Is a good yoga session all that’s standing between you and the deep emotional release you’ve been craving? You wouldn’t be the first one to cry tears of joy, release, relief, or realization on the yoga mat. What is it about yoga that helps people to unlock their emotions? Let’s explore it!
How Does Yoga Help With Emotional Release?
The simple answer is that yoga may simply put the mind and body in a still, connected place where experiencing emotions actually feels safe. So many of us unknowingly spend most of our lives operating in fight-or-flight mode. According to researchers, yoga’s ability to bring the body into a relaxed, slow-breathing status helps to shift the balance from the sympathetic nervous system and flight-or-fight response to the parasympathetic system and relaxation response. It’s in this calming and restorative state with lowered blood pressure, reduced cortisol levels, and increased blood flow to organs that many people experience a therapeutic release. Additionally, yoga can modulate brain mechanisms that affect behavior and anxiety. Yoga’s potential therapeutic benefits are so compelling that researchers and clinicians are exploring the role of yoga in healing psychological trauma.
The various poses performed during a yoga session can also unite our movements and thoughts in a way that brings up intense emotions. For example, a pose that elicits feelings of vulnerability can help to drum up a very powerful release. Poses can also bring up memories stored within the body. These emotions are sometimes very close to the surface. Other memories that are buried deep within the subconscious may only finally emerge when our movements recreate specific sensations.
Of course, people who regularly practice yoga have a simpler way of explaining the phenomenon that doesn’t require any big studies or fancy words. As you practice yoga, you are able to go deeper inside your mind than ever before. Having a safe place to focus inward to read the truest cues of your mind and body instead of constantly looking outside can create intense emotions. People who have been stuffing, concealing, or denying emotions, thoughts, and desires while locked in their default externally focused mode suddenly find themselves feeling free and unrestricted in their own minds and bodies. This is the point where the deep emotional release typically happens.
What Does a Yoga Emotional Release Feel Like?
Emotional release can feel very different for each person during yoga. While it’s very common for people to cry either during or after a yoga session, an emotional release has a special kind of lightness attached to it. In fact, many people actually laugh with giddiness when experiencing an emotional release. Others may be hit with deep feelings of safety, calm, acceptance, or awe.
Trying Yoga for Emotional Healing
Tears are definitely welcome on the yoga mat. Ultimately, yoga helps so many of us to feel emotions we can’t even name. Yoga’s benefits for the mind and body can leave us equipped to both experience and take on the deep emotions that shape our lives. Even people who don’t experience a profound emotional release from yoga can still benefit from increased relaxation, flexibility, and body awareness. Get started today! Try our new student special and get 30 days of yoga for just $40!
