10 Ways to Holistically Achieve Vibrant Emotional Health and Motivation

I’m fine. I’m fine. No, really, I’m fine!

Are we, though?

Unfortunately, many silently suffer in this toxic, stressful, cancel-culture world in which we live. We trudge through life like every day is Groundhog Day. Slowly but surely, our motivation diminishes for even the simple tasks in life, which further complicates our emotional landscape.

We chase the dollar, give, give, give to others, and neglect our own lifeforce energy. We fill up our time scrolling through social media, get exposed to numerous toxins, and before we know it, the treadmill of life throws us off the track.

As a side note, I have witnessed my husband get tossed off a treadmill two times in my life, and while I laughed then and still laugh now over those memories, his body likely remembers the humiliation, physical pain, and lack of support from his wife at a time he needed it.

Our bodies remember everything. Emotions create physical reactions that block our bodies’ ability to heal. To add insult to injury, our physical issues may create emotional reactions that further impede wellness.

Sounds like a treadmill, doesn’t it?

This topic of emotional health hits close to home as I’m sure most of you reading can relate. As a teenager, my sister experienced her first of many seizures. During this seizure, she maintained full consciousness while she endured involuntary, full body convulsions for two and a half hours. She continued to suffer from severe depression and psychotic episodes for many years following that fateful day.

She spent the next decade of her life on heavy doses of pharmaceutical drugs and in and out of hospitals. Of course, the compounding emotional toll from illnesses creates a ripple effect within a family unit.

Her mental health issues drastically reduced to a near normal level, ironically, once she weaned herself off the pharmaceuticals and followed a healthy diet. Unfortunately, at 43 years old, she has an enlarged liver and heart due to the medications and cannot remember the better part of 10 years of her life from 16-26 years of age.

I watched emotional issues create physical problems and physical problems create an emotional response within not only her but our family.

We all have a story. Big stories and little stories, our bodies are a book with pages and words. Oftentimes, we need white out to erase the stories our bodies kept record of to make way for healing and loving tales for our body’s more vibrant autobiography.

Here, we discuss the techniques that formulate the white out needed for emotional corrections and wellbeing.

How Emotions Affect Our Physical Body

Anyone as a child hate having to read out loud for the classroom? We’d all shrink down in our rock hard seats, slowly lowering our faces behind the novel of the month just hoping the teacher forgot you existed.

Suddenly, you hear your name called as the teacher instructs you to read the rest of the chapter out loud for the entire class to hear! Your palms start to sweat. Your heart starts to race, and your voice gets shaky with a different pitch.

I will NEVER forget one of those terrifying moments when I accidentally pronounced beast as breast! MORTIFIED! I died. I physically died.

Ok, maybe I didn’t die, but my skin warmed to a bright red. I was experiencing a physical response to an emotion. In fact, prior to the verbal blunder, the sweating, trembling, and increase in heart rate were all physical responses to the anxiety and fear of public speaking.

According to Traditional Chinese Medicine, certain organs and areas of our body store specific emotions. For example, the liver stores anger and frustration, and our heart stores joy which grants the capacity for grief. Our kidneys hold onto fear and so on.

When you hear sorrowful news of a loved one passing away, our hands often go to our chest. Our hearts feel broken, and again, our emotion of grief created a physical response. An alcoholic often damages his or her liver as a result of alcohol abuse, and the term “an angry drunk” frequently describes them. In this case, physical issues created an emotional response.

What happens when we stuff those emotions down and not express them? We just “deal” with the discomfort by ignoring that the emotion exists.

Well, my friends, what exists, persists…

Our bodies will continue to physically respond whether you choose to acknowledge the emotions or not.

In the late ‘90’s, my lower-middle class, blue collar family started to drown in medical bills. My mother chose to silently carry the financial burden on her shoulders.

Over time, I noticed that my mom’s digestion started to disintegrate. She rapidly started gaining weight, and her hair fell out in chunks. She no longer slept, and I noticed her age before my eyes. I literally watched her shoulders drop and her back round forward with the weight of the world on her shoulders.

Her body responded to the emotions she stuffed down and tried not to acknowledge.

How Emotions Prevent Our Bodies From Healing

Our incredible bodily systems contain intelligent communication. When an egg is fertilized, a woman’s body communicates to the rest of the body to start growing a little human. When you eat, your gallbladder communicates to other systems to start the digestion process.

