What happens to unprocessed emotions?

When an emotion is not processed and released, it becomes an active stored emotion, stored in the connective tissues or other body parts. Over time, there is a high chance that it shows up as a physical symptom.

Diaphragm – the main “halfway house” of emotions

This theory derived from Bioenergetics and Chinese philosophy, states that most emotions find their way to the diaphragm for distribution.

Emotions can arrive at the diaphragm from the following ways:

1. A current event
   E.g. an argument with your spouse, the death of a friend, a car accident, anticipation of an important court verdict
   
2. A stored active emotion that gets mobilized
   E.g. hearing a song that triggers fear from a car accident from childhood, as that song was playing during the accident.
   
3. An encounter from an external source
   E.g. absorbing the anger from both parties when your partner has a heated argument with your mother.
   
4. The stories in our head
   E.g. feeling hurt and angry with your partner convinced she must be having an affair, when she was not contactable simply because of a flat battery.

From the Diaphragm, emotions can depart in the following directions:

1. Goes up to the chest and head, experienced as expressed emotions
   You let yourself feel the emotions and express them outwardly by crying, writing a F-you letter and burning it after or going to a quiet beach to shout.  
   
2. Goes down to the intestines to be eliminated
   This is the healthiest way for “old” emotions that come up during therapy to be released.  
   
3. Held in the diaphragm without release up or down
   When an emotion is not processed and released, it becomes an active stored memory. The Liver takes the emotion and stores it in connective tissues or other body parts for release later, with a high chance that it shows up as a physical symptom and is one of the main triggers in dis-ease.
   

Reference:
BodyTalk Fundamentals by Dr. John Veltheim and Sylvia Muiznieks