The Lymph and Emotions
Wondering if there is an emotional cause behind your lymph challenge?
Back in 2014, I woke up one day with a row of lymph nodes on the right side of my neck blown up to five times their normal size. Add in chronic pain, fatigue, and some other weird symptoms, and I was officially living in “What the hell is happening to my body?” land.
It was the turning point of my life… just not in the way I expected.
I saw doctors. Got bloodwork. Ultrasounds. Nothing explained it. For the next 2½ years, I played health roulette: acupuncture, massage, heavy metal detoxes, restrictive diets, expensive supplements. Sometimes I got a flicker of relief, but nothing stuck.
By 2016, I’d hit a wall — exhausted, frustrated, and frankly, fed up.
Then, with a lot of stubborn curiosity and the help of my incredible wife, Anne, I stumbled on something that changed everything. Three weeks later, the swelling in my lymph nodes that had been my constant companion for years… was gone.
Who Am I?
Somatic Embodiment is about understanding your symptoms in a new way, and using the power of connection with your body to create real shifts you can feel. See what we could open, here ›
I’m Steve.
For the past 6 years, I have been honored to guide somatic embodiment that helps individuals return to connection with their body and spirit. I was lead there after experiencing my own health crisis (swollen lymph nodes, fatigue, joint pain, and burnout)…and discovering how to heal from the inside out.
Lymph and Emotions
Your emotional health does not exist in isolation. It is woven with your whole health. We cannot separate them.
All fluids in the body, including the lymph, are connected to emotions. (Anne wrote an article about this in regards to the bladder too).
Emotions are meant to be felt and expressed so they can flow.
Imagine your lymph as a river. It’s intelligently designed to flow and nourish the body.
Now…imagine throwing some boulders into the river.
Add some more.
Little by little, they create rapids…creating more turbulence.
Photo by Andrew Bertram
Now, keeping adding more and more boulders. What happens?
Eventually they dam up the flow.
These boulders are suppressed emotional energies.
If the lymph isn’t flowing, it indicates that the emotional side is a bit backed up.
How Emotions Impact Your Health
Your emotional side is part of your psyche. Essentially... your inner world — the invisible space where your mind, emotions, and consciousness meet.
Think about phrases we use all the time:
“Her spirit is broken.”
“My job is soul-crushing.”
“He’s in low spirits.”
The psyche is an expressive, intelligent part of you.
It’s language can speak through the body as symptoms.
Emotions are representative of our ability to express. Expression is movement and release of energy. If that side of you is stuck…your body will let you know.
We instinctively know the psyche and body are connected. Yet most approaches only focus on the surface—medications, massages, food. While they might support temporarily, they don’t touch the deeper source.
Lymph challenges are an indication that something isn’t flowing.
Quite literally, some part of you is not feeling allowed to flow, in that invisible space of the psyche. Something is keeping your nervous system on alert, and your body is letting you know it through the swelling, pain, and stagnation.
Many healing or medical routes often try to eliminate that message because it feels threatening.
Here, we listen and integrate its wisdom.
Our mind and body’s safety mechanisms help us cope with the part or situation that doesn’t feel emotionally safe within. But it doesn’t want you to stay in that state of alert and stagnancy forever.
Your body will eventually speak up, just like mine did to prompt a needed change, because it wants you to experience greater freedom.
What I’ve Discovered About Healing Lymph Issues
Here’s what I’ve found: whenever we suppress our emotions, hold ourselves back, or silence our true feelings… the tension it creates doesn’t just vanish. It gets stored.
If that pattern continues, that energy compounds and builds, like a dam about to burst.
For me, swollen lymph nodes weren’t a random glitch or an enzyme imbalance. They were my spirit’s way of saying: this tension has nowhere to go. It needs an outlet. It needs a new way that feels better.
Once I worked with that emotional layer, the swelling in my lymph nodes dissolved in less than 3 weeks. This is what I now help others do too in my work.
The body-mind points to the places where the root of tension is stuck in the body, and when we give it attention and release, the flow is opened.
When the body is in a state of swelling, it is effectively "holding" on a cellular level. To move forward, we have to shift the environment the cells are living in. That starts with inner connection.
An invitation into inner connection
Let’s connect in a calm, grounded space with one another, as a first step. This Opening Conversation will give your system some intentional breathing room and a chance to be met with felt understanding.
Most people find that simply being in this space allows their body to start shifting before we even "do" anything. Together, we’ll listen for what feels like the right next step.
Choose a time to connect with me below ($48).
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About Steve Truppe
For over six years, Steve has helped individuals worldwide
reclaim their sense of connection and return to a body that finally feels like home.
As a mind-body specialist, he bridges the gap between biological responses, nervous system health, and spiritual growth.
By combining German New Medicine (GNM) with somatic embodiment, Steve helps you decode your body’s unique language—turning chronic symptoms and challenges into a pathway for
a more vivid, present, and whole-hearted life.
Discover more here ›
