Everyone has ‘stuff’. I mean the emotional type. Be it bothersome or not it’s usually stored away in some recess of our mind and body.

It’s good for the occasional dusting off, examining and, although we think we’ve “dealt with it”, we stick it back in the cupboard of our life until the next stock take.

Some of this stuff brings back unpleasant memories and we’re apt to dump something else on top of it in an attempt to mask that it’s even there. We either aren’t equipped to deal with the negative feelings or think it validates ourselves to hold onto the emotion.

Perhaps we’ve never thought about it either way. Life just “is” and some things are bad memories!

These events in our life are important.

They’re the reference points of who we are and what has guided our lives to where we’re at in this moment. They’re valuable and form a big part of our identity. They should guide us safely away from repeating the same experience type again…and again.

Sadly, when we don’t learn from these reference points (and I’m talking on an unconscious level here) our life will loop back through similar emotional experiences while the unconscious mind seeks validation, conscious learning and release from what is hindering body wholeness.

What isn’t so valuable about these events are the emotions that cling to them. Hanging on to emotions, such as anger, sadness, fear, guilt and hurt, make us feel negatively and put stress on the physical health of our bodies.

The emotions are stored at a cellular level and interfere with the neurological connections within us causing glitches in our otherwise finely tuned and dynamic being.

The Gestalt.

Our emotions are stored unconsciously on a ‘gestalt’. I liken this to a pearl necklace. Each pearl represents an event that holds a like emotion. We have a gestalt for each separate emotion. One for anger, one for sadness and so on.

The best way of releasing these negative emotions, in my experience, is to use a time line based therapy that allows our unconscious mind to consciously take us back to the moment before the first event of any given type occurred. Having a reference point, the unconscious mind can present a ‘learning’ or new way of thinking (a different possible outcome if you like). As the emotion drains away from that original event it’s like the pearls on the necklace being loosened to all slip off the strand on every event along the gestalt.

The emotional ‘charge’ is released from each event. It can take moments or minutes at best.

The memory remains intact. Instead, the outcome is an understanding of why this emotion was triggered and how we could have had a different outcome on subsequent events all the way into our future until now… and in fact, beyond.

How is this practically achieved?

For those interested the technique I was trained in is called Time Line Therapy ®. I appreciate the power and amazing propensity for change inherent in this technique. I don’t feel it’s safe or ecological to share the details of this therapy outside of a session with a trained practitioner. There is a lot to be found online though for the curious.

There are many roads, however, that lead to wholeness and wellness. All therapy should encompass both these things and leave the individual with more options in life than they previously had.

It really depends on what is available and what a person feels comfortable with at any given time.

I believe that the right opportunity will arise at the right moment. There is no single right way and experiencing what’s on offer is not a marriage contract.

Many different books and people have helped me. Each has had their time and place.

To use the words of a very wise man; “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you”.