone as they feel what they’ve never been allowed to feel. To guide them back into relationship with their body, breath, and soul. To untangle emotion from story. To help them remember they are not broken — they are human, and their system is working exactly as designed.
And they can learn a new way.
How Hypnotherapy Helps
When your system feels safe and you stop bracing against the feeling, the emotion can flow naturally.
✨ Hypnotherapy helps remove what blocks the flow.
In my practice, I help clients:
Rewire old belief patterns
Clear stored emotional energy
Build inner safety
Create new pathways for expression and emotional freedom
On the other side of that safety is a life that feels more connected, meaningful, and expansive.
Ready to Reconnect With Yourself?
If something in this speaks to you, if you're ready to feel what you’ve never been allowed to feel —If you’re ready to unhook from the looping patterns that keep you stuck...
You were never meant to carry the past forever.Let’s create space to breathe, flow, and expand into a life that feels bright, open, and free.
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