Sweating and body odour: spiritual meaning and emotional causes

What sweating and body odour are

Sweating is how the body cools itself. Sweat is mostly water and salt, and on its own it has almost no smell. Body odour comes when bacteria on the skin break down sweat, especially from the glands in the armpits and groin, which become active at puberty. Heat, exercise, spicy food, alcohol, hormones and nerves all make people sweat more.

Some people sweat far more than the body needs to cool down, often from the hands, feet, armpits or face. This is called hyperhidrosis. It often starts young and runs in families, with no other cause. Sweating can also be caused by something else: the menopause, an overactive thyroid, low blood sugar, an infection, anxiety, or a medicine. Night sweats that soak the bed are worth a medical check.

Regular washing, breathable clothes and antiperspirants help most people. A pharmacist or GP can suggest stronger antiperspirants, and a doctor or dermatologist can offer other treatments for heavy sweating.

The emotional meaning of sweating and body odour

Spiritually, the liquids of the body are linked to emotions. Sweat is water that comes out through the skin, so it is read as feelings that overflow when they have been held inside too long.

Body odour and feelings held back

A strong, unpleasant body odour is read as harmful feelings that are spilling over and asking to be expressed: irritability, discontent, resentment, frustration, hatred or disgust towards a person or a situation. You may be very sensitive to gossip and criticism aimed at you. Low self-confidence and a fear of being criticised or rejected can sit behind it. Because a strong smell tends to keep people away, it raises a gentle question: is there a reason you might want to keep others at a distance?

Heavy sweating, nervousness and insecurity

Abundant sweating is linked to inner nervousness, insecurity or great anguish. What you push down and keep inside comes out through the pores, often anger and shame. You may feel unsure of which path to take in life, and stay on the defensive, afraid of being hurt or trapped if you show your feelings, especially in front of others.

Spiritually, the person you are most wary of may be yourself. You hold your emotions back so tightly that they push to come up, and that is exactly what you are trying to avoid.

Washing a situation clean

Sweat is also read as a way of trying to "wash" a situation in which you felt separated from others, or in which you felt dirtied or treated unjustly.

Where and when you sweat

• Where it happens: sweating in one part of the body may point to an intense emotion, or a letting go, linked to what that part represents.
• Cold sweats: these are linked to being frozen with fear, and to great difficulty in your relationships with the people around you.
• In front of others: sweating that comes mainly when you have to speak or be seen points to the fear of being judged or caught out when you express yourself.

A gentler way to hold it

• Say what you feel. Let both pleasant and difficult feelings out in words, instead of keeping everything inside.
• Assert yourself. Practise stating what you need, in small steps, with people you feel safe with.
• Look at your distance. Notice whom you keep at arm's length, and whether you still want to.
• Make peace with yourself. The "enemy" you guard against may be your own feelings. Meeting them with kindness takes away some of their charge.
• Make room for the new. Once old feelings have been expressed, there is space for warmer thoughts to nourish you.