I’ve seen it more times than I can count. A patient lies on the table, seemingly fine—until their body begins to tremble, a tear escapes, or a breath they’ve held for years suddenly exhales. And the question always follows: “Why am I feeling so emotional right now?”
Here’s the truth: your body remembers everything your mind doesn’t know how to explain. As a nervous system chiropractor, I’ve learned that emotion doesn’t just live in the brain—it lives in the tissue, the posture, the breath, and the subtle tone of the nervous system.
The Science of a Feeling Body
Let’s start with physiology. Emotions aren’t just thoughts; they are full-body events. When we experience something intense—whether joyful or traumatic—our nervous system reacts before we consciously process it:
- Heart rate spikes
- Breathing shortens or disappears
- Muscles tighten or collapse
- Hormones flood the system
This is not random. It’s your autonomic nervous system doing its job: keeping you safe, alert, and alive. But what happens when the situation doesn’t resolve? When we don’t get to run, cry, speak, or rest?
The pattern sticks. The charge doesn’t leave. And the nervous system quietly stores that incomplete experience in the body.
When the Body Becomes the Story
I’ve had patients walk in with chronic neck pain, digestive issues, or sleep disturbances—and walk out understanding that their symptoms weren’t just structural. They were stories, stored in tone.
Think of the nervous system tone as your body’s background setting. High tone? You’re always braced, guarded, ready to react. Low tone? You might feel collapsed, disconnected, numb. These aren’t just moods; they’re neurological states shaped by life.
An argument with your partner, years of people-pleasing, a medical trauma, a childhood of walking on eggshells—each of these can wire your system into a loop. And the spine, with its deep connection to the autonomic nervous system, becomes both the storage and the release point.
The Neurospinal system and the Emotions We Carry
Each spinal area corresponds not just to a muscle or organ—but to patterns of emotional expression. For example:
- The upper cervical spine often holds fear and hypervigilance
- The mid-thoracics, near the heart and lungs, often reflect grief, sadness, or loss
- The lumbosacral area is home to our sense of safety, belonging, and survival
When I make a gentle adjustment—whether through tonal techniques, breath connection, or subtle cranial work—sometimes the release isn’t just physical. It’s emotional. It’s energetic. It’s stored trauma finally finding its way out through tears, laughter, or a sudden, full-body exhale.
Letting the Body Speak
Here’s what I want you to know: you don’t have to understand everything your body is releasing in order for healing to happen. You just have to let it speak.
When the nervous system finally feels safe—truly safe—it begins to reorganize. Neuroplasticity takes over. Patterns shift. The breath deepens. And the emotional charge that’s been silently shaping your life starts to dissolve.
This work isn’t about “fixing” you. It’s about helping your system remember that it can adapt, connect, and feel again. That you are not broken. You’re patterned. And patterns can change.
A Note from Practice
There is a sacredness in watching someone’s nervous system come home to itself. I’ve witnessed patients reclaim parts of themselves they didn’t know were missing—not through talk, but through tremble. Through stillness. Through surrender.
So if you ever find yourself crying on the table, or shaking, or feeling an old memory surface—don’t apologize.
Your body is brilliant. And it knows exactly what it’s doing. You can trust the process.