Life in a big city can be overwhelming. Long work hours, constant pressure, and unhealthy coping mechanisms—like drinking, smoking, or unhealthy food—can leave you feeling emotionally heavy and disconnected from yourself. If you’re struggling with anxiety, stress, or emotional heaviness, yoga for stress relief and emotional well being can be a powerful tool to help you release stuck emotions and find inner peace.
According to the doctor Lauren Tober, a psychologist and yoga teacher from Australia, 58.4% of individuals are starting yoga for a mental health reason and 79.4% keep practicing yoga for the mental health benefits. This is huge, it represent the real power of what a complete yoga practice has to offer.
Many of us turn to yoga for stress relief, but beyond its physical benefits, yoga also offers a path to emotional healing. Certain yoga poses help release stored tension, allowing you to process emotions in a safe and mindful way. This blog will guide you through the best yoga poses for emotional release, helping you transition from tension to tranquility.
How Yoga Helps Release Stored Emotions
Our bodies store emotions—especially stress, anxiety, and past traumas—within our muscles, particularly in areas like the hips, chest, and shoulders. When we experience stress but don’t fully process it, our nervous system remains in a heightened state, causing physical and emotional discomfort.
Yoga helps in three key ways:
- Regulating the Nervous System: Deep breathing and mindful movement activate the parasympathetic nervous system, bringing you from a state of fight-or-flight into rest and relaxation.
- Releasing Physical Tension: Holding poses, especially hip openers and heart openers, helps to release tight muscles where emotional tension is stored.
- Encouraging Mindfulness and Self-Compassion: Yoga creates space for self-awareness, allowing you to acknowledge emotions without judgment.
By integrating specific yoga poses into your routine, you can create a safe space for emotional healing.
7 Yoga Poses for Emotional Release
1. Child’s Pose (Balasana) – Letting Go of Fear and Anxiety
This grounding pose provides a sense of safety, helping to calm the nervous system and bring awareness to your breath.
How to do it:
- Kneel on your mat, bring your big toes together, and sit back on your heels.
- Extend your arms forward, resting your forehead on the mat.
- Take slow, deep breaths, focusing on releasing any tension in your back and shoulders.
Why it helps: Child’s Pose soothes the mind and gently stretches the lower back, reducing accumulated stress and anxiety. It also provides a sense of security and comfort, making it a great pose for emotional release. By surrendering to the posture, you symbolically let go of the need for control, allowing yourself to simply be.
2. Pigeon Pose (Eka Pada Rajakapotasana) – Releasing Suppressed Emotions
The hips store a lot of emotional tension, making hip-opening poses essential for emotional release.
How to do it:
- From a Downward Dog position, bring your right knee toward your right wrist, right shin diagonal to the front edge of the mat, and extend your left leg back.
- Square your hips and fold forward, resting on your forearms or a block. Here if you have really tight hips, you can bring some support, like a bolster or block, underneath your right buttock, to keep the pelvic in a neutral position.
- Stay for at least 5 breaths, then switch sides.
Why it helps: Pigeon Pose allows deep emotional release by stretching the hip flexors, where many people hold unresolved emotions like sadness and frustration. It encourages a gentle opening, which can lead to spontaneous emotional release, such as crying or a deep feeling of relief.
3. Camel Pose (Ustrasana) – Opening the Heart and Releasing Grief
This heart-opening pose encourages vulnerability, helping to release suppressed grief and sadness.
How to do it:
- Kneel on your mat with your knees hip-width apart, and tuck the toes under.
- Place your hands on your lower back for support and slowly lean back, reaching for your heels.
- Open your chest, keeping your neck relaxed, shoulders away from ears, and breathe deeply.
Why it helps: Camel Pose activates the heart chakra, allowing emotional energy to flow freely, bringing a sense of lightness and openness. Many people experience an emotional release when practicing this pose, as it opens the heart and allows deeply buried emotions to surface.
4. Seated Forward Fold (Paschimottanasana) – Letting Go of Control
This calming pose helps surrender to the present moment, releasing mental and emotional tension.
How to do it:
- Sit with your legs extended straight, but keep a micro bent of the legs. (option to keep the legs bend if you have tight hamstrings)
- Inhale to lengthen your spine, then exhale as you fold forward, reaching for your feet or shins.
- Hold for 5-10 breaths, allowing your body to relax with each exhale.
Why it helps: Forward folds encourage introspection, helping you let go of control and embrace stillness. This pose also stimulates the parasympathetic nervous system, which helps reduce anxiety and bring a sense of inner peace.
5. Reclining Butterfly (Supta Baddha Konasana) – Opening the Heart and Hips
This restorative pose creates space for deep relaxation and emotional processing.
How to do it:
- Lie on your back and bring the soles of your feet together, allowing your knees to fall open. Here you also have the option to place a support underneath the knees if you have any injury in the knees or groins.
- Place a bolster or pillow under your back for support.
- Rest your hands on your belly or chest and breathe deeply.
Why it helps: This pose opens both the hips and heart, releasing emotional blockages and fostering deep relaxation. It is particularly beneficial for individuals experiencing grief, loneliness, or heartbreak.
6. Legs Up the Wall (Viparita Karani) – Calming Anxiety and Overwhelm
An excellent pose for calming the nervous system and reducing stress-induced fatigue.
How to do it:
- Sit next to a wall and swing your legs up, resting them against the wall.
- Place your arms by your sides and close your eyes.
- Stay for 5-10 minutes, focusing on slow, deep breaths.
Why it helps: Legs Up the Wall reduces cortisol levels, helping with stress relief and emotional balance. It also improves circulation and helps alleviate symptoms of anxiety and mild depression.
7. Savasana (Corpse Pose) – Integrating Emotional Release
Savasana allows you to fully absorb the benefits of your practice, bringing a sense of deep peace and integration.
How to do it:
- Lie flat on your back, arms relaxed at your sides, palms facing up.
- Close your eyes and take slow, mindful breaths.
- Let go of any lingering tension, surrendering to stillness.
Why it helps: Savasana promotes complete relaxation, allowing emotional shifts to settle and fostering inner calm. It encourages self-acceptance and deep inner peace, helping you process any emotions that surfaced during your practice.
Enhancing Your Emotional Healing Through Yoga
To deepen your emotional release through yoga, consider:
- Practicing Meditation and Breathwork: Try deep belly breathing or NadiShodhana (alternate nostril breathing) to calm the mind.
- Journaling After Your Practice: Writing down thoughts and emotions that arise can help process them further.
- Consistently Showing Up for Yourself: Even 10-15 minutes a day can create profound shifts.
- Joining a Supportive Community: Consider joining The Calm Collective: Yoga & Support for Emotional Well-Being for guidance and encouragement.
“Love for practice comes from knowing its importance” -Pandit Rajami Tigunait
Conclusion
Emotional healing takes time, but yoga provides a gentle and effective path toward inner peace. By integrating these yoga poses into your routine, you can release stored emotions, reduce stress, and cultivate a sense of balance in your daily life.
If you’re ready to take the next step in your healing journey, explore one of my program 21 days to Lift the weight—a guided yoga program designed to help you release emotional heaviness and reconnect with yourself.
If you need a more personalized support, check out my website and see all the offerings available to you. Know that I am here to help you deepening your yoga practice, release stress and live with more peaceful life.
Go around my website, and start your journey towards balance today https://groundedbyyoga.org/
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Lots of Love and Gratitude,
Steve Bavoysi
Founder of Grounded_by_yoga
Come and join us! Share! Thrive!
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