Do you ever feel emotionally unsettled or blocked but not really sure what’s bothering you?
That’s exactly what I was experiencing this morning.
Something was trying to get my attention but my mind was distracted.
I knew that after my morning yoga practice it would become more clear what that emotion was because I’ve used yoga before to process my blocked emotions.
What do I mean by this?
Well, you’ve also probably felt foggy and irritated without knowing why. And you may even find yourself getting rude or short with people you love. This is because we are constantly bombarded all day with stimulation. We rush around with a long to-do list and responsibilities. We have work and worries. We don’t have time to sit with our true feelings. We look to other people’s behavior or faults to explain why we feel awful.
We may not have any capacity left in our nervous system to allow any more irritation or stimulation so we ignore or repress it.
We get lost in the busyness.
But on the yoga mat, there are no distractions. It’s just you feeling your body sensations and your breath.
Just YOU.
Many people who practice yoga will tell you that emotions will eventually rise up to the surface during your practice. Most yogis have experienced crying during yoga at some point.
This is completely normal.
Our body stores our old emotions and traumas. It makes sense that when doing a physical and yet meditative and reflective practice like yoga that this would happen.
Yoga Tears
During my practice, often I will experience the surfacing of buried emotions and body sensations. For me, the big stuff is usually unearthed during hip openers and chest and throat expansions.
But today after about half an hour of practice, I still felt blocked.
Frustrated, I chose a more challenging routine by my favorite yogini, Seane Corn. Her book, Revolution of the Soul: Awaken to Love Through Raw Truth, Radical Healing, and Conscious Action, is what inspired me to start doing yoga every morning and to begin deepening my understanding of yoga by going beyond the asana or physical poses. I knew when I finished her book I was going to go through Yoga Teacher Training someday to study the 8 limbs of yoga.
As I tried to keep up with Seane in the video, my fatigued muscles started to tremble and I felt a wave of fear start to emerge. I felt the wave’s power growing in my heart and as it crashed I felt the lump in my throat open as I started crying.
I let the emotion come up and express itself. I feel it in waves. I hold the space for it. And when I do that it becomes so clear where the emotion is coming from in the body as well as the origin of false beliefs behind it. It’s just part of the continual process of being a witness to myself. Of getting to a place of safety so that the emotion can be fully felt and then decide to leave on its own.
I realized it was the fear of losing people I love. Of watching them get sick, suffer, and die as I’m powerless to stop it. The fear of being forgotten by my partner and family due to a cognitive disease like Alzheimer’s.
Ohhhhh. This is my deep fear of abandonment.
The fear of being left alone physically, mentally, and emotionally.
I have had this fear as a kid when I felt like no one else saw the world the way I did and no one ever knew what I was talking about. To protect me from rejection, I pushed aside my deeper emotions and thoughts and denied specific parts of myself. I abandoned myself so that I’d be loved and accepted by my family.
It was the best that I could do as a kid.
The fear may not have fully left me yet but it’s not hidden in the dark and running the show anymore. I can catch it happening now. I don’t have to react unconsciously when I feel hurt. I don’t automatically beat myself up. I have more space between the emotion, the story, and my Self.
Deepening My Self Study
Using hatha yoga or yoga asanas – which is just the physical part of yoga – can really help us process and release old patterns. But as I’m learning more in my yoga teacher training course, it helps to practice all 8 limbs of yoga.
As a result of sticking to this practice is over time I’ve become more aware of what I’m feeling and why as well as less emotionally reactive. I noticed particular stories and false beliefs that normally shape my behavior start to fade and lose their power over me.
This process builds your awareness, and self-knowledge, and allows you to fully feel and accept the emotions so they are released. Of course, some things may be too big for us to handle all at once – in which case things may be revealed to you in layers or a bit at a time. Or they may be too much to process alone, so it’s important to get professional help if you feel too overwhelmed.
Your body and emotions need your attention. Without your full attention and willingness to show up and really listen, emotions can overtake you and will often come out in unconscious fearful ways throughout the day. It will affect your perception and your relationships. It will negatively impact every area of life because you would be acting from a place of fear, anxiety, shame, guilt, or anger.
Why not actively work on clearing your body and mind?
I recommend working with the body to really help you feel them and become aware of their place of origin. Your emotions happen in the body. The body and mind are really one and the same. The separation we feel between them is only a result of needing to detach from the body during pain and trauma. Realizing wholeness again takes patience and holistic practice.
Yoga Can Offer Liberation
Yoga literally means union. We are bringing the bodymind together and mending the break between them as well as uniting Self with Source.
It’s about expanding your consciousness to include the All as One and freeing yourself of your samskaras, or psychological imprints and emotional patterns.
After a more intense yoga practice like the one I had this morning, I like to journal to help myself get a better understanding of what came up. Sometimes I start writing things out to prove to myself that the stories I tell myself are not true. That I am worthy, valuable, loved, whole, enough, capable, and perfectly human as I am.
I have been committed to doing a yoga asana practice every morning for about a year now. I haven’t been perfect but I am really proud of myself for making this commitment to myself when I do tend to lack follow-through! Now, I’m hoping to bring you more articles on the spiritual practice of yoga as I go through my yoga teacher training.
And don’t worry! 
Not every yoga practice will leave you curled up in your own tear puddle on the mat. But if you commit to this practice just be prepared that it may happen from time to time according to what your body needs.
Have you ever experienced a yoga release? What came up for you? Were you able to learn from it? Have you ever considered using yoga as a way to process blocked emotions before? Would you consider going to a yoga therapist? What about yoga teacher training as a way to deepen your practice in a more holistic way?
