I've been practicing yoga regularly for three months, but last night was the first time this happened. We had just gone into Savasana, I inhaled deeply, and suddenly my chest tightened and the tears just started aflowin'! I was a bit surprised, since I wasn't thinking sad thoughts or feeling upset, but my body obviously needed the release.
I'm cool with it-- I've been known to cry during massages, too-- but curious as to how common it is. Have you ever cried during yoga?
Yes I have, even though I'm the most sceptical, cynical, non-spiritual person on the planet. That said it wasn't totally about the yoga, I'd split up with my boyfriend that day and been ignoring it, going to Yoga released everything and I couldn't do anything in that class! A similar thing happened in a dance class a couple of years ago when my best friends mother had tried to kill herself and I was more upset about it that I realised I was.
I do it all the time.. almost everytime.
whenever I get a good stretch it happens, more so when I do hip openers..
They say that yoga releases tensions and your heart and emotion can well up... especially during Savasana. It happens. They also say that this happens if there's something that you have a hard time letting go of and so, when relaxed and open like that, it just might get released. And then hopefully you feel better. ;o)
So. Yes, it is quite common.
And yes I have cried during Savasana. It took me by surprise too. And yet it was a great feeling: as if I was healing myself. ;o)
I started taking Bikram yoga recently and thats the first time it happened for me. Never in savasana, but mostly in backbend postures. There is an emotional center in your body there, and if there is something bothering you, or even something you should be really really happy about, you may cry. My teacher said its normal, usually during savasana, She also said that she had students orgasm while in camel. Thats never happened, but crying, yep. When you cry you allow your body to release more toxins so its very healing.
I've heard that backbends can release you enough to cry... so it's definitely not unheard of.
And, yes, camel sounds like something that I should look into. ;op
Interesting! Much of the class focused on hip-openers, and I know I tend to carry tension there, so it makes sense that my body was cleaning out all kinds of stress-- hence the tears.
I've never heard of the camel/orgasm connection, although many poses do leave me feeling very... good, if not orgasmic. Hmm. Maybe if I get my mulabandha just right next time... ;)
My mother is a Yoga instructor. She says this is pretty normal (happened to her too), and happens to a lot of people, especially in the early stages of regular practice.
I've never cried because I've never taken a class that was demanding enough to force me to actually release, but when I do hip and hamstring openers, I feel myself getting really emotional and 'pouty'... backbends make me feel really flighty and uplifted - I feel a little euphoric after a good camel pose, but not orgasmic... hrmmm....
I've cried during savasana and sometimes when i'm in shoulderstand or plow i get this uncontrollable urge to giggle and a couple of times started laughing so hard I couldn't hold the pose all for no apparent reason. yoga is magic.
I've had a a few meltdowns in my practice too, usually after some of the standing postures. I have trouble with my feet, and apparently getting a good release there really gets the emotions going for me. I also have a great instructor that makes a point of coming over to hold your hand during savasana when you're having an emotional practice. What a great guy :-)
<<I also have a great instructor that makes a point of coming over to hold your hand during savasana when you're having an emotional practice. What a great guy :-) >>
Aw, how nice!
Our last class before a break for the holidays is next Tuesday, and our teacher has told us to bring 2 pillows and a blanket for some sort of restorative session. I've a feeling I'll either be a blubbering idiot or asleep. ha
Wed, December 13, 2006 - 12:04 PM
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I cry often during massage, but I have yet to cry during yoga. This is probably because I'm still learning, and I'm very focused on just doing it correctly - unfortunately, not really in the moment. I do find that when I do Uttanasana (standing forward bend), I sometimes just want to 'hide' there, particularly if it's been a long day. Whenever I'm feeling on edge or drained, I get myself into that pose. It really does a lot for me.
Wed, December 13, 2006 - 12:24 PM
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which pose is the camel pose??
I've cried during Savasana--my grandmother passed away after a stroke. She was in a coma for a week or so before passing, and I couldn't cry during that time because she wasn't really gone yet. The day after she died, I broke down during savasana in yoga class. I let myself cry all the way home, until I was dry and also at peace.
I haven't cried during yoga, or dancing, or stretching before. But I think that's really pretty. Don't know why, just think it's a pretty thing to imagine in my head. What an ultimate release that must be.
