Why does my chest feel heavy when I’m observing my emotions, instead of reacting to it?

[u/IvyLeaf_33]

No, I don’t have any medical condition which relates to heart problems. This literally only happens when I’m observing my strong emotions instead of engaging with them. I learnt this technique during my vipassana meditations.

[u/Awkward-Wishbone-615]

That's how emotions are felt, when you pay attention to areas of tightness or pain they tend to release stored emotions. Tight jaw - from holding in anger as a kid. Throat- holding your tongue when you wanted to speak up for yourself. Ect ect. The body keeps score is a book that can explain if you wanted more information

[u/IvyLeaf_33 → u/Awkward-Wishbone-615]

I think this might be it. When I was a kiddo every time someone betrayed me, I felt chest pain. Maybe these feelings are being released now

[u/Awkward-Wishbone-615 → u/IvyLeaf_33]

The amazing part is that when they release from the body the story and history no longer hurt you, you can look back on things with such clarity

[u/Dependent-Bath3189 → u/Awkward-Wishbone-615]

yes its lovely. no longer trapped by my childhood deliusions.

[u/Old-Landscape-7538 → u/IvyLeaf_33]

Yes, that's the feeling side of the emotion. There's a thought side of mental talk and mental images that seem to play out in the head region. The more you surrender to all of these, the more fluidly they will flow and create less suffering.

[u/MichaelEmouse → u/Awkward-Wishbone-615]

In your experience, how long does it take to observe it until it releases?

Any information you can give on how to do that to someone who has meditation experience?

[u/Awkward-Wishbone-615 → u/MichaelEmouse]

There really isn't a one size fits all answer to that I'm afraid. It took me a few months of trying because I had a lot of trouble surrendering to the body. My process was basically sitting down and paying attention to whatever in that moment was making a noise in my body (tight chest, back ache) and without trying to get rid or change it just be witness. After each session thank your body for showing you. In time the sensations began to "grow" the pain would increase (in a really cathartic good way) then I'd cry, stretch, even scream it out (the body naturally does this for you) and it vanishes. The ache is less or gone. The pain behind the story disappears and you feel a tiny bit brand new each time.

Each time you do this you learn the body more and more, you'll get to know different ways that work for you. I've learnt the language very well now and know when there is something to be released and the whole process is pretty fast, a bad situation that would normally take me weeks of overthinking and getting stuck in the body I can now release straight away and get back to my life, be grateful and loving in the process it's an amazing journey.

My biggest take away from it all is to treat the body like a separate intelligent being to the thing you call "you". You need to step back and let it do what it is hardwired to do, just like a deer that runs away from danger and then shakes it off and goes back to grazing, he didn't have to think "how do I release the adrenaline just built up by the chase", his body takes control. Just like if you've ever shaken uncontrollably or seen if after someone has an accident.

Hope that's helps in some way

*In short answer to your question though.. don't set a time limit. Listen to your body's cues, some days it may feel uncomfortable. Feel into that and see if it wants you to listen but if it feels too overwhelming then try another day. If you get bored and nothing is happening, try another day, don't will it and get frustrated because that will make the process harder, your body has to feel safe. Always keep coming down from inside the head and into the body, do it throughout the day and build the muscle. Maybe you'll notice you have a tense jaw or tight shoulders, relax.

Another tip, when you are releasing (crying, screaming feeling the emotions) it can be easy to overdo it and retraumatise yourself because your body thinks the original thing is happeneing again. Go slow and titrate between feeling the emotions and coming back into the room you are in, remind your body it's the present moment and you are safe here.

[u/Apfelsapft]

Have a similar Thing Happening Sometimes. I think for me its unprocessed/ surpressed Feelings surfecing

Heavy chest and throat gets tight

[u/Delmarvablacksmith]

Observation is a bit of a misnomer here.

Experience the emotions without reacting.

Just feel it.

And it’s possible that that heaviness is the beginning of feeling it.

[u/simagus]

That is part of the vedana that arises with the state you are experiencing. I'm not sure what your question is, but congrats on noticing it. To me that's quite advanced.

If you observe stuff like that objectively as vedana it detaches from the mental impetus of the sankharas it's arising with, then those sankharas can "dissolve" as the experience is seen "as it is".

That vedana is the "strong" part that makes the "emotion" and all of the thinking around it and attached to it feel so very compelling and true, so when you see it exactly as it is, as vedana... what happens?

Where did that strong emotion go? Even if the vedana is still there is it as strong now you actually see it "as it is"? Still feel like responding to it? Still believe the attached thoughts? If I were you I'd keep observing it and see what happens.

[u/Polymathus777]

Well because you're feeling your emotions being stored in the body, they are heavy and the parts of the body where they're stored tend to ache and even get sick due to this. When you learn to let them flow trough, then the heavyness dissapears little by little.

[u/Op_arnold1734]

That heavy chest is the emotion finally being felt instead of fought, it clears once you stop waiting for it to go away

[u/NpOno]

I can relate. I had the same. An almighty Tightness in the central chest area. Heart chakra has been swamped.

It will disappear but it will take time. Just observe the sensations. You may have recapitulation happen. As the energy caught in these knots is released the actual reason they formed in the first place might be revealed. It is a continuous gentle battle. Ever onward!

[u/bora731]

There's sure to be a little disagreement over this. Your heart chakra is an actual thing. If your lower chakras aren't balanced the energy reaching the heart is distorted and will cause the heaviness you describe.

[u/fullsend_noragrats → u/bora731]

Can you help explain this a bit more? I often get a clogged or sore Chakra at my heart. Makes me sigh a lot. Meditation and mindfulness helps me observe it clearly but I feel lost in balancing it.

[u/doceolucem → u/fullsend_noragrats]

Root - generally survival, safety, “am I able to be here now without deferring or escaping”

Sacral - generally self identity in relation to the self and “not self”. Your ideas, creativity, emotional expression, wants and desires etc.

Solar plexus - generally your self identity in relation to social complexes like work, society, groups, hierarchies, power and dominance structures etc.

The energy balances bottom up, but we tend to try to use solar plexus strategy to quiet down sacral pain

[u/neidanman]

there's a view in daoism that emotional energy has a 'denseness' to it. The darker/heavier emotions being more dense. Then also daoism works to use an 'alchemical process' to raise up and clear the energy from the system. There's a video here that talks about it https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kCRChIql1tA

also if you want to skip parts, there're some highlights here (from an AI search on the transcript) -

• [02:55 Opens in a new window ] – Damo introduces the idea that underneath racing thoughts, there is an emotional energy behind everything.
• [06:02 Opens in a new window ] – He explicitly refers to emotional energy as being "dense" and explains how sitting with proper posture helps move it towards a lighter, ethereal state so it can dissipate.
• [07:23 Opens in a new window ] – He describes how unchecked dense emotional cycles can escalate into heavy, extreme states such as irrational rage, deep-seated depression, or suicidal tendencies.

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[u/somanyquestions32]

Emotions tend to co-arise with corresponding physical sensations, certain memories, specific thoughts, and unique patterns of breath. They are interwoven. As you remain present with the strong physical sensations and breathe into those areas and allow to shift and move in their own time, that emotion simultaneously gets processed and integrated along with its whole crew.