Now, if you are proficient in awareness of and ability to sense the body, you will have no difficulty identifying the moments when you begin to repress your emotions and desires. As you remain vigilant, you will soon be able to determine which muscles are engaged in controlling anger, anxiety, sadness, and fear. Techniques of emotional expression will help you dispose of these energies, and the next logical step after you accomplish this work would be your release from everything that has been repressed as a whole.
It is important to realize that all of the variety of neurovegetative symptoms are attributable to chronic stress, which in turn is attributable to repression. The repercussions include hyperkinetic disorders, various forms of spasms (blood vessels, ducts, intestine, etc.), and miscellaneous neurosis symptoms. As the underpinning repression mechanisms fade, the vegetative symptoms improve and disappear as well.
Repression is among the mind’s prerogative strategies, and the respective embedded behavior patterns are triggered automatically each time a recurring desire or emotion stimulates a person to act or express himself in a way that has been disapproved. These behavior patterns inhibit expression of emotion or action and precipitate a wave-like response that begins in the mind, cascades down, and ends in the physical body. The control of desires and emotions is executed through their repression in the unconscious parts of the mind and emotional body, respectively, and is embodied in the form of muscle tension and imbalance in the autonomic nervous system, the latter of which serves as a liaison between the physical and emotional bodies.
Repression is a mainstay of unconsciousness, and therefore, if a seeker wishes to progress to the highest level of self-awareness, he cannot avoid addressing his repressed energies. Although social norms that regulate the behavior of the members of society have been present since the beginning, humans’ beingness has been skewed heavily toward the mind over the past century. The need for universal education together with the advances in science and technology have been contributing factors. The number of physically labor-intensive jobs has shrunk, while the call for intellectually challenging work has increased. People are exposed continuously to information overload from news media and manipulative advertising. The behavioral norms become more restrictive as they follow progressively sophisticated social structures and lifestyles. In the past, the family set most behavior guidelines, which revolved primarily around rearing their children consistent with religion, morals, and traditions, but today, they also account for policies and regulations in the workplace, rules of the road, etc. Therefore, repression in our time has become an unavoidable part of human life on which we have to work, whether we like it or not.
The irony of the situation is that the moral codes and rules are created for unconscious people with the goal to establish limits on the expression of their animal instincts. However, at the same time, adhering to these rules quite often makes unconsciousness grow deeper because it exacerbates repression. A conscious person would not engage in stealing, not because it is against the law and is prosecuted, but because he is void of the desire to steal items. This is the only difference, but it is fundamental because it is the difference in one’s levels of being.