Hip openers gently stretch and release these tight muscles, gradually improving their range of motion. With regular practice, you will notice increased flexibility and ease of movement in your hips, allowing you to perform more challenging yoga poses without pain or discomfort.
On a physical level, this can help free the spine and legs, increase mobility and improve overall health. Stretching the hip muscles causes a release; pent-up emotions may resurface, suppressed memories may arise, unconscious tension still held onto from a traumatic event may bubble up.
To sum up, since hip muscles are where emotions are trapped caused by events that switch your fight or flight mode, working on deep tissues in hip-focused postures like pigeon pose can release both physical and emotional stress.
What emotions are stored in your hips? Our hip region is also associated with our sacral chakra which processes emotions like fear, sadness, frustration, loss and worry. As we clench and tense up when we are faced with these emotions, we lock and store them into our hips.
People with trauma, stress or mental illnesses such as anxiety and depression often suffer physical symptoms as well. In all of this, there may be one common link: the hips. Neuroscience indicates that the hips are a potential storage vessel for emotions.
Mind-body practices such as yoga, mindfulness, breathwork, and meditation can help release emotions. Stretching can help with this too.
Trauma is not physically held in the muscles or bones — instead, the need to protect oneself from perceived threats is stored in the memory and emotional centers of the brain, such as the hippocampus and amygdala. This activates the body whenever a situation reminds the person of the traumatic event(s).
Grief can be stored in various parts of the body, such as the heart, lungs, throat, and stomach. People may also experience physical sensations like heaviness in the chest or tightness in the throat when experiencing grief.
Neck Tension = Fear and Repressed Self-Expression
Fear and anxiety are also frequently stored in this area, particularly as a physical response to danger (as the neck is a vulnerable area) or strange environments. Neck muscle tension is also related to trust issues.
Lower Back: Anger
If you sit in frustration, the lower back is a common place for storing repressed anger. For relief, learn to articulate frustration constructively and address conflicts with others.
Hip Openers powerfully stimulate and balance the muladhara, or root and svadisthana, or sacral chakras. By physically rooting our pelvic floor and the base of our spine into the Earth, we plug ourselves into the vibrational current of the planet.
The hips are located at the second chakra, also known as Svadhisthana. The second chakra is linked to sexuality, desire, pleasure, and procreation. When the second chakra is blocked it hinders our ability to let go and let it flow.
“As we clench and tense up when we are faced with these emotions, we lock and store them into our hips. So it is important for us to practice hip openers in order to release the trauma,” said Sharma. She also added that one won't be able to experience the release of trauma in one go, “it's gonna take a while”.
Now begin to Discharge Sensations and Release Stress. First, notice your breath and Breathe Notice any sensations that come up naturally. As you release stress hormones, they will present through sensations like shaking, heat, sweating, yawning, goosebumps, changed breath, and gurgling in the stomach.
The most common areas we tend to hold stress are in the neck, shoulders, hips, hands and feet. Planning one of your stretch sessions around these areas can help calm your mind and calm your body.
Do the exercises at least 3 days/week and you'll feel the results in 1-2 weeks and of course, to continue progressing consider the Hip Flexibility Solution as the next step.
This unconscious tension can be held from one traumatic event, or lots of little events where the stress of feelings like sadness, fear and worry are stored and can get stuck. No matter how you say it, stretching the hip muscles causes a release and allows stored emotion to melt away.
Underactive Sacral Chakra Symptoms
The path to freely express desires hinders artistic abilities and you may begin to depend on others emotionally, resulting in a psychological imbalance and detachment from the Self. Other symptoms include: Fear of pleasure. Lack of creativity.
Jupiter is the planet associated with the sacral charka, and corresponding to that are the signs Sagittarius and Pisces.
Both acute and chronic back pain can be associated with psychological distress in the form of anxiety (worries, stress) or depression (sadness, discouragement). Psychological distress is a common reaction to the suffering aspects of acute back pain, even when symptoms are short-term and not medically serious [35].