12/22/2025
Do you carry every bad, sad, frightening, or painful thing that has ever happened to you? If so, you may be hoarding emotions.
When we cling to every difficult experience—ours and others’—our inner world becomes crowded. The emotions tied to those moments take up all the available space, leaving little room for joy, connection, love, acceptance, peace, or ease. There’s simply nowhere for them to land.
Emotions were never meant to move in and stay. They are designed to deliver information and then pass through. Holding on to them is like inviting the mail carrier inside—and expecting them to live in your house after the mail has been delivered.
If you find yourself hoarding difficult emotions, pause and ask: What does holding on give me? There is always a reason.
😡Sometimes we confuse our emotions with our identity: “I am an angry person.”
🤺Sometimes emotions become armor—meant to protect us from others or prevent future harm.
🫂Sometimes they are the only way we know how to receive care, attention, or support.
📚And sometimes, quite simply, no one ever taught us that we didn’t have to keep them.
Our herd shows us another way.
When something difficult happens, each horse responds differently—but every response is physical. Some shake from head to tail. Some toss their heads. Some roll, yawn, race, rub their tongues on their teeth, or stretch and move until their bodies settle. Each one, in their own way, helps their nervous system return to calm.
They do not store the experience inside their bodies.
From them, we can learn this essential truth: emotions leave through movement. When we give our bodies a way to process and release emotions, they no longer need a permanent address inside us.
