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Sometimes we believe
that the heaviness we feel
lives only in the mind.
But the body is always one step ahead.
It registers first, processes first, speaks first.
In neuroscience, this is called interoception:
the body’s ability to sense
what the mind isn’t ready to admit.
That’s why, when we don’t release emotions,
they don’t disappear —
they reorganize in the body.
Neck tension.
Knots in the back.
Pressure in the chest.
Anxiety in the stomach.
Shoulders always lifted.
All of that is body memory.
The fascia — the connective tissue that wraps everything —
acts like an emotional recorder.
Studies from Harvard Medical School
and the Journal of Bodywork & Movement Therapies show that:
chronic stress changes fascia density,
stored tension holds emotional charge,
and releasing the fascia physically also releases the associated emotion.
The emotion doesn’t vanish.
It stays in the body as muscular tension,
as a breathing pattern,
as an involuntary contraction.
And that’s where yoga becomes a somatic tool.
Why do we cry in certain postures?
In yoga, there are poses that open “emotionally sensitive” areas:
backbends → open the chest and diaphragm
hip openers → release tension from the psoas (a muscle linked to fear)
twists → stimulate organs tied to stress
restorative poses → deactivate the sympathetic system (fight or flight)
When these areas release, the nervous system recognizes safety.
That’s when what neuroscience calls
parasympathetic discharge,
sympathetic downshifting,
and somatic emotional release can happen.
It’s neurophysiology.
Studies from the University of California show that
when the body enters deep parasympathetic states,
tears can appear as a regulation mechanism.
My own body showed me
where I had stored things
I never knew how to process.
On my last birthday,
I was carrying a huge emotional weight.
A deep scare —
the kind that breaks you from the inside
and leaves you operating on autopilot.
I was worried, exhausted, shaken…
but I still hadn’t processed any of it.
I went to practice
because I felt that if I didn’t,
I would fall apart.
And when I reached the backbends…
my body opened a door.
Something inside broke,
but not as collapse —
as release.
I cried nonstop.
I cried while breathing.
I cried while holding the posture.
While my body did the work
my mind couldn’t do alone.
Backbends stretch the diaphragm,
soften the psoas,
and activate mechanoreceptors that signal the brain:
it’s safe to let go.
What was happening
was my nervous system reorganizing trauma,
discharging cortisol,
releasing tension I had been holding for months.
It was my body saying:
“I can’t carry this alone anymore.”
Since that day, I recognize it:
it wasn’t weakness.
It was regulation.
I’ve cried more times since then.
And it doesn’t scare me.
It lightens me.
My body finally has a channel
to release what weighs.
Science explains it this way:
Every deep breath stimulates the vagus nerve.
→ lowering cortisol, regulating stress, stabilizing the heart.
Every sustained stretch activates mechanoreceptors in the fascia
→ releasing tension tied to emotional memory.
Every posture that challenges your usual patterns
(backbends or hip openers)
→ frees micro-contractions where emotion gets stuck.
Every time you show up to practice
→ you strengthen the prefrontal system, the part of the brain that regulates emotion, willpower, and focus.
That’s why yoga doesn’t just make the body flexible.
It makes the mind flexible.
Softer.
More receptive.
More honest.
More yours.
I see it in myself every day.
When I’m tense,
it’s not the posture:
it’s what I’m carrying.
When my chest feels closed,
it’s not lack of flexibility:
it’s protection.
When my breath cuts short,
I know something inside is asking to come out.
And with consistency, not intensity,
the body begins to release
what it held for years.
Because the body releases
when you stop resisting.
The more consistent I am, the less I accumulate.
My life didn’t become “easy.”
But my body did learn to let go.
To stop storing everything.
To stop overflowing.
It changed my mental health.
My energy.
My reactions.
My way of holding myself.
I learned to listen before it hurts.
To release before it explodes.
To make space before I overflow.
Maybe you’re feeling it too.
A pressure you can’t explain.
A tiredness rest doesn’t fix.
A tension that’s been there for years.
An emotion you never processed.
You’re not broken.
You’re not exaggerating.
Your body is speaking.
What you don’t release,
your body holds.
And you don’t have to hold it alone.
Yoga teaches you — physically —
to release, reorganize, and unload what weighs.
To move what’s stuck.
To let go of what’s ready to leave.
To return to your body without fear.
If you notice that inner weight,
that tension that won’t leave,
that emotion your body is still carrying…
You don’t have to do it alone.
Your nervous system can rewire.
Your body can learn to release.
Your mind can become your ally again.
At Niyat, we practice that:
regulating, releasing, reorganizing,
and returning to the body without fear.
When you’re ready to release,
there’s a space for you here.
Breathe.
Let go.
Come back to your body.
Come back to yourself.
