About That Feeling You’re Avoiding … A Gentle Meditation for Healing and Emotional Release
Turning Toward Our Feelings Instead of Avoiding Them: The Practice of Emotional Release and Inner Repair
Most of us are avoiding something.
Not because we’re doing anything wrong, but because we were never really taught how to be with what we feel. We’ve inherited all kinds of subtle and not-so-subtle messages: Keep it together. Don’t be too sensitive. Just get over it.
So we learn, without even realizing it, to suppress, to minimize, to brush things aside with a smile or a scroll or a to-do list.
And often, it works — for a while.
But just because we’re not acknowledging a feeling doesn’t mean it disappears.
Some part of us is still carrying it. Still feeling it. Still responding to it beneath the surface.
The beautiful truth is: you don’t have to keep avoiding it.
There’s another way — one that’s gentle, supportive, and profoundly relieving.
When we learn to turn toward our emotions with presence and care, something softens. What felt stuck or heavy begins to shift. And in that shift, we find not just relief, but a deeper sense of connection with ourselves.
This is the beginning of emotional release — not through effort, but through attunement.
Emotional Release Begins in the Body, Not the Mind
We might not be thinking about it, but our body still knows.
Avoidance doesn’t bring peace. It brings disconnection.
And often, what we push down doesn’t stay silent. It resurfaces in other ways:
In the restless energy we can’t shake.
In the tightness in our chest that comes out of nowhere.
In the tension, the fatigue, the looped thoughts that feel hard to name.
Our systems are wise — they keep track of what hasn’t been processed, not to punish us, but to protect us. To remind us that something inside is still asking for care.
That’s why turning toward our feelings is such a powerful act.
Because when we stop trying to make them go away and instead say, “I’m here, I’m listening,” we begin to come back into integrity — not just emotionally, but somatically.
What’s been held can start to move.
What’s been silenced can start to speak.
And in that space of compassionate attention, emotional release becomes possible.
Our Emotions Naturally Release Under The Right Conditions
Emotional release isn’t a goal to strive toward. It’s a natural process that happens when the body feels safe enough to feel, and the psyche feels supported enough to reveal what’s been held.
It’s not about dramatic catharsis.
Instead, it’s about presence. The kind of presence that allows a buried feeling to rise, a tangled story to unwind, or a wounded part to speak.
And when this happens - when we stay long enough to feel what’s here, to let it move, to welcome its message - something begins to shift inside us.
The breath deepens.
The nervous system recalibrates.
The emotion integrates — not because we’ve forced it, but because it’s been seen, heard, and felt with care.
This is the somatic intelligence of the human system:
Feelings are meant to move.
They just need a safe place to land.
How Regenerating Images in Memory® Supports Emotional Release
Regenerating Images in Memory® (RIM®) is one of the tools I turn to often, both in my personal healing and in my work with others, because it helps us go to these deeper emotional places with gentleness and precision.
RIM is a neuroscience-informed process that helps you connect with the part of you that’s holding an emotion or experience. The process is deeply collaborative, designed to honor your inner timing and work with your nervous system, not against it.
What makes RIM so powerful for emotional release is that it supports the emotional re-processing of experiences that were previously overwhelming, frozen, or misinterpreted.
You’re not just remembering — you’re repairing.
You’re not just feeling — you’re reclaiming.
It’s a practice of bringing light and breath into the places that have felt stuck in silence for too long.
Rewiring Your Relationship With Yourself
After a lifetime of being conditioned to override, minimize, or pathologize our emotions, turning toward them can feel… unfamiliar.
Even when we want to feel, something in us might hesitate. That’s not a failure. It’s simply the imprint of our past protections.
This is why turning toward is not a one-time act - it’s a practice.
Each time you pause and feel,
each time you stay and listen,
you rewire something fundamental.
You show your body: “It’s safe now. I’m not going to leave you.”
And this is what opens the door to true emotional release — the kind that restores, not exhausts. The kind that brings clarity, not chaos. The kind that leaves you feeling more whole, not less.
Remember, your feelings are not a problem to solve. They are a doorway into deeper connection with yourself. And no matter how long you’ve been avoiding them, you can always begin again.
Try this Gentle Meditation for Healing and Emotional Release now!
Episode timing:
00:00 - The power of turning toward our feelings instead of avoiding them
04:13 - Gentle Meditation For Healing And Emotional Release (using Regenerating Images in Memory)
36:43 - Conclusion
Related: Enjoy more Somatic Emotional Processing Meditations here!
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What was that Gentle Meditation For Healing and Emotional Release like for you?
What shifted within you by turning toward that feeling you were avoiding? What realizations did you have?
Please let me know in the comments!
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Enjoy more like this: RIM® Exercises, Get to the roots, Self-Compassion Exercises, Somatic Emotional Processing
About me
Hey, I’m Karena!
I’m a somatic emotional healing coach here to help you quickly identify and heal the subconscious blocks, old emotional wounds and self-sabotaging core beliefs that are holding you back!
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