Emotional Release Through Asana May 9, 2008
Posted by admin in : Yoga Tags:asana, backbends, emotional release, emotions, energetic body, letting go, traumas, Yoga , 1 comment so farIf you practice yoga long enough you will eventually experience what yogis call an “emotional release.” Strong emotions and repressed traumas create memories, which can be held in the body for years. Our bodies are incredibly intelligent and our conscious thoughts directly affect our subconscious mind. The old adage says we are what we eat and so goes the mind. We are what we think. If you harbor negative thoughts and emotions, there’s a high probability your life experiences will reflect the same. Think about it…you never hear a wealthy person saying how broke he is and you never see a person who says their always broke with money. We should all be more cognitive of our thoughts, as the mind is very powerful.
It’s important to know we are not just physical bodies…we have energetic bodies as well and when the flow of energy through the body is impeded by negatively charged emotions or destructive thought patterns, the cellular structure of our bodies become damaged resulting in disease and illness. People would rather put their emotions behind them than deal with the pain of feeling them, but your body doesn’t want to deal with them any more than you do. We hold on to a lot more than you think and the beauty of yoga is that it works on all levels whether you are conscious of it or not.
Just how an insect may get trapped in a spider’s web, emotional trauma can get entangled in the web of fascia that protects and isolates the muscles in the body. Aanas work with the breath to open the muscles and the connective tissue that envelope these parts of the body. Opening up and stretching this fascia, releases the emotions, which can be healing on many levels. If this stuff isn’t released, it will turn in to disease because it wants out and the body will do everything in it’s power to get rid of it.
It’s a very beautiful experience to open up and let go and yoga allows people to do this in a safe nurturing environment. Having an emotional release on the mat means your body is healing itself naturally. Even if you had a perfect childhood, there were moments when your needs weren’t met in some way or another. Emotions attached to these experiences and if the emotions had a strong enough charge, the likelihood of them being trapped in your body is very high. All of us have stuff that needs to be released. It’s just a matter of how we go about doing it. Some people prefer therapy…others energy work…and then there are those who just allow their bodies to get sick rather than deal with it, but there are so many tools availabe if you’re willing to do the work. Yoga is just one of those tools.
Similar to jumping off a mountain, a strong asana practice can push you to your limits, taking you beyond what you thought possible. It’s all about stepping out of your safety net and reaching a place to where you have no control and when you make the decision to take that kind of step, you find things out about yourself you never knew. I’ve had many emotional releases in my life and many of them have been through my yoga practice, but something happened to me the other night that was quite different from the rest.
After doing two rounds of back bends, my teacher asked if anyone wanted to do a wall drop back. I had done many drop backs with the support of a teacher so I thought, “yeah, sure…why not…I can do it.” Keep in mind I had no idea what a wall drop back was, but I was feeling warm and a little bold so I thought, “Why not?” You stand with your back to the wall…about a foot in front…you put your hands on the wall above your head as if you were prepping to do a full wheel….you slowly begin to walk your hands down the wall as your feet walk forward…you do this until you walk yourself completely down the wall in to a full back bend.
Up until the half way point I was doing pretty good…it was challenging and I liked the fact that I was pushing myself to the edge, but then all of a sudden I moved past the half way point and my body froze. I was stuck and I couldn’t move. I was literally terrified…scared to death. The only other time I remember feeling that way was the first time I stepped off the side of a mountain looking my boyfriend square in the eyes knowing full well it could be the last time I ever saw him.
I came very close to screaming for my teacher, but then I thought, “I made it this far…I can do this…I’m going for it…” And there it was…the moment of truth…I took one more step out with my feet and then released one hand and then the other from the wall as both hands made contact with the mat beneath me and it was in that exact moment I felt an explosion of energy pour out from my heart and through my entire chest and then down my legs and arms. I just froze there in full wheel scared to death. I thought if I moved a single inch my entire body would come crumbling down to the ground. I took a couple deep breaths and then moving slowly, released myself down one vertebrae at a time. The moment my entire back body was in full contact with the mat, I began to cry.
I have no idea what I released or where it came from, but it was powerful and extremely healing and I felt like a new person that night. Whatever it was is gone and my body was able to do let go of it on a subconcious level without me ever knowing where it came from or why it was there so I encourage you to come to the mat with the intention of letting go…releasing whatever it is in your body that wants/needs to go. It’s about making room for new energy and higher emotions. You will be amazed at the gifts you receive just by allowing yourself to heal in this way. Go ahead…break though…let go and heal.