Emotional Constipation

I was watching Blue Bloods with my dad the other day and Commissioner Reagan said something that hit the Unemotional Wreck nail on the head: Your mother’s side of the family suffers from Emotional Constipation (paraphrased).

Emotional Constipation!!!  I love it!  

As a Transformational Coach and Registered Aromatherapist, who focuses on the whole person (mind, body, and spirit), I got super excited and was really thrilled to dig into this. 

Also, as a recovering Unemotional Wreck myself, constipation is something I’m totally familiar with.

It wasn’t until I was well into adulthood that I realized that it wasn’t normal that I only pooped every three days.  All of my immediate family struggles with elimination; my sister, my brother (RIP), and my dad (until his whipple).  Did you know that you should eliminate after every meal?  If you’re not going that often, then there’s something not quite right.

What is physical Constipation?

Constipation, in its most basic sense, is “when waste or stool moves too slowly through the digestive tract or cannot be eliminated effectively from the rectum, which may cause the stool to become hard and dry” making it difficult to pass (2021).

Physical constipation can be caused by blockages in the colon or rectum (think cancer), nerve disruption around the colon or rectum, the muscles involved in elimination not working properly, or hormonal disruptions (2021).

Chronic constipation can cause a variety of issues like

  •  hemorrhoids
  • anal fissures (torn skin in the anus)
  • impaction (stool that you can’t push out)
  • rectal prolapse (when your intestine protrudes out of the anus)

Funny (not so funny) story, when my dad was about 12 years old, he was visiting his aunt.  One day, he felt the urge and ran to the outhouse to go, but nothing would come out!  His aunt had to come and manually remove the impacted stool. 

Now, I never got that bad, but seriously, until I began to heal my emotional constipation, I was an every three dayer and physical constipation was my norm.  

There is a huge connection between your emotional health and your physical health and how you poop is one way you can see how healthy you really are.

Emotional Constipation

When you consider the toll that constipation has on your physical body, you can really see how emotional constipation can take its toll as well.

There is a beautiful parallel between the symptoms and causes of physical constipation and emotional constipation.

Physical causes
  • blockages in the colon or rectum
  • nerve disruption around the colon or rectum
  • the muscles involved in elimination not working properly
  • or hormonal disruptions (2021)
Emotional causes
  • Blockages in your ability to release emotions
  • Disruptions in the mind-body connection
  • The mental muscles involved in emotions not working properly
  • Hormonal imbalances caused by years of disconnection
 
Physical symptoms
  • Passing fewer than three stools a week
  • Having lumpy or hard stools
  • Straining to have bowel movements
  • Feeling as though there’s a blockage in your rectum that prevents bowel movements
  • Feeling as though you can’t completely empty the stool from your rectum
  • Needing help to empty your rectum, such as using your hands to press on your abdomen and using a finger to remove stool from your rectum (2021)
Emotional Symptoms
  • Not experiencing emotions on a regular basis
  • Having a hard exterior (super-syndrome)
  • Straining to show emotions (because others expect it)
  • Feeling as though there’s something not quite right, that there’s a blockage preventing you from feeling
  • Feeling like you can’t completely show who you really are because you fear that you’re way too much for others to handle
  • You can manage everything on your own.  There’s no need to ask for help because you don’t believe that others can help

Once you realize you are physically constipated, there are treatments you can administer to help relieve the symptoms.

  • Diet and lifestyle changes 
  • Laxatives and other medications
  • Training your pelvic muscles
  • Surgery

The same is true if you’re Emotionally Constipated:

  • You could choose to work with a counselor or a coach (lifestyle)
  • you could take medications (anti-depressants or anti-anxiety)
  • you could train yourself to mimic what emotions look like (true story: I would practice what emotions looked like in the mirror so I could ‘seem’ to experience them)
  • you could even end up having to go through surgeries because your body has begun to shut down its functions

Something interesting to consider, when we’re talking about constipation, is that the blood that flows through your intestines is the same blood that flows through your brain.  

Imagine your intestines being backed up, constipated, full of crap.  Now imagine the blood flowing through that backed up mess and then flowing through your brain…can anyone say brain fog?

What if you could heal your emotional constipation? 

What if you could overcome your physical constipation?

The Treatment for Emotional Constipation

The Emotional Healing Process is the treatment for Emotional Constipation.  Working one-0n-one with me, you will overcome your emotional constipation and reconnect your mind and body in such a powerful way that you will learn to feel again and heal your body from your lifetime of physical and emotional constipation.

References

Mayo Clinic Staff. (2021). Constipation. Retrieved from https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/constipation/symptoms-causes/

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