Why Does Yoga Make People Emotional?

If you've ever found yourself swept up in a wave of sadness or anger during, say, Pigeon Pose, you're not alone. Learn more about what we know and don't know about yoga's effects on emotions in this episode of BrainStuff, based on this article: https://health.howstuffworks.com/wellness/diet-fitness/yoga/yoga-makes-people-super-emotional-why.htm

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to Brainstuff, a production of iHeartRadio, Hey brain Stuff,
Lord volgelbomb here. Sometime around the start of the twenty
first century, mainstream America found out about yoga. Other mind
body disciplines, including acupuncture, chiropractics, and meditation, have gained significant
followings here during that time, but yoga's rise was meteor

(00:26):
In two thousand and three, market data showed that fewer
than two percent of US adults practiced it. By twenty sixteen,
nearly fifteen percent of Americans over the age of eighteen
were engaged in the discipline, and another thirty four percent
we're thinking about giving it a try. A Yoga is
a tough discipline to define. The National Institutes of Health

(00:47):
describes it as a meditative movement practice combining physical postures,
breathing techniques, and meditation or relaxation. But it's not really
something you do, at least not in the way that
you push ups. It's more of a state of mind. Technically,
the highly physical practice that most Westerners think of as

(01:08):
yoga is just one of a large body of yoga disciplines,
some of which are far more spiritual than sweat inducing.
Most scholars trace yoga's roots to ancient Indian religious practices
typically associated with Hinduism. The Sanskrit word yoga means connection.
The yoga state is variously defined as relaxed attentiveness, a

(01:31):
balance between body and mind, and tranquility. Whatever yoga is
to whoever is practicing, it can facilitate intense emotional release.
Many sources cite resting postures like corpse pose as common
settings for tears. A backbends, which are considered heart openers

(01:51):
in yoga, make the list as well, but hip openers,
particularly pigeon pose, seem to win the anecdotal vote if
you're unfamiliar. One stage of pigeon pose looks something like
a forward split, but the front leg bends and rests
on the mat, causing the hip flexer to open. In

(02:12):
another variation of the pose, a sleeping pigeon, the upper
body folds over that front leg, and the forearms and
forehead may rest on the mat in front of the knee.
An advanced expression of the pose, called one legged king pigeon,
incorporates a backbend where the foot of the back leg
touches the head. For the article, this episode is based

(02:33):
on how stuff Work spoke via email with yoga teacher
and mindfulness coach Daniel Shankin. He said, I'm going to
make a T shirt one of these days that says,
in pigeon pose, nobody can see you cry. One time,
I cried in pigeon pose every time I went to
class for three months. He explains that he wasn't in pain,

(02:55):
he was just deeply sad. House Stiff Works All spoke
by email with Joseph Lopez, a Denver based yoga instructor,
who said that he's also cried in sleeping pigeon quote.
For me, it's always the hip openers that trigger emotions
the most. I don't always cry, as sometimes I get
really really pissed off. Lopez, who has been practicing for

(03:19):
ten years and teaching for seven, thinks it may be
a matter of where we store the emotional gunk of
feelings that we don't express. He said, I carry my
anger in my hips, so when I open them, that's
what gets released. That sort of concept is a common
take on the phenomenon, which seems to draw from the
Eastern philosophy of chakras. There are seven traditional chakras that

(03:43):
mark the points in our bodies where energy supposedly flows.
In this understanding of wellness, a block in that energy
flow can cause physical and psychological damage. The second chakra
is linked to emotions and tears and is centered around
the pelvis. The idea is that unblocking that chakra by
opening the hips could lead to a sudden flood of emotion,

(04:07):
something like the unconscious exploding into consciousness. The science has
started looking at the effects of yoga on the mind.
A March twenty seventeen study found that yoga can ease
the symptoms of major depressive disorder, and other research has
found that it reduces anxiety and stress and induces feelings

(04:27):
of happiness and unity with the world beyond oneself. But
science hasn't done much to elucidate the mechanisms responsible for
yoga's emotional liberation. How Stuffworks also spoke by email with
doctor Timothy McCall, who practiced internal medicine before deciding to
study and teach yoga therapy full time. He reports having

(04:51):
once cried after performing a series of backbends, but that
this phenomenon hasn't been investigated scientifically to the best of
his knowledge. A one plausible explanation, he says, is simple
awareness a quote. Have you ever had the experience, say
on the beach or in the middle of the woods,
when you get quiet inside and just become part of

(05:14):
what's going on around you. Sometimes in that moment you'll
get an epiphany. Maybe you need to quit your job
or get out of an unhealthy relationship. This might be
something that you've known deep down but have been overlooking
during the grind of everyday life. And it can work
that way with emotions too. McCall speculated they may be

(05:37):
buried deeply or sometimes just below the surface, yet out
of our conscious awareness. When we get quiet and introspective
in yoga practice, those emotions might come to the fore.
It may be that yoga's focus on conscious breathing, postural alignment,
and physical sensations, as well as the interactions between those factors,

(05:59):
leaves no room for the noise of daily life. Suddenly
we can hear something deeper. Ultimately, neither science nor yoga
practitioners really know why yoga can bring emotions to the surface.
Maybe we never will, but McColl says that these types
of breakthroughs are useful. As a yoga instructor, he tries

(06:21):
to let them be and for many practitioners. Part of
yoga is letting go of the hows and whys. To
this day, Shankin has no idea why he cried in
Pigeon Pose for three months, but that doesn't matter for him.
What matters is that he quote finally felt safe enough
to express it and let it go. At the end

(06:43):
of the three months, the crying stopped on its own,
and my hips were much more open as well. Today's
episode is based on the article Yoga makes people super emotional,
but why? On how stuffworks dot Com written by Julia Laton.
Brain Stuff is production of iHeartRadio in partnership with HowStuffWorks

(07:03):
dot Com, and its produced by Tyler Klang. Four more
podcasts to my heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.