How Trapped Emotions Disrupt the Nervous System, and What You Can Do to Heal
- Brainz Magazine
- 22 minutes ago
- 8 min read
Written by Sheila Marina, Energy Healer
Sheila Marina is an Energy Healer and the founder of Planet of Peace Energy Healing, a holistic practice offering emotional release and energy healing. With over 35 years of experience, she helps others restore balance through The Emotion Code, mind-body techniques, and compassionate leadership.
What if the stress, anxiety, or emotional exhaustion you're feeling isn't just “in your head” but is actually stored in your body? Emotional buildup can leave us feeling off balance, reactive, exhausted, disconnected, or chronically on edge. In this article, we’ll explore the link between trapped emotions and the nervous system, explain how emotional energy gets stored in the body, and share how tools like The Emotion Code, as well as other intuitive practices, can help bring relief, clarity, and lasting transformation. Because healing is not only possible, it’s your birthright. And it begins with understanding what's been stored inside you all along.
What are trapped emotions?
The term “trapped emotions” comes from the work of Dr. Bradley Nelson, creator of The Emotion Code, who defines them as emotional energies that become lodged in the body when we experience intense stress, emotional pain, or trauma. These energies are meant to move through us, like waves on the shore, but when an experience feels too overwhelming, threatening, or unsafe, the body may hold onto that emotional charge as a way to protect us in the moment.
This isn’t a failure of the body; it’s a form of wisdom. And left unresolved, these stored emotions can quietly affect us in unexpected ways.
How trapped emotions influence our behaviour
Trapped emotions can distort our natural energy flow, influencing how we think, feel, and react, often beneath our conscious awareness. You might find yourself easily triggered, overwhelmed by small stresses, or stuck in patterns that don’t make sense logically. You may carry anxiety that doesn’t seem to have a source, sadness that lingers without cause, or physical symptoms that defy diagnosis.
Effective methods of help
Through gentle, heart-centered methods like The Emotion Code, Body Code, Belief Code, Reiki, and other intuitive practices, we can identify and let go of these lingering emotional energies, creating space for the body, heart, and mind to finally exhale. The story about that thing that happened in your past becomes unnecessary. Every session is completely content-free.
Are trapped emotions imprinted or inherited?
Many people walk through life never realizing they’re carrying these hidden emotional imprints. Some are formed in childhood. Others are inherited from family members, energetic echoes passed down through generations. Even seemingly minor moments, like suppressing tears or holding your breath during a confrontation, can leave behind a residue in the body’s energetic field.
While we often try to “manage” our emotions with coping strategies, trapped emotions can remain in the background, quietly disrupting our nervous system and emotional balance.
How trapped emotions affect the nervous system
The nervous system is the command center of our emotional and physical responses. It governs how we react to stress, how we process safety or threat, and how we regulate our energy and emotions throughout the day. When trapped emotions are stored in the body, they can interfere with this delicate system, often keeping it stuck in a state of hypervigilance, exhaustion, or shutdown.
Signs your nervous system may be affected
You might feel it as chronic anxiety that buzzes beneath the surface. Or a numbness that makes it hard to feel anything at all. You may have difficulty concentrating, relaxing, sleeping, or trusting your own instincts. These are signs that the nervous system is carrying too much emotional load, often from energies we didn’t even realize were still present.
Related Article: A Guide to Nervous System Regulation With Simple Habits
How trapped emotions affect the physical body
When the body is holding onto unprocessed emotions, it can’t fully return to a regulated, balanced state. The sympathetic nervous system (our “fight or flight” response) can remain activated long after a stressful experience is over, leaving us in a constant loop of emotional reactivity or depletion.
This dysregulation can affect more than just mood. It may contribute to physical symptoms like fatigue, muscle tension, headaches, digestive issues, or immune imbalances. It can also make emotional regulation difficult, affecting relationships, decision-making, and our ability to cope with everyday life.
And here's the empowering truth: just as emotional energy can become trapped, it can also be released.
Can the body overcome these trapped emotions?
The body’s wisdom is extraordinary. It will hold onto what it believes you’re not ready to feel and it will also respond the moment you begin to offer it safe, intentional release. With energy healing practices, we gently signal to the nervous system: “It’s safe now. You can let go.”
And as the body lets go, the healing begins not only physically, but emotionally, spiritually, and energetically.
Related Article: The Science Behind Energy Healing
A real-life example of healing through emotional release
Several years ago, I worked with a client we’ll call her Sarah who came to me feeling chronically overwhelmed and emotionally “stuck.” On the surface, everything in her life seemed fine. She had a stable career, a loving family, and a strong support network. Yet beneath it all, she carried a sense of unease that she couldn’t explain. She often felt anxious for no apparent reason, struggled to relax, and described herself as always being “on edge.”
As we began our sessions, it became clear that Sarah was carrying trapped emotional energy that had never been fully processed. Using The Emotion Code, we identified and released several trapped emotions related to early childhood moments where she had felt unsupported, unheard, and afraid to speak her truth. Some of these emotions weren’t even hers directly; they had been inherited from previous generations, passed silently through family lines.
