The researchers found that most basic emotions were tied to greater activity in the upper chest area, likely corresponding to the emotions' effects on breathing and heart rate. Sensations were also commonly felt in the head, likely reflecting facial expressions and mental activity.
Along with the emotional baggage it carries, extreme sadness can cause distinctive physical sensations in the chest: tight muscles, a pounding heart, rapid breathing, and even a churning stomach. As you can see on the body map, survey respondents pinpointed the chest as a major spot for the manifestation of sadness.
We can share what we've learned about ourselves to others, receiving support and providing empathy for one another. Other ways that people deal with emotions include exercising, meditating, prayer, creating or listening to music, writing poetry, painting, or journaling.
Emotion is a very adaptive form of physiological response, and it regulates our lives. Emotion is expressed largely in the theater of the body, through posture and facial expression as well as through such internal processes as heart rate and blood pressure.
Lower Back = Guilt, Shame, and Unworthiness
Lower back issues often correlate with feelings of low self-worth and lack of self-acceptance. Feelings such as guilt, shame, and even sexual inadequacy or trauma can be stored here as well.
Two key areas of the brain are activated by shame: the prefrontal cortex and the posterior insula. The prefrontal cortex is the part of the brain associated with moral reasoning. This is where judgements about the self occur. The posterior insula is the part of the brain that engages visceral sensations in the body.
Emotions are felt in the gut. Feelings such sadness, anger, nervousness, fear and joy can be felt in the gut. The term “feeling sick to the stomach” describes a situation which involves mental or emotional anguish which can produce stress in the mind and the body.
The gastrointestinal tract is sensitive to emotion. Anger, anxiety, sadness, elation — all of these feelings (and others) can trigger symptoms in the gut. The brain has a direct effect on the stomach and intestines. For example, the very thought of eating can release the stomach's juices before food gets there.
For instance: Grief is stored in the Rib bones; Stubbornness is trapped in the Jaw bone; Self-Confidence is hidden in the Shin bones; and Sexual Abuse is stored in the Pubic bone.
The depths of despair can lower your immune system, increase blood pressure and heart rate - and cause significant muscle weakness, just to name a few. Stress from grief can flood the body with hormones, specifically cortisol, which causes that heavy-achy-feeling you get in your chest area.
Guilt, Fishkin says, is associated with activity in the prefrontal cortex, the logical-thinking part of the brain. Guilt can also trigger activity in the limbic system. (That's why it can feel so anxiety-provoking.)
Fear is felt more in the chest, while disgust is stronger in our mouth and stomach.
The emotion of anger is associated with the choleric humor and can cause resentment and irritability. It is believed that this emotion is stored in the liver and gall bladder, which contain bile. Anger can cause headaches and hypertension which can in turn affect the stomach and the spleen.
The most common areas we tend to hold stress are in the neck, shoulders, hips, hands and feet. Planning one of your stretch sessions around these areas can help calm your mind and calm your body. When we experience stressful situations whether in a moment or over time, we tend to feel tension in the neck.
INNER THIGHS
During times of loss, our fight-or-flight system may be highly activated because the worst has just happened and we are now on high alert. Fear and discomfort can be stored in the inner thighs, to remind us that we are not feeling safe and may need to take off at any time.
Feelings have so much to do with the heart, as they do with the brain. It's actually a two-way relationship. Our emotions change the signals the brain sends to the heart and the heart responds to the brain in complex ways.
Each emotion is associated with a specific organ: Lung is effected by sadness, heart by joy, spleen by worry, liver by anger, and kidney by fear or fright.
Three brain structures appear most closely linked with emotions: the amygdala, the insula or insular cortex, and a structure in the midbrain called the periaqueductal gray. A paired, almond-shaped structure deep within the brain, the amygdala integrates emotions, emotional behavior, and motivation.
Sadness is a feeling of emotional pain, often due to loss. Sadness may flood your body with hormones like cortisol. Excess stress hormones in the body can cause physical sensations in your heart and nervous system, like chest pain, itching, or a rapid heart rate.
When we feel heartache, for example, we are experiencing a blend of emotional stress and the stress-induced sensations in our chest—muscle tightness, increased heart rate, abnormal stomach activity and shortness of breath.