Yup. All the time.
I lived at a yoga center for a while. Sometimes yoga just hits something and you release and sometimes you cry. It's a good thing.
It's happened to me a couple of times not during yoga, but while dancing. Both times I had been bottling lots of things up and am not surprised that they eventually bubbled to the surface. But I WAS taken by surprise when it happened. Just warming up and zoning out in the music and... BAM. Tears.
nichole
i am glad that you discussed this topic. last week at yoga i felt like i was going to cry. I had 2 tears escape while focusing on my breathing at the beginning of class. I felt embrassed and didn't know why I felt like crying. Good to know that its normal and a sign that I need to take a moment for myself. Thanks again.
j
yes, its normal and healthy.
there is a book called "the body remembers" by babette rothschild. it mainly focuses on trauma and PTSD.
everything that happens to us, happens on a cellular level.
you get stressed out due to a certain event and that event becomes stored up in the body somewhere..say your shoulders. when the stress is unraveled due to movement, messages are sent to the brain. the brain says, "oh yes, i remember that...allow me to send the appropriate messages so i can feel that' and the tears start to run.
Glad it was helpful to you, J. :) I was a cry suppressor until my mid-20's, so nowadays I just try to go with the flow even if I'm crying at some cheesy Hallmark commercial or for no apparent reason at all.
I once cried at a pensions advert. Mind you I still think that was justified, it was a governmnet advert saying that some peopel were entitled to more than they were getting. The tag line was 'pick it up, it's yous' and it showed all these pensioners supremely happy at getting a couple of extra quid. I think I cried because of how pathetic the state pension is, and it seemed such a cynical advert.
Thats a whole different story.
When Dr Green died on er I was inconsolable for an hour after the programme finished. I do find that since my dad died (about 10 years old) I am more easily moved than I used to be.
That has definitely happened to me. I havent cried yet but I have laughed a LOT.
Oh! I am just like that too!!! I cry over everything sometimes. My husband could not understand for the life of him why I cried for almost an hour after someone died in the last Harry Potter book. I have always been an emotional person, but never like this until after the car accident when my friend was killed. I have heard that PTSD and/or losing someone very close to you will do that. Certain music does it to me, so does dancing sometimes, and I imagine yoga would as well because I carry so much stress with me all the time. I remember I was a mess after watching a TV program about some chimps that were rescued from a lab - they were so messed up, and when they released them onto their own preserve they were just so happy - I just started bawling, and even worse when one of them died a little while later.
I really want to have the time and money to go to yoga because I suspect I need it very much for several reasons.
I've never cried during either exercise, massage, or yoga. I got very emotional when I saw Zoe Jakes dance live - my eyes teared up. That has never happened before, usually I cry at a sad movie or book or at something sad in my personal life. I was very surprised that a dance could make me cry. I still am not sure why it happened. 2 perrformances, cried 2 times - consistent, disturbing.
A dance that's very beautiful will tear me up also. I wonder if observing a movement that is a needed release in ourselves can do that?
I only watched the bit on the beginning of a video ad and got that thing going.. that's when I knew I HAD to have that DVD!
Roya,
Spirit-Dancer
SPCA commercials really get me every time. I usually have to change the channel. There's one that shows all these poor little amminals in cages looking hurt and they're playing Sarah MacLaucghlan's "In the Arms of the Angel". Just thinking about it has me welling up.
I have something in my eye...*sniff*...
There's a Yoga Journal article on the subject:
"Emotions in Motion
You reach up and back, your chest opening into a supported backbend. Then, suddenly, you're in tears. How did you move from serenity to intensity in just one moment?
By Donna Raskin"
www.yogajournal.com/practice/1215_1.cfm
oh yeah, several times. i also had my first out of body experience during savasana. sadly, by the time i had realized what was happening and was thinking 'hey, this is pretty cool', the call came to bring ourselves back to present. :(
the choreography we are learning got me as well, then it was totally all over when our instructor watched us and said she was about to cry.
Oh Ack ! Anything to do with animals will choke me up. It is awful and extreme. I wish I was a little less sensitive about animals.....
