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- Where Unprocessed Emotions Hide In Your Body & How To Release Them (Dr. Douglas Tataryn)
Where Unprocessed Emotions Hide In Your Body & How To Release Them (Dr. Douglas Tataryn)
Scott Britton
November 28, 2025
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“We have the intellectual brain, where most of our culture is situated. And so in terms of the power of the emotions, I basically suggest that our entire culture, because of our pushing away of the emotional system for decades and generations, is very unconscious when it comes to the emotional system. The emotional system is what drives our behavior far more than what our thinking rational brain does. And our emotional brain drives our thinking processes far more than we'd like to acknowledge. And so one of the little quips that I've come up with is that our intellectual brain thinks about what the emotional brain feels is important. So there's an example of how most people are just aware of the thoughts and what they're thinking and being pushed to think or ruminate on certain areas. And they're not aware that it's being driven by unconscious emotional processes.” (00:05:12 in this cast)
Dr. Douglas Tataryn is a clinical psychologist with decades of experience who developed the Bio-Emotive Framework. His groundbreaking research revealed exactly where unprocessed emotions hide in your body and created a systematic method to release them. His work bridges the gap between emotional healing and spiritual awakening, helping people understand why they do what they do and how to finally release the patterns holding them back.
I wish I had discovered Dr.Tataryn's work 20 years earlier. I had chronic tension in my shoulders and jaw. I tried massage, yoga, stretching, everything. Nothing worked long-term because I was treating symptoms, not the cause. If you feel like something is off and can’t quite figure out what that might be, you might find some gems in this conversation.
This episode is sponsored by my book Conscious Accomplishment - How to Use Personal Achievement for Spiritual Growth.
If you’re looking to blend consciousness expansion while creating the material life you desire, pick up your copy today!
This episode is great for:
Long-time meditators who still get triggered by the same patterns
People in therapy getting insights but not feeling fundamentally different
Anyone with chronic body tension or pain that won't resolve
People who deflect compliments or can't receive love
Those repeating the same relationship or life patterns
Bodyworkers, therapists, or coaches working with others will gain a powerful framework for understanding the body-emotion-mind connection
Ideas that really stuck out to me:
Anger hides in your forearms, fists, and jaw. Dr. Tataryn’s research showed that people suppressing anger had chronically tight forearms because the first response to anger is clenching your fist. That muscle tension interferes with the anger and calms you down, becoming a conditioned response over time. Jaw tension and TMJ come from the same source. Things you want to say but don't, literally biting your tongue. If your forearms are always tight or you grind your teeth at night, there's unexpressed anger living there.
Inadequacy and burden hide in your shoulders and upper back. If you carry chronic tension here, you're likely holding feelings of inadequacy about not doing enough and the weight of carrying too many burdens. This is the classic "weight of the world on your shoulders" that is not just a metaphor. Your body is literally trying to hold up and manage everything because underneath there is a core feeling that you're not adequate unless you do.
Fear and anxiety hide in your chest and diaphragm. Chest tightness and shallow breathing are your body's way of managing fear and anxiety. When you can't take a full deep breath, you're literally not letting life in because it feels unsafe. Your diaphragm stays contracted to keep you from feeling the full intensity of the fear underneath.
Helplessness hides in your lower back. Chronic lower back tension and pain often indicate that you feel unsupported and helpless, like you're holding everything up alone. Your back is literally trying to support a burden that feels too heavy, and underneath is often a core feeling of "I can't do this" or "I have no help."
Suppressed expression hides in your throat and neck. Tightness here comes from things you need to say but haven't, from words you've swallowed, and from expression you've held back. Your body is constricting the pathway for those words to come out. This is also where the feeling of being unheard or dismissed often lives.
The Nedera process is how you actually release what's stored. First, notice where your body is tense. Then access the feeling in your torso where emotions sit. Differentiate by saying out loud: "I feel sad. I feel angry. I feel afraid. I feel happy." Whichever causes activation is your starting point. Then go deeper. "I feel angry" becomes "I feel angry at my boss," then "I feel betrayed," and then finally "I feel insignificant." When you hit the core feeling, the tears come and the tension releases.
You can release emotions at the edge of sleep. As you're falling asleep, there's a moment where your intellect drops off. Right in that state, shift your attention to areas of tension in your body. These will be excruciatingly difficult to pay attention to because as soon as you move into them, there's a feeling you've been avoiding. But if you just sit there without trying to fix it, everything starts to unravel. The memories surface, the crying happens, and that part of your body heals and relaxes.
You need the specific feeling word to release it completely. Dr. Tataryn discovered nine core feelings over three years: worthless, inadequate, insignificant, helpless, trapped, rejected, abandoned, unsafe, and unlovable. To cry and say you feel helpless brings about a different release than to cry and say you feel inadequate. The specific word bridges your emotional and intellectual brain systems together. Without the precise language, you might get temporary relief, but the pattern will recreate itself.
Muscle tension blocks emotions by design. When you start to feel something you don't want to feel, you tense up. That tension doesn't just stop the expression. It actually interferes with your ability to experience the emotion. You diminish the intensity by tensing. Then when you relax, it starts coming up again. You've just punished relaxation. Your body learns tension equals safety, and this becomes automatic.
Everything that arises is self-liberating if you give it space. The Tibetans discovered that when you put your attention on that tense part of your body, allow the feeling to emerge, name it specifically, and give it space to be fully felt without judgment, it naturally completes its cycle. The tears come, the insight arrives, and the energy releases. Your body wants to heal and has a natural mechanism for processing emotions. You just have to create the conditions: safety, specific language, and space for full expression.
Dr. Tataryn’s work fills a massive gap in both spiritual and psychological communities.
The spiritual world often ignores emotional healing in favor of transcendence. The psychological world gets the insight without the release.
He gives you both a complete framework for transformation that honors the interconnection of body, emotion, mind, and spirit.
I hope you enjoy this conversation!
- Scott
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Episode Transcript
Show Notes
00:00 - Introduction to Emotional Awareness
06:00 - Early Influences and Emotional Discovery
12:00 - Understanding Unconscious Processes
18:00 - Muscular Interference Theory Explained
24:00 - Bio-Motive Framework for Healing
30:00 - Emotions in Spiritual Traditions
36:00 - Consciousness and Emotional Integration
42:00 - Practical Applications of Emotional Awareness
48:00 - Challenges in Emotional Expression
54:00 - Conclusion and Final Thoughts