Emotions don’t happen in a vacuum. We experience them in our bodies.
That’s why we say things like: “It was gut-wrenching” or “I felt my heart sink”.
We all know these feelings.
Think about how you would represent a sad person. It would probably look like someone hunched over, curled up on themselves.
Imagine holding this emotion in your body for days, weeks, years…
The breath is restricted, the back muscles are not only deprived of oxygen, but they also have to work harder to hold you up.
This is one of the reasons why yoga works so well for back pain:
“The body, the breath and the mind are doing the same thing, at the same time, in a mindful, integrated way.” (Leslie Kaminoff)
We get to release old patterns and hold ourselves up in new ways.
We get to dust off cobwebs and allow emotions to flow within us so that we can let them go.
Such a beautiful practice, rooted both in science and tradition.