I sat through the movie Two Brothers three times bawling my eyes out to try and see if it would get better........ it didn't ;) Poor babies!
I have cried at yoga, at the end when we were in savasana and I really started to relax.
The human body is a fascinating complicated and not fully understood organism. The act of releasing endorphins into your system can result in a rush that will cause all sorts of emotional responses (this is a good thing because they are often responses that we have suppressed and they needed to come out). I have certainly felt all sorts of emotional responses while exercising, getting a massage on my tortured back, in meditation, and even when playing drums very vigorously during a performance and getting into the zone right at about the time I thought I was about to "burn-out" I got a surge of energy, suddenly feel relaxed and can play endlessly. It is a rush that is often accompanied by an ethereal exhilaration that lets all sorts of emotions surface.
Okay, that's enough sharing, I'll now return to my curmudgeon self. :-)
Mon, December 18, 2006 - 7:46 AM
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Um, don't mean to step on anyone's toes but what exactly happens that causes the crying to start? Is it memories or connections or personal epiphanies or what? Does the world seem different the next day, or after the yoga session? I know that this is something that yogis are familiar with but to the un-involved it seems like something's missing that those "in the know" are all too familiar with.
I'm not involved in yoga so reading this is kinda new to me.
PLEASE Harry Potter makes me cry ALLL THE TIME. JK Rowling writes her charicters so startalingly true to life that when the charicters grieve we grieve. The fith and sixth book ... and... third book have all made me cry more than once!
This has happened to me more than once in yoga and every time it's been a strange, intense, and healing feeling.
The first time was very early in my practice history. I was doing a tape at home and did what was probably my first seated spinal twist. I remember thinking "wow this certainly feels like something I need, what a great sensation, maybe I'll go a little further, that feels good too, waitaminute why am I CRYING?"
The second time was years later in a yoga class. I had had a very heavy and symbolic dream the night before, and I allowed that dream to return to me during savasana. I meditated on it and found some resolution to the issues it presented. Sure enough, the waterworks came. I got off the mat with a wonderful feeling of peace.
That yoga, it's good stuff.
I've started yoga and didn't know the corpse pose was called savasana - just looked it up on the yoga journal. And you know, my eyes reguarly water and I put it down to being well tired each time I go and just being given the opportunity to relax. I wouldn't call it crying though. I'll have to peek tomorrow to see if anyone else is crying/watering!
x
Yup-began crying and didnt know why, was freaked out b/c I was in a dance class that incorporated a lot of yoga and bam! out from nowhere. And i couldnt make it stop. i was afraid a nearby student might ask me "are you ok?" what would I say? "um, I dont know..."
After the cry i felt so light.
in massage and in reikki sessions i have seen my past lives and that freaked me out something incredible!
in my classes now i try to use a lot of common yoga poses to cool my students down and cleanse them b/f they go back out into the world. i always give a speech at the beginning of each session about various releases that can happen from farting to burping to tummy rumbles to crying, laughing, yawning-it's all normal and i *think* (maybe someone more experienced can chime in) it is a shifting of the chakras back into alignment and in that process, some things get released to get them realigned. yay? nay?
I have seen others cry during savasana and have cried myself during savasana. In fact, I cried today in savasana and then we came out of savasana and did some chanting and at first I could barely get into the rhythm of the chanting because the tears were just streaming down my face. Every time I opened my mouth I felt a well of emotion and tears. But then it passed, like a storm moving through and the sun starting to break. I felt light after. It was a release of emotion I have been carrying around all week and I am certain I will feel better this coming week after this little "episode." :-)
Crying when doing yoga is very common. Particularly in Savasana, or corpse pose, when you are trying to clear your mind and just relax. I myself have done it many time.
The postures that are performed in an asana yoga class are meant to get the energy of your body moving properly. This is particularity true but not limited to Kundalini yoga. The crying can happen as a result of getting energy moving again in a part of the body that was energetically stuck or holding on to pain in any way (cell memory). When performing a yoga position that is focusing on a 'stuck' area you are forcing your mind to focus on it as well. Sometimes the combination of body, mind and spirit sinking up can bring on the tears. This is very therapeutic, and most likely means you are getting results by doing yoga even if it is only on a psychological or energetic level.
