I’ve been going to Yoga 2-3 times a week for the past 4 months. I’m 32 years old. When I started I was very tight. I have loosened considerably doing primarily gentle and yin classes with the occasional flow class. I’ve noticed a trend with tonight being a standout example. It seems somehow the deeper I stretch…the greater a stress / emotional release I have. Tonight when I left my Yin class I felt soooooo good. Like I had dumped all the emotional baggage out of my body. Seriously I felt so amazing…like the feeling after having a good cry. I was practically giggling in my final corpse pose.
Any thoughts / ideas on how or why this is happening? It’s an amazing feeling. I have always been an expressive emotional person. I’m just wondering what the hell is going on? Am I the only one who feels this way during Yoga? I even make some emotional sounds during Yin…though I try to keep them quiet.
I believe “Yoga” is from an ancient Sanskrit word meaning “unity.” It is a form a moving meditation and is meant to connect your mind and body.
Part of doing that is realizing that when you are dealing with emotions, your body is deeply involved. When you are down, happy, angry, etc., muscles tense up, you assuming certain positions, or at least tense your body as if moving to those positions.
So when you are going through a yoga routine, you are “unkinking” much of that stored up…stuff.
I hope this doesn’t come across as woo - the basic point is that the West has a hundreds-year-old POV that mind and body can be considered separately. Yoga is a form of proof that mind and body are fully linked - and you are experiencing that.
I’ve been taking Yin classes since last spring, and just started taking the more active flow classes a couple months ago, and I’ve experienced the same thing–once, following a prolonged forward fold, we lay back in vinyasana and I almost burst out laughing from the rush of energy. Or, to look at it in a more scientifical method, the rush of blood returning to my brain. Part of the pose involves putting yourself into a position that restricts the flow of energy (blood) and when you release that energy (blood, carrying much-needed oxygen), all the parts of you that needed more energy (oxygen) go “woohoo!”
I have also almost burst into tears on several occasions, so it’s not always a good thing for me. I often end the class feeling emotionally drained, but that beats the feelings I had when I started taking yoga: frustrated, tense, and freaking out from time to time. I’d rather be exhausted than upset.
I don’t practice Yoga but I do sit in the lotus pose for about 1/2 an hour whenever I’m having an issue I cannot seem to deal with. Meditating this way helps me to think about problems without distraction. The silence and lack of visual input forces me to mentally face things I can normally block out with distractions.
By the end I am often happy in a bubbly, free way. I come away knowing I am being honest with myself and that is amazingly relaxing.
I’ve had instructors play psychotherapist and talk to us about emotions and whatnot in class.
Perhaps other students feel what they are talking about, but not me. Don’t get me wrong. Yoga is an emotional experience for me. But not while I’m doing it. When I’m doing it, I’m only concerned about paying attention and not faling on my ass. It’s only when I’ve gotten home and have had time to reflect on the class that I feel anything. Sometimes it’s compassion and inspiration. Sometimes it’s sadness and shame. Sometimes I don’t know what it is.
To be honest, I hate when the instructor “goes there” with all that emotional stuff. Yoga is just exercise for me. I don’t do it for the spirituality, and I don’t want anyone interpreting the experience for me through that lens. When she talks about feelings that I’m not feeling, I feel like I’m doing something wrong (yet again).
This is a good book that describes many of the scientific underpinnings of how the brain and meditation works:
It is written from the point of view of a western neurologist who went to Japan to study Zen.
I do not recall it answering your specific question - nor is it really about yoga itself. But depending on how large the overlap with Yoga and Meditation is - you/someone else might find it useful for a more scientific explanation to what is going on in general.
A lot of people avoid painful emotion at all costs. Because pain is pain, and it feels… not just bad, but devastating.
In yoga, you’re concentrating so hard on holding your position without falling over, so much on your body, that you don’t have the resources to defend your brain and put up your walls and blocks. So pain and emotional trauma can sneak in. I’m sure it has something to do with being in the present, too. Yadda yadda.
My yoga teachers always counsel us on what to do if we suddenly burst into tears or whatever. But it’s usually an indirect consequence of yoga–which is the point. If we’re trying to focus on our feelings or whatever, we’ll probably chase them away, or strain ourselves trying, rather than feeling. It’s all about letting go, man.
Okay, wow. That’s a lot of woo. In short: It’s common, and it’s good for you.
If you’re interested in exploring the emotional side of things, I recommend Tara Branch’s meditations. Especially good for overcoming shame and anger.
I’ll point out that people who collapse emotionally in the middle of Warrior I also think they’re doing something wrong.