Emotional Overflow and the Collapsing Pool

I like to pay attention when I see or hear the same thing more than once in a short time frame, or if I find myself having the same conversation with multiple people in a day. The other day, I had the same image come in for 4 clients and a friend. 

It was the first time I'd ever seen it, but it kept returning, morphing slightly, offering a little more each time. The image was of an above-ground pool.

I’m sure the seed for it was planted when Vince and I were watching Grownups the weekend before. It’s not an important part of the movie, but in the beginning, Kevin James is in this above ground pool. As he tries to get out, he busts the sides and the water and floaties and kids all come rushing out and flooding the yard. It’s the cheesy kind of funny (which I get a kick out of). 

But the image apparently stuck with me.

The energy moved fast last week-shifting, surfacing, clearing- and there was a full moon to stir everything up a little more. I found myself doing a lot of emotional body work with clients.

The image that came in was the emotional body as the above-ground pool. And depending on the person, the pressure was either coming from outside—old expectations, obligations, misaligned relationships, societal weight—or it was internal. A buildup, an overflow, unprocessed emotions and overwhelm. In both cases, the walls of the pool started to collapse. Water poured out. Emotional collapse. The question each time was- how do we attend to it?

Because here’s the thing—when we give our emotions space, when we stop collapsing into them and instead give them permission to exist, we can see more clearly. We start to track:

Where is this pressure coming from? That helps us process what’s happening in real-time and helps us align with the emotional body in a more balanced way: instead of being ruled by it, we recognize it as part of our natural guidance system. This empowers us beyond overwhelm and reaction. It gives us space to stay in higher alignment with our Soul.   

If it's the external world crushing the container, then the invitation is to strengthen from the inside. To fill up with radiant source light. To widen our field so the outer pressure doesn’t flatten us.

And if it's an inner flood, the work becomes about bailing out the excess, or finding a high way to release. A sacred outlet. Sometimes that means journaling, sometimes breathwork, a walk, tears, movement. Working with the emotional permanent atom. Asking the question: How do I release this without blowing out my system?

One friend I talked to? Her pool did need to break. And sometimes that’s the medicine. The collapse makes space for a rebuild. Or maybe something entirely different. Maybe no pool at all.

There’s no wrong way to do this. It’s a process of refinement. And the pause—that sacred moment where we take a breath and ask for gentleness, ease, and grace—can make all the difference. It gives just enough space to choose how we move forward. 

So in these moments, the invitation is to pause and ask:

• Is this pressure coming from within or without? (Is my emotional pool collapsing because of overflow, external compression, or a combination?)

• Do I need to release, fortify my field, or a little bit of both?

• What’s the highest way to release? Or does the pool need to come apart? 

• What kind of support would feel nourishing right now?

We aren’t bypassing or making the emotions wrong. We’re attuning. My personal reminder for the week was to remember to choose soul alignment over reaction. Whether we want to acknowledge it or not, it’s always about choosing to shift from reaction to response. It can take a lot of practice to do that, but that space between the two is where healing happens.

In session, we’re often not just working with what’s rising on the surface. We’re working with the pool and the pressure and the root. We’re working with how to build a stronger container—one that can hold the light without cracking.

And sometimes, we’re simply sitting beside the pieces of the broken pool, loving what was, and listening for what’s next.

If this image of the emotional pool resonates with you, you’re not alone. We’re all learning how to hold more, feel more, release more—with grace. If you’re moving through a moment of pressure or overflow, I invite you to take a breath, soften your stance, and ask what support your system is calling for.

And if you’d like to receive ongoing reflections, meditations, and invitations like this, I invite you to subscribe to my blog or join us for an upcoming group session. We’re all in this together.

Love,

Leena

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