With each release, something shifted. Sarah began to sleep more deeply. Her nervous system, once tightly wound, started to soften. She found herself reacting to stress with more calm, more choice, and less urgency. One day she said, “It feels like I can finally exhale again.”
What made the biggest difference wasn’t just the technique; it was the acknowledgment. The act of naming what had been trapped, honoring it, and gently letting it go. That’s the beauty of energy work: we don’t have to relive the pain in order to release it.
Sarah’s story is just one of many. Whether the emotion is fear, grief, anger, or shame, the body holds onto what it hasn’t had permission to process. But with intention, compassion, and the right support, we can release what no longer belongs and create space for peace to take its place.
Another transformation: Releasing what wasn’t his to carry
Daniel came to me not because he was in crisis, but because he felt disconnected from himself, from joy, from the sense that life had meaning. He described it as a dullness in his body and spirit, like the color had drained from his world. “I’m doing everything right,” he told me, “but I still feel empty.”
As we began working together, we uncovered several trapped emotions linked to his teenage years, moments where he had shut down emotionally to survive a difficult home environment. But even more significantly, Daniel was carrying inherited emotional energy. Using The Emotion Code Chart, we identified emotions of sorrow and shame that did not originate with him, but had been passed down from his father’s lineage, pain that had never been spoken, only absorbed.
This realization alone was deeply validating. He had spent years trying to “fix” a heaviness that didn’t fully belong to him.
As we released those inherited emotions, Daniel began to feel lighter, not in a dramatic or sudden way, but like a subtle lifting of a fog. He described it as “a soft return to myself.” Over the next few weeks, his posture changed, his voice carried more ease, and he began reconnecting with old passions, music, reading, walking in nature, things that had once brought him joy.
What shifted for Daniel wasn’t just the removal of emotional weight; it was the restoration of his own essence. Sometimes healing doesn’t look like fireworks. Sometimes it looks like breath, softness, color returning to the sky.
What can you do to heal?
If any part of Sarah or Daniel’s story resonated with you, know this: you are not alone and more importantly, you are not broken. The emotions you carry, whether loud or quiet, recent or ancestral, are not signs of failure. They are signs of being human. And when those emotions become trapped, they’re not trying to punish you, they’re trying to protect you.
And the body can only carry so much.
Healing begins with awareness. Simply recognizing that your symptoms, whether they’re emotional, physical, or spiritual, may be rooted in unprocessed emotion is a powerful first step. From there, the journey inward can begin.
How can you effectively move forward
One of the most gentle and effective ways to support this journey is through The Emotion Code, a modality developed by Dr. Bradley Nelson. It works by identifying trapped emotions held in the body’s energy field and safely releasing them, without the need to relive the past or retell the story. When combined with Reiki, The Body Code, or Belief Code work, the release can ripple across all levels of being: physical, emotional, and energetic.
Other intuitive practices can also support your healing: breathwork, grounding in nature, somatic movement, daily self-reflection, or working with a trained energy practitioner. These aren’t quick fixes; they’re invitations back to presence, to safety, to self.
Your body will remember your innate freedom
You don’t have to do it all at once. You don’t even have to know where to start. All that’s required is the willingness to listen inward and the trust that your body already knows the way.
Because beneath all the layers of coping, holding, and surviving, there is still a part of you that remembers what it feels like to be free.
Gratitude and healing
Thank you for being here for your openness, your presence, and your willingness to explore what healing can truly mean.
The emotions you carry hold stories, protection, and resilience. And when they’re ready to be released, something beautiful happens: space is made. Space for stillness. For lightness. For you.
Sheila Marina: Planet of peace energy healing
After 35 years working as a Children’s Services caseworker and now as an Energy Healer, I’ve come to understand that true healing goes far deeper than coping strategies.
That’s why I founded Planet of Peace Energy Healing: to create a sanctuary where emotional energy can be acknowledged, honored, and gently released, making room for clarity, calm, and reconnection with the self.
At Planet of Peace Energy Healing, I support individuals across the world in reconnecting with that space inside, gently releasing trapped emotions, restoring nervous system harmony, and reawakening a sense of clarity and calm.
Each session becomes a sacred invitation to step into greater freedom and self-trust.
If this speaks to your heart, I welcome you to connect with me here. Sessions are in-person at my office in Bowmanville, Ontario or virtual on Zoom and each one is specifically personalized with care.
You are already moving toward healing. And your peace is closer than you think.
Read more from Sheila Marina
Sheila Marina, Energy Healer
Sheila Marina is an Energy Healer with over three decades of experience guiding others toward emotional freedom and inner peace. Rooted in 35 years of service in child and family support, she founded Planet of Peace Energy Healing, a sanctuary for healing, release, and renewal. Blending The Emotion Code, Body Code, Belief Code, and Reiki, Sheila offers a path to transformation that honors both the wisdom of the body and the whispers of the soul. A former Area Director with Toastmasters and Group Facilitator with Sashbear.org, she brings a compassionate presence to every step of the healing journey. Her mission is to help others reconnect with their truth and move forward with clarity, peace, and purpose.