Let me know in the comments!
I recently started practicing yoga so found this post very helpful. I did wonder about all the other benefits of yoga, over and above the physical benefit. if yoga would help me to unblock emotions, even more reason to continue with my yoga.
So what is involved with asana yoga? What makes it different from other types of yoga? As a beginner, should I learn about asana yoga, or will that come later in my yoga leanings? Thank you for sharing an inspirational post.
Congratulations on beginning your yoga journey! The benefits of practicing yoga can be felt in all areas of life. Yoga is about spiritual liberation and union with Self and Source/God.
Asanas are the physical poses of yoga. When most people talk about yoga, this is what they mean. But there are other parts, or “limbs” of ashtanga yoga. There are 8 altogether: Yama, Niyama, Asana, Pranayama, Pratyahara, Dharana, Dhyana, and Samadhi.
You may be asking what types of styles of asana there are though meaning the physical poses and exercises. If this is what you mean some types are yoga nidra, yin yoga, vinyasa yoga, kundalini yoga, etc. I will make sure to go into detail about this in future posts so stick around! Thank you for commenting:)
I have always seen yoga as a method where an individual is able to relax, unwind, reduce stress and anxiety. Your article is very detailed and educational -Using Yoga To Process Blocked Emotions. We should never our emotions, in the long run blocking emotion can affect your mental health. Why not tap into our emotions before it begins to affect us.
I agree, Diana. We often learn through society and our families that it’s not okay to have certain emotions so we repress them. And this causes so much more unecessary pain. If you feel safe doing so, I definitely recommend processing your emotions in this way as part of your practice:)
Hello. It’s a very interesting post. I have very little experience in yoga but I found it very relaxing. And the fact.that you can hormonisar the mind and body as one is awesome because when we have issues the mind can get stessful . How long do you need to do yoga in order to help a.person’s daily life?
Hi Claudia! The practice of yoga can definitely be helpful in aligning our body and mind and give us greater capacity to deal with everyday stress. I believe that even one yoga asana class can be beneficial but the results will be very short-lived. To really change the quality of your life would require incorporating it into your daily routine. I think it was at least a few months before I started noticing that the awareness I found on the mat started blossoming off the mat as well. I’m still a beginner a year into my daily practice:) It’s a lifestyle that permeates all areas of life in all moments of life.
I have never understood yoga but heard such great stories that I wanted to learn more and how to practice it. Have experienced different moods every day or multiple moods in one day, my daughter recommended yoga! After reading your insightful article yoga will be of great help. I have shared your article with my social media following
Thanks, Jannette! I really appreciate the support. It’s so exciting that you’ll be exploring yoga for the first time. Please reach out if you have any questions. I still consider myself a beginner at this point but I’m sure I can point you in the right direction. Namaste:)
First of all, I’m grateful for this opportunity to review this awesome article. Yoga has been a part of my life for many years and I’m grateful to be able to share my knowledge and experience with other practitioners.
Yoga has many benefits, but one of the best things about it is its ability to offer a moment of peace and quiet during a busy day by concentrating on the body’s breath. It can also help relieve stress and tension and improve self-awareness.
The world of yoga has been changing at a rapid rate, and experts agree that it’s benefiting everyone who practices it – not just the practitioners themselves. Yoga is now being practiced all over the world, and is growing in popularity by the day.
Some are even arguing that yoga could be the key to a healthy life for all. Experts suggest that anyone with any level of fitness can enjoy the benefits of yoga, and many therapists have begun to use it in the treatment of various health conditions such as stress, depression, or anxiety.Thank you for the nice article.
I think this is not just a blog post, but it is a “service to human kind” as I am very glad that you nicely explained all the things in your awesome article.
Thank you so much for the thoughtful comment, Prashant. Relieving stress and tension while improving self-awareness is definitely part of the reason I keep coming back to yoga as well. I’m also grateful that yoga is becoming more popular and positively affecting so many lives! I really appreciate your kind words and encouragement. Through practice, I know I will continue to serve my higher self and it’s my hope that this reverberates out into the world.
Consider adding chanting of God’s name (mantra) to your practice. This is an awesome tool that can be used as a part of any spiritual practice.
I used to do a lot of yoga, but I quickly became bored with it. When it comes to yoga, however, I appreciate all the physical and mental benefits it provides. As in the case of emotions. Aside from the advantages, I’m fascinated by the numerous varieties available. I never imagined there would be so many. So, tell me about your favorite variety.
My favorite style of yoga asana is yin yoga and restorative yoga. These are more relaxing and meditation-based. Perfect for slowing down and feeling and releasing your emotions or tension in the body. However, I know that vinyasa yoga is good for me because it’s more strength and cardio-based. It really gets the fire lit! It’s about flowing from pose to pose and moving concsiously with the breath. Maybe by trying out different yoga styles you can find one that suits you best!
I think that this is exactly what I have been looking for to unblock all of these emotions from the last 3 years now.. LLife has been a rollercoaster and it still is. First personal issues like burnout and back pain, then the pandemic came and now there is a horrible war going on in Ukraine, it is driving me crazy. Doing yoga just might be the thing for me to let it all out, thanks! (I hope it will relief my backpain as well, what do you think?)
Absolutely, Lizzy! As long as you feel you have the support you need, I recommend it. I’d start with Hatha yoga classes and go slow. There’s never force in yoga. I think it could also really help prevent future back pain or injuries because you develop your core muscles that better support your back. Yoga also helps release tension and stored emotion from your muscles. Of course, working with a yoga instructor at first is a good idea to help you learn what proper alignment feels like. Good luck!