e.g. … I get up, read my book, decide I’ll shower, get dressed, breakfast, work. Instead, I get up and idly go through to the kitchen and start making breakfast. I have a frontal and temporal headache - what’s going on? IT FEELS LIKE ANGER. My system is now racing.
Why?
Is it just some stirred up stuff - old emotions, repressed, which are now leaving? Doesn’t feel like that. Is it a pattern - emotional or otherwise? Not exactly?
An emotional habit? Nah.
Ah. Is it an emotional response triggered by something really … really old? YES! Where? When? How?
My older - now - self feels … I was 5, watching my mum tackle one task, then be distracted by us (the kids) and BE ANGRY - just generally (not at us, specifically …). My five-year-old self made a note (this is how life works! COPY!), internalising the emotional tone or pattern or combination, and also somehow this particular distraction trigger. In my now moment, my older, now self, distracted by something, is SOMEHOW triggered, just the same. THIS ISN’T GOOD (goes the trigger): so … on some level I am angry, and it is showing up in my body - in my headache.
And in the now ... whatever I was doing gets forgotten. I’m too busy with the feeling - the anger - all tied up and revealing itself in the HEADACHE. And all this I somehow picked up at age 5. GOSH.
As I realise this.
The tension begins to dissipate on its own, but I have to stop whatever I’m doing and focus. I imagine myself letting this all off as steam, blasting from my head, harmlessly upwards … đ
I turn my attention to my breathing. Somehow I smile. Tension dissipates further. A deep hurt in my belly - not a pain exactly, more a deep, deep tense feeling of old, ancient STUFF finally releases. I let it.
Focusing on my smile, noticing body, breath, the 5 senses - what I’m touching, feeling, sensing, seeing, hearing (maybe not tasting) - the old, formerly stuck feeling MOVES. Up my body to the head. And not just there. Emotions everywhere are releasing, my neck relaxing. My head beginning to float on top.
I sit down to write this. I finish making my breakfast. I continue to release. YES!!
***
POST SCRIPT: The above finished … I discover my bed unmade. But ... I prioritise something else. I am triggered again! This time, I see myself at age 4. Dad is rushing, somewhat angry. He leaves our beds unmade. My four-year-old self is thinking … beds unmade = bad day ahead! And my now self is realising that on some level I am still holding this as a truth. Wow. I say to myself: nothing bad ever happened because of an unmade bed - LET IT GO ...
â¤ď¸ Catriona
***
Our first online course, The Freedom Path, starting in August 2026, is all about that, finding ourselves, our path and how we want to walk it. If you’re interested in joining, please do click on the link below! The first two weeks are free.
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Catriona Murray is an intuitive life and wellbeing practitioner who incorporates Shiatsu and Eden Energy Medicine as part of her practice. She is co-founder of Pilgrimages of the Heart.
We invite you to join us for a 6-month online pilgrimage exploring the concept of freedom as it interweaves with the themes of passion, love, home, union, courage and well-being. Monthly modules include tips, tools, conversations, live group calls and questions for a deeper dive.
The first 2 weeks are free.
