Sports & Fitness

Hips don’t lie about how you feel

Put a spring in your step with yoga poses that will relieve emotional build-up

Updated 5 years ago · Published on 02 Dec 2020 11:00AM

Hips don’t lie about how you feel
Atilia shares a few hip-opening poses — Peathegee Inc pic, 2 December, 2020

by Atilia Haron

I heard once before, from my yoga teachers, that hips store a lot of emotions. I was like … yeah, right. If you ask me, the heart would be more appropriate for this because I don't understand how you can associate hips with emotions. 

According to my yoga teachers, our hips store bad energy and negative emotions. Therefore, hip-opening poses can lead to an unexpected release of emotions. I tried the class and cried buckets at the end of it. 

Opening and stretching the hips not only allows for better blood circulation but the increased range of motion also supports our spine and back muscles as well. I may sound like a broken record in class but that’s my mantra; lengthen the psoas muscles and you’ll have a strong back!

Throughout this pandemic, I’m often stressed out by every piece of bad news I receive on social media. Whether it’s one traumatic event or multiple smaller-sized issues, I feel it all — fear, anxiety, sadness — and my chest begin to tighten up.

Nowadays, you feel so much because everything is amplified! Until you’re able to bring them up and enable a release, these emotions stay bottled up at the hips — the longer they are suppressed, the tighter our chest becomes. 

When our hips are tight, the increasing strain causes us to overuse our back. Over time, this can result in major back pains. In addition to lessening these pains, the improved range of motion and circulation from opening our hips can create an energetic shift or release; trust me, you’ll walk away with an extra bounce in your step.

In this week’s video, I would like to share a few hip-opening poses, such as ‘the lizard pose’, the low-lunge quad stretch, ‘the cow face pose’, ‘the pigeon pose’ forward bend, the seated wide-legged forward bend and low-lunge. Let’s try them out and see if you feel lighter afterwards. — The Vibes, 2 December, 2020

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