If you’ve been practicing yoga 🧘♀️ for a while, you’ve probably heard the claim that the hips store unprocessed emotions which can unexpectedly get released during hip opening yoga poses. In fact, many people claim to have broken into tears 😭 during a yoga session, often being taken completely by surprise by the episode. This phenomenon has had me curious for a while now. While the concept of stored emotions intuitively makes sense to me, I am trying to be sure to research claims before accepting them. So, that’s what we’ll be doing here: fully exploring the connection between the hips, emotions and yoga…oh my!
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Hip Anatomy
Let’s dive into a bit of hip anatomy to set the stage, so to speak. The hips are part of our musculoskeletal system (our muscles and bones 🦴) that sit at the base of the spine and above the legs.
The bones that make up the hips are the ilium (pelvic bones), sacrum (base of spine), pubis (pubic bone), ischium (sit bones) and the acetabulum, a depressed groove that makes up the socket of the hip joint. The acetabulum is where the head of your femur (thigh bone) sits.
There are many muscles surrounding the hip area. However, we will just look at a few of the key players for hip mobility. They are: the gluteus maximus, the piriformis and the iliopsoas.
The Gluteus Maximus
The gluteus maximus is the body’s largest and strongest muscle 💪. Located in the back of the hip region, it is the main muscle of the buttocks. It is a powerful hip extensor, used every time we walk and is the largest and most superficial (closest to the skin) of the gluteal muscles (maximus, medius and minimus).
The Piriformis
The main muscle responsible for external rotation ↩️ of the hip, the piriformis is an important muscle to know in yoga. It is located on the front of the sacral bone and wraps around to attach near the top of your thigh bone 🦴. It is important due to its location near the sciatic nerve 〰️. Oftentimes, people who suffer from sciatic nerve pain have tight piriformis muscles which puts unnecessary pressure on the nerve. Performing regular stretches of this hip muscle can often alleviate this pain.
The Iliopsoas
Another super important muscle to know in yoga is the iliopsoas. This muscle is actually made up of two 2️⃣ separate large, commingling muscles: the psoas major and the iliacus. The psoas has its origins in the lower back and extends downward where it merges with the iliacus in front of the pelvis, attaching together at the inside of the upper thigh bone (femur). It remains activated every time we stand 🧍♀️ or move the lower body.
Resources:
The Key Muscles of Yoga by Ray Long
The Yoga Anatomy Coloring Book by Kelly Solloway
Sympathetic Nervous System
Along with the anatomy of the hip, it’s important to mention the sympathetic nervous system, since this system is intricately linked ⛓️ to the trauma that is said to be stored in the hips. The sympathetic nervous system, AKA our ‘fight-or-flight’ 🥊 🏃 system, is a complex system that developed out of basic survival necessity eons ago. This system alerts ⚠️ the endocrine system to potential danger and causes the body to respond with a flood of energy that allows us to either fight–or escape–the threat at hand. Originally, it kept us safe from predators 🐅 and, while it can still do that, it is more commonly activated in modern times by everyday responsibilities like child-rearing, jobs 👨💼, due dates, daily commutes 🚗🚕 and deadlines.
Chronic Stress
When these responsibilities loom over us with no end in sight, it can create a chronic state of stress and anxiety 🥺. The body can’t differentiate between predator-induced stress or child-induced stress. And to be honest, sometimes neither can we. 😁 So, the body stays flooded with stress-related hormones that we can’t seem to turn ‘off’ 📴. When your body is flooded with this rush of energy to allow for fighting or fleeing a dangerous situation and you don’t use it, as is common in modern day stress, it doesn’t get released. So, what happens to it?
Recovery
According to Medical News Today, it takes between 20-60 minutes after a stressful event for the body to recover. And after recovery, there can be lingering, residual symptoms such as tiredness, muscle aches 😩 or even anxiety. Self-care is recommended during recovery as it helps return us to a state of balance 🌀 more quickly. Ignoring these symptoms can lead to chronic stress-related disorders.
Prolonged “fight, flight or freeze” response to trauma has very real, physical consequences. Studies show that PTSD disrupts hormone secretion, neurochemistry, and immune system functioning, all of which contribute to diseased cells, organs, and other bodily systems. Genetic research also reveals that PTSD patients have shorter telomeres — the segments on the ends of chromosomes that are a measure of cellular age and longevity — than their healthy counterparts do.
Source: Tissue memory – how emotional trauma gets trapped in the body (the-alchemy-project.com)
Trauma
Some incidents are more than just stressful, they’re actually traumatic. These events are much more dramatic than everyday stressors and may produce a variety of both physical and/or emotional responses 🧠. Things like witnessing violence, experiencing a natural disaster 🌪️or suffering abuse, for example. According to Medical News Today, the responses that these events may elicit can look like:
~feelings of shock, anger, sadness, or fear 😨
~disbelief or denial 🙅♂️
~emptiness or numbness 😐
~difficulty sleeping or nightmares 👹
~changes in appetite and energy 🍽️
~physical symptoms, such as headaches, stomach problems, or body pains 🤕
~worsening of mental or chronic health conditions ☹️
~increased use of alcohol, tobacco, and other substances 🥃
If these reactions aren’t treated, they may cause long-term damage to the body and mind. Acknowledging them and seeking appropriate treatment is vital to your health and well-being.
