Releasing physical and emotional tension Stretching the hip muscles causes a release; pent-up emotions may resurface, suppressed memories may arise, unconscious tension still held onto from a traumatic event may bubble up. All of which may unleash a seemingly inexplicable barrage of tears.
Closing thoughts. Hip-opening stretches provide a deeply nurturing way to care for the body, improve mobility, and boost energy. Hip openers may also release suppressed emotion and clear energy blocks.
Hip-opening poses are most likely to bring on a flood of emotions because of all the tightness and tension you naturally store in your hips. All of that tension builds up over time, trapping negativity and old feelings along with it. And when you finally release it, your emotions bubble to the surface, too.
What emotions are stored in your hips? Our hip region is also associated with our sacral chakra which processes emotions like fear, sadness, frustration, loss and worry. As we clench and tense up when we are faced with these emotions, we lock and store them into our hips.
People with trauma, stress or mental illnesses such as anxiety and depression often suffer physical symptoms as well. In all of this, there may be one common link: the hips. Neuroscience indicates that the hips are a potential storage vessel for emotions.
The hips are located at the second chakra, also known as Svadhisthana. The second chakra is linked to sexuality, desire, pleasure, and procreation. When the second chakra is blocked it hinders our ability to let go and let it flow.
Releasing physical and emotional tension
Stretching the hip muscles causes a release; pent-up emotions may resurface, suppressed memories may arise, unconscious tension still held onto from a traumatic event may bubble up. All of which may unleash a seemingly inexplicable barrage of tears.
Grief can be stored in various parts of the body, such as the heart, lungs, throat, and stomach. People may also experience physical sensations like heaviness in the chest or tightness in the throat when experiencing grief.
Some may have a fight-or-flight type of response, which may include muscle tension, heart pounding and sweating because their body "believes it needs to activate," she explains. Others maybe experience a freeze response, which can look like someone who struggles to move or get out of bed.
Upper Back = Grief, Sorrow, and Sadness
Unexpressed and unreleased sadness tends to build up within the upper back region. As this area is close to the heart, it is also where emotions connected to heartbreak and loss are stored.
Take time to slow down and be alone, get out into nature, make art, listen to music while you cook your favorite dinner, meditate to cleanse your mind and relax your body, take a bubble bath or a nap to restore.
Hip opening yoga poses improve circulation, flexibility and range of movement in the hips, legs and back. They are also beneficial for improving posture, strengthening balance, reducing stress, and promoting mental health and overall wellness.
Tight hips, psoas, and hip flexors can mean that we're hesitant about facing the future. More specifically, we fear living up to our own expectations and those laid out by others.
Anger and suppressed rage are often stored in the buttocks.
If you do this move correctly, you will feel your foot, calf and even your shin muscles working to balance. You will also feel your glute and core engaging as you swing your leg to open your hip. Again start with a more basic balancing pose if you can't maintain balance or perform smaller swings.
Intense grief can alter the heart muscle so much that it causes "broken heart syndrome," a form of heart disease with the same symptoms as a heart attack.
The neck is one of the most common places to store emotion, with tension and tightness arising from fear, anxiety, grief, anger, and other strong emotional experiences. Neck tension can also be associated with trust issues, feelings of insecurity, and weak willpower.
Research to date has shown that, like many other stressors, grief frequently leads to changes in the endocrine, immune, autonomic nervous, and cardiovascular systems; all of these are fundamentally influenced by brain function and neurotransmitters.
Generally, people tend to view anger as one of our strongest and most powerful emotions. Anger is a natural and "automatic" human response, and can in fact, serve to help protect us from harm.
Smells have a stronger link to memory and emotion than any of the other senses, and neuroscience may know the reason why.
Most basic emotions were associated with sensations of elevated activity in the upper chest area, likely corresponding to changes in breathing and heart rate (1).
They are also our biggest stabilizing muscles and can often clench or become tight in moments of emotional activation or trigger. The tissues in our hips hold onto the unprocessed emotions from these moments as a way for the subconscious mind to remember to avoid that same trigger in the future,” Sherer explained.
Hip-opening poses work predominately on the second (sacral) chakra — known as Svatistahana which can be found in the pelvic area. The name comes from the word Savdhithana, which means sweetness. The second chakra is the center of feeling, emotion, pleasure, sensuality, intimacy and connection.