Black Bags in the Body
With modern technology, these black bags can now be measured. In the book Foundation Theory, Dr. Paul Goodwin explains how these black bags can be measured along neuro pathways. He describes how, by using electrical impulses along neural pathways, these repressed emotions show up as blockages along the pathways. This means you can see the change in communication within the nervous system. Many massage therapists run into these black bags as well. While massaging certain problem areas in a client’s body, that client might re-experience a wave of old emotions and feel a physical as well as emotional release. The emotions within the black bag had formed a physical blockage or issue. Releasing that physical blockage can help release the emotional black bag as well.
Black bags tend to go where you direct them to go by your language. What do I mean by that? Someone who doesn’t like their job and continually says, “This job is a pain in the neck,” might suffer from difficulty in the neck or head. Any time he or she has a negative experience at work, the unconscious mind puts the black bag exactly where instructed. Unihipili likes instructions. It’s one of the prime directives. Therefore it’s important to be aware of your language. If you habitually use phrases like, “I have a heavy heart because of that situation,” enough black bags will accumulate in that area to create a profound physiological affect.
Comments that connect emotions with body symptoms are either giving the unconscious mind instructions, or they’re expressing how someone experiences the black bags. Psychological studies have shown that certain emotions have more impact on the heart, for example. Many articles published in the Journal of the American Medical Association relate anger to heart-related issues. The entire focus of the discipline in psychology called PNI (psychoneuroimmunology) focuses on studying how specific stressors affect specific areas of the body. Dr. Deepak Chopra is one of the founders of PNI and is credited with early research in this area. This is key: If you never tell the black bags where to go, unihipili will spread them out evenly rather than letting them pile up in one area.
Are Negative Emotions Bad?
Another important question is whether negative emotions are bad. I don’t believe they are. Negative emotions like anger, sadness, fear and guilt provide us with feedback about our surroundings and our experiences. If every time you walk into a certain location, you feel fear, that’s a clue! Don’t go there!
What Huna proposes is that holding on to the negative emotions past the point where they are ready for a natural release is unhealthy for the mind, body and spirit. That release is our focus when we do ho‘oku‘u or higher self therapy.
Emotional Body/Water Element
The water element is related to the emotional body. Water at a metaphysical level is magnetic. It draws in energy or repels energy, depending on what you hold in your emotional body. Your emotional body is related to your unconscious mind.
Therefore, a person who has a lot of repressed anger activates the water element via emotions. The water in the emotional body magnetizes the anger energy and actually draws more anger to it. Haven’t you known people who are always angry and seem to attract angry situations into their lives? If you push fear down into your emotional body, the water charges up with fear and pulls in truly frightening circumstances. It pulls danger to you like a magnet. Given this, what types of emotions do you want to store? The emotional body will take your lead and attract more of the same.
We pile new energies and emotions on top of old ones, then wonder why new circumstances end up feeling much the same as in the past. The black bags turn into baggage!
If you want to fill your emotional body with love so that you attract love, you need to noa (cleanse) the negative emotions first. On the physical level, most of us are naturally motivated to do some form of cleansing before we bring in something new. We shower before we go on a date. We clean the house when guests are due. We wash our food before we eat it.
But in many cultures, we neglect to do this emotionally. We remarry while still carrying the pain and anger of past relationships. We start a new job still wounded by our failure in the last one. We view our children through the fears of our own childhoods. We pile new energies and emotions on top of old ones, and wonder why new circumstances end up feeling much the same as in the past. The black bags turn into baggage!
Huna teaches that it’s just as important to noa (cleanse) on the emotional level and mental level as on the physical. If we noa first before we noho (bring down) a new energy, we’re able to direct it. Noa allows us to cleanse so we are able to noho, move and direct energy from a place of aloha, from the heart.
