A blockage is generally something that is in your path that requires you to stop. You can often grasp this, but an emotional block involves something different. You then have more of a blockage in your mind, in your head shall we say. You then have a mental block, you cannot grasp this.
A blockage occurs on the road to something
In general, then, a blockage is something that arises on the road while you are going somewhere. So the fact that we often use the word blockage is actually quite interesting, because apparently you want to be somewhere, but something is blocking you from getting there.
For example, you may suffer from a block when you have to deliver a presentation that could be very important to your career, why really? Your goal then is to be successful, but somewhere in your subconscious something happens that causes you to stall while giving or before giving the presentation, perhaps these are beliefs about success, about self-esteem or even self-confidence.
As paradoxical as it sounds, people can even suffer from fear of success.
Symptoms of an emotional block
An emotional blockage can be identified by a number of things:
- You can't figure out how to achieve your goals anymore.
- You feel stuck in your life.
- You feel like you're not moving forward anymore.
- You put on a mental mask to your social circle.
- You avoid activities because you are afraid of making mistakes.
- You're afraid of being rejected.
- You couldn't feel more motivated to achieve your goals.
- You focus more on negatives.
- You are easily jealous or irritated[1].
These are all symptoms that fit certain beliefs about self-esteem, self-confidence and your beliefs about success.
You may feel like you have an emotional block due to these types of beliefs. You can't really grasp an emotion alone.
Therefore, herewith first some practical tips for resolving emotional blockage.
Tip #1: Name a block as something you do
In that case, it is often more convenient to say "I am blocking," for a block is something you have. Because you can grasp that. If you cannot grasp it, then it is more like something you do, even if unconsciously.
For example, when you think about public speaking, you feel something in your body. You then block as it were, but how do you actually do this? When you know this, you can also unblock yourself. You can then unblock your emotional block more easily.
Tip 2: Consider what is actually happening inside yourself when you have a blockage
For example, you start to look angry and feel tense. You get certain thoughts. These are things you do. Then you can use different techniques to look at how you can do this differently, how you can see something differently, think differently or how you can feel differently in the moment that you are blocking.
For me, feeling differently and seeing differently are often the entry points to help people resolve an emotional block.
Tip 3: Change the having to doing in your mind
This makes it easier to change. In fact, by saying you are blocking, by making it a verb, you are also taking responsibility somewhere for your own behavior.
This means you also take responsibility for changing it. You don't need a pill from a doctor to make it go away. No, you can do this yourself and it's okay to get help with that. To the person who helps you, such as a coach, psychologist or hypnotherapist, for example, you can describe what you actually do when you block. By doing so, you also give the person helping you tools to help you move forward.
Also check out this video on lifting an emotional block:
Emotional block release
A time when many emotional blockages occur is when students want to get their doctoral degree. These blockages then manifest themselves in not being able to properly formulate text, which often has to be good for research reporting, or poor interaction with their supervisor. This then causes decreased confidence that things will work out, decreased confidence in their own ability and the feeling of just not being able to do anything is also described as one of the complaints.
Feeling ownership of the blockage is an important step to still finding a solution to move forward with the doctoral degree. To do this, they must also be able to clearly identify their problem. So describing what is happening and what they themselves are doing is important for this[2].
Tip 4: Find a buddy to meet your goal with
This research also reveals that having people who support you to achieve your goals helps you overcome your blockage as well.
For example, if your goal is to exercise more, exercising with someone can help you not get blocked if, say, it rains one time when you were supposed to be running.
If your goal is to do well at work, it's a good idea to find someone with the same goal. You can then practice presentations with each other, for example, or point each other to good courses or books about your field.
Change the beliefs that block you
As mentioned with the symptoms associated with an emotional block, they are often the result of beliefs. For example, you have thoughts about the negative effects of success. Or thoughts about whether you are worthy of achieving a certain position, for example. You may feel like a fraud yourself, even though you are just good at your job.
To detect these kinds of illogical beliefs, you can seek help from a hypnotherapist. For example, he can help you through a socratic conversation to find out which beliefs are actually causing you to block. That you keep failing to do what is necessary to achieve your goals.
Then the hypnotist can help you change beliefs with a variety of techniques. This can be done, for example, by symbolically changing something in you or through regression.
If your goal is more in your family circle, even using family constellation can make emotional blockages disappear.
Tip 5: Make sure your goal serves a higher purpose
Japanese research shows, for example, that blockages to achieving personal or business goals are more often related to whether or not you achieve existential meaning than to economic wealth[3]. So it must feel somewhere like you are doing something for a greater good. That your life has purpose, so to speak.
Therefore, check if your goal is more than just a goal to make money. For example, when you help people, this can make you feel good about your goal and motivate you to still achieve your goal.
Tip 6: Stimulate your creativity
By doing something creative, such as painting, dancing, writing stories or something similar, you stimulate your creativity, which can also help you achieve goals outside of such a hobby. This helps you think out-of-the-box again.
Tip 7: Use self-hypnosis
At times when things get tough, self-hypnosis can also help you break the block. Once you have found help with a hypnotist, they can give you some kind of homework in the form of affirmations that you repeat during self-hypnosis.
You learn how self-hypnosis works during the hypnosis sessions, and which affirmations you get depends on the beliefs that are causing your emotional block. You can repeat these daily in order to be less bothered by the blockade for a long time, this helps, among other things, to prevent it from coming back.
These can include affirmations such as:
Success creates more love.
I am worthy of achieving my goals.
I help people.
I love the small and big things in life.
These are just examples. Depending on your beliefs, you may be given other affirmations to take home as homework.
Want to learn more about hypnosis? Then sign up for the free online master class.
Instead, would you like to get started right away to help yourself or others get rid of their emotional block? Then enroll in the Hypnosis Institute Netherlands training program.
Also pin this handy infographic as a reminder:
[1] https://exploringyourmind.com/what-is-emotional-blockage/
[2] https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-94-6300-512-8_13
[3] https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/1683478X.2017.1281534
Rebecca Mccray
on21 Apr 2024