Source: https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/fight-flight-or-freeze-response#recovery
To learn more about how the body stores trauma, check out the enlightening work 📘 by clinical psychiatrist, Dr. Bessel Van Der Kolk in his book, The Body Keeps the Score.
Repression, Suppression & Expression
If our bodies are constantly ‘on’ 🔛 in this chronic state of stress or we experience a traumatic event(s), and the flood of energy doesn’t get released, the trauma can stay within the body. We either then repress it, suppress it or express it.
Repression
Repression involves an unconscious decision to ‘hide’ the experience away from our awareness. This is most common in highly traumatic experiences that almost force us to react by disassociation from the event. Repression is a subconscious denial of an unpleasant experience.
Suppression
Suppression, on the other hand, is a conscious decision to force the traumatic event out of our memory. It is temporarily filing away 🗄️ unpleasant experiences in order to function on a daily basis. Suppression is a conscious denial of an unpleasant experience.
Resource: https://psychologenie.com/repression-vs-suppression-in-psychology
Expression
Expression is an entirely different response to an unpleasant or even traumatic experience. It involves actively working through the emotions that the event caused. It may be dealt with verbally through conversations 🗣️, therapy or journalling 📝, for example. Another form of expression may come in a physical form through dance 💃, running or yoga 🧘♀️, etc. Or it may be expressed through art: drawing, painting 🎨 or sculpting, for instance. These are all healthy outlets for releasing negative emotions that stem from negative life events.
What The Experts Say
Dr. Bessel Van Der Kolk
One of the leading scientists 👨🔬 on trauma and its effects on the body is the aforementioned clinical psychiatrist, Dr. Bessel Van Der Kolk. He has published many peer-reviewed scientific articles on the topic, some of them involving yoga 🧎 as a form of therapy. In an interview he did with the famous Kripalu Center for Yoga & Health, he was asked the question: "What does the evidence show as far as yoga’s efficacy?"
His answer follows:
"Our studies show that yoga is equally as beneficial—or more beneficial—than the best possible medications in alleviating traumatic stress symptoms. In the studies we did involving neuroimaging of the brain before and after regular yoga practice, we were able to show that the areas of the brain involving self-awareness get activated by doing yoga, and those are the areas that get locked out by trauma and that are needed in order to heal it."
--Dr. Bessel Van Der Kolk (Source: How Yoga Helps Heal Trauma: A Q&A with Bessel van der Kolk | Kripalu)
His work is both groundbreaking and fascinating. Much of modern trauma-informed yoga has benefitted from his work in the field.
Trauma-Informed Yoga
Trauma-informed yoga is a style of teaching yoga 🧘♂️ that personalizes the experience for each practitioner. It involves recognizing that nearly everyone has experienced some sort of traumatic event in their life and seeks to encourage healing through personal awareness and empowerment 💪. There are specific poses and sometimes breathing techniques 🌬️ that can be potentially triggering as well as those that are considered soothing and, therefore, safe. This can sometimes look different depending on what type of trauma the practitioner has experienced. Hip opening postures, in particular, though are often avoided for their propensity to release extreme emotions that the student may not know how to manage properly.
For more information on trauma-informed yoga, see this resource: https://psychcentral.com/health/what-is-trauma-informed-yoga#trauma-informed-teaching
Liz Koch, Creator of Core Awareness™️
The author of The Psoas Book, and internationally recognized psoas authority figure, Liz Koch, states:
An essential aspect of the sympathetic neuro-core (fight-flight-freeze response), the psoas expresses a person’s innate sense of safety. The psoas is an involuntary muscle which is instinctive and emotionally responsive. By tuning into the psoas through awareness rather than deploying invasive techniques or manipulative releasing approaches, enables a person to gain a deep sense of calm, integrity, and empowerment.
https://coreawareness.com/about/psoas/
Gretchen Jerman, Yoga Instructor
As my friend and fellow Yoga Instructor Gretchen Jerman advises regarding the therapeutic benefits of yoga:
Yoga all day, every day–we store trauma and emotional baggage in the hips. Hip openers are a form of therapy in and of themselves.
--Gretchen Jerman, Yoga Instructor
Conclusion
I am pleasantly surprised by the amount of reputable information I learned about the hips, emotions and their relationship with yoga! It is comforting to know there is scientific evidence 👩🔬 to support the oft-repeated claim regarding the hips being a depository for emotional baggage. Because the more you know…the more empowered you are!
What are your thoughts or personal experiences with this?
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