This mind/body connection relies on a healthy, seamless flow of energy to communicate the next move.

If you need to relay information to your friend, you speak into a phone, and sound waves travel through space. Your friend’s device picks up that frequency and translates your message for your friend to receive as if you were standing next to them. Now, what if your iPhone had a bug that prevented the phone from working properly, or a thunderstorm rolled into your area as you spoke?

The communication no longer clearly translates from your device to your friend’s phone. This happens in your body. Emotions disrupt the feedback loop between the brain and the body.

How we achieve vibrant emotional health and motivation lies in knowing what powers on and powers down our feedback loops.

10 Ways to Achieve Emotional Health and Motivation

1.    Dopamine Hit: DO NOT mistake this for a scroll through social media, increase in caffeine, or coping with alcohol. A natural dopamine hit includes exercising, completing a project you have put off, getting enough sleep, listening to music, meditating, and spending time in the sun.

2.    Take a Dopamine Break: This may sound counter-intuitive, but sometimes we have been on the go so much that we need a break. Re-sensitizing yourself to your dopamine receptors will improve your response to dopamine.

3.    Physical Touch & Movement: The issues are in the tissues! Massage therapy, chiropractic care, acupuncture, and yoga all help release the stuck energy of emotions through physical touch and movement. Doctors such as Dr. Emilea and Dr. Chris practice the Neuro Emotional Technique, which helps identify the physical location and release of said emotions. This technique coupled with kinesiology and other techniques allows the body space to release the emotional blockage.

4.    Stay Connected: We need connection as humans. When we feel down, we instinctively want to seclude ourselves, but we often greatly benefit from a sense of community and inclusion.

5.    Identify the Emotion: As we discussed, emotions identify with specific organs. When you identify the emotion, you can drill down to the affected organ. One may also consider what stealth infections and toxins may infect those organs and detox accordingly.

6.    Address Your Gut & Digestion: Mold, SIBO, and parasites all contribute to depression and low serotonin levels. The majority of neurotransmitters are made in the gut. Chronic infections also cause low Vitamin D levels, which directly affects your emotional wellbeing. H. Pylori, which often infects the stomach and small intestine, leads to a B-12 deficiency, which directly affects one’s mood and emotional health. If I were to tell you that prior to my sister’s chronic depression and mental health issues, she suffered from chronic constipation, allergies and food sensitivities, inflammation, and metabolic disorders, would you be surprised? I know Dr. Chris and Dr. Emilea would not be shocked.

7.    Detox Your Liver: The MAO-A, MAO-B, COMT, and SULT genes get blocked when the liver gets overloaded. This inhibits our ability to break down serotonin, dopamine, and adrenaline, which leads to depression, lack of motivation, blood sugar dysregulation, insomnia, adrenal fatigue, mineral deficiencies, and needing extra methylation support. Frequency medicine shines here as it determines where the blockages lie.

8.    Replenish and Supplement: Never underestimate the power of hydration! Water moves and generates energy. Enhancing the mineral content of your hydration choice also helps the chemical responses of our system. We at Apogee Wellness use Lyte Switch from Human Nutrition Project as well as CT Minerals from Cellcore. We also use Albizia from Supreme Nutrition Products for depression

9.    Change Up Your Routine: Ever wonder why we feel better on vacation? Suddenly, our food sensitivities diminish, and our mood elevates. Stop the Groundhog Day cycle! Your brain gets lazy and automatically tells the body to respond in the same way given the same environment, task, stimuli, or stress. By changing up your routine, you force your mind and body to reconnect.

10. Forgive: Just as belief alone shifts our biology, hence the placebo effect, the act of forgiveness for others as well as ourselves profoundly impacts our feedback loops. Oftentimes, working with a therapist specializing in trauma helps one work through emotions and properly release stress.

Everyone’s source of depression, emotional trauma, and lack of motivation is unique. Working with compassionate practitioners that utilize frequency medicine will help determine if the issue originates as structural, chemical, or emotional to determine the best course of action.

In the meantime, when an emotion arises, do your body, mind, and soul a favor and acknowledge the emotion. Hold space for it. Then, let it go in whatever way feels natural and safe.

I sure hope you’re not running on the treadmill when that emotion arises!