Note: this post was originally written as an Atomic Essay as part of Ship 30 for 30 and posted on Twitter. I’ve copied the essay content here so it isn’t just lost in the endlessness of the Twitter feed. Enjoy!
If you’re into yoga at all, you’ve probably heard talk about how we hold stress and emotions in our bodies.
Women especially are said to hold emotions in their hips.
I spent 5 years as a psych nurse so I’m familiar with somatic symptoms, but this is a bit different. It’s more than acute anxiety causing headaches, chest pain or stomachaches.
Sometimes emotions or trauma can get stuck in your body because you don’t (or aren’t able to) process it fully at the time of the experience. It may not cause anything noticeable right away and other times it can cause pain and even disease.
Unprocessed emotion or trauma can impact how we show up and interact with the world.
If you’ve ever felt like you’ve “tried all the things” and still haven’t made progress, you probably have some trapped emotion or trauma in your body.
It was quite a shift for me to learn that some things can’t be fully processed just by thinking or talking. 🤯
I am by no means an expert in this topic and, in fact, I’ve only scratched the surface. I’ve personally experienced improvement in my stress and anxiety by doing slow-flow yoga regularly, but is that just anecdotal? I’m not sure.
Instead of relying solely on my own experience, I’m learning from experts in the field.
I’m currently reading The Emotion Code and have The Body Keeps Score and The Wisdom of Your Body lined up next.
I’ve found a few body-based therapy practitioners to follow and recently enrolled in an applied yoga therapy course for later this year.
I’m excited to dive into this field more and will definitely share more as I learn.
