There is almost always an emotional component to holding. Why, because we look for a particular outcome to events that is pleasurable or satisfactory and wish to avoid an outcome that is unsatisfactory.
When a young child has an emotional experience it passes quickly or transforms into another emotion. One moment happy and laughing, the next, angry or sad, and so on. However, when adults experience an emotion it often continues and develops from one moment to the next. For example, if someone upsets you in the morning then in the afternoon you still feel upset perhaps even more upset. Maybe the feeling is developed when you meet someone and discuss what happened. It can continue for days, or weeks or even in some cases for years. Holding on to the experience of the emotion, reliving and playing through the events that triggered the responses are features that we all recognise.
The reason for this can be explained in part by the compulsion we all have to reject experiences that we perceive to be unpleasant. The strange fact is that this very rejection is an attraction! For one minute try not to think of bananas. Of course you have to think of bananas in order to reject them. Or you could suppress the whole idea of bananas with say, the thought of apples. But this is suppression and the thought of bananas is buried in the unconscious and is still held onto. When experiences are not fully lived through and there is any emotional holding which is created through rejection, then the influence of those experiences will still be felt at an unconscious level.