The Lymph and Emotions
Wondering if there is an emotional cause behind your lymph challenge?
Then you are waaaay ahead of where I was.
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?
I’m Steve.
For the past 6 years, I have been honored to guide healing that helps people feel alive and well in body, mind, and spirit — after experiencing my own health crisis (swollen lymph nodes, fatigue, joint pain, and burnout)…and discovering how to heal.
Walking with individuals as a teammate, helping them move into partnership with their bodies and experience deeper connection within, brings me great joy — and reminds me that healing is always possible and worthwhile. Honestly, there’s nothing I would rather be doing than helping people heal in a way that stabilizes them in their own power.
I understand that you probably want your symptoms gone. (I did!) AND, the approach to that makes all the difference. Discover what I mean, here. ›
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
Here’s what I’ve discovered in my own journey and in guiding this healing work:
Your spirit is also known as your psyche.
Your psyche is where your mind, emotions, beliefs, and consciousness intersect.
When something gets stuck there, your body will communicate it through symptoms. In my experience, every illness is inherently spiritual because it’s rooted in the psyche (spirit). Emotions are representative of our ability to express. Expression is movement and release of energy.
Think about phrases we use all the time:
“Her spirit is broken.”
“My job is soul-crushing.”
“He’s in low spirits.”
We instinctively know the psyche and body are connected. Yet most approaches only focus on the surface—medications, massages, supplements. For me, those approaches gave flickers of relief — but they didn’t reach the deeper layer my lymph was asking for. What I’ve seen again and again is that the psyche/spiritual layer holds the key.
Lymph challenges are an indication that something isn’t flowing.
We THINK that it’s a bodily malfunction. But in reality, your body is responding to the unconscious turbulence that’s saying, “We aren’t safe. Put up the shield!”
When we can work with the symptoms as a message, we can get to the source. If you’re interested, discover more here.
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.
And the body eventually speaks. (sometimes very loud)
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 healing 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.
I understand that you probably want your lymph symptoms...gone.
AND, the approach to that makes all the difference.
I hope that this article sheds light and offers a beacon of hope in your healing journey.
Always rooting for you,
~Steve
