Can we store emotions in the body and can yoga help? Myth, mystery or fact?
Guest Blog Post by Peaceful Warrior Yoga - https://sites.google.com/view/peacefulwarrioryoga/blog
This was my initial musing for this piece of work. I quickly realised that there was way more to this question than first meets the eye. I have had personal experience of depression and I remember wondering why my body hurt so much when I wasn’t active and I have also had emotional releases with particular yoga postures/practise which I haven’t been able to explain.
Firstly what are emotions? How many do we have? Are there different types? Are emotions different to feelings? Where in the body could they be stored? How long for? Does yoga help release them?
After reviewing the literature, there is much more to consider to this initial question. One of the main considerations is not just about emotions but trauma and the mental ramifications that trauma may have such as PTSD, depression and anxiety. This in turn can affect the physical body such as cardiovascular illness, immune system functioning, gastrointestinal conditions, reproductive disorders and musculoskeletal and pain disorders (Andrea, 2011). This was also found to be the case in a study by Afari et al (2014) who found significant links between trauma, PTSD and functional somatic syndrome. The study found that somatic complaints such as Fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue syndrome and irritable bowel syndrome all lack physical or biological etiology but are generally accompanied by depression, anxiety and psychological trauma in childhood. This can also be described as allostatic load. Defined, allostatic load is
“The wear and tear on the body which accumulates as an individual is exposed to repeated or chronic stress” (McEwin and Stellar, 1993)
Increased allostatic load is a significant hazard to health and wellbeing which has been highlighted in many pieces of research including the articles above. To reduce allostatic load interventions such as good sleep, safe environment, good social scaffolding, good diet, avoiding alcohol and drugs and participating in physical activity such as yoga which in turn will also improve mental health (Juster et al, 2010) NB as far as I am aware this is just based on adults – child trauma is a whole new subject!
So can yoga help? If we begin to look at the 8 limbs of yoga in Patanjali’s system the first two limbs of yoga are yama’s and niyamas. The yamas in particular are Self regulating behaviours which are related to how we interact with other people and the world in general (Gangadhar & McCall, 2018). Therefore this might already be a challenge for individuals who have emotional dysregulation such as Borderline personality disorder (BPD). However with certain yoga postures and pranayama yoga could help by giving the mind focus, changing physiology such as heartrate, reduce tension within the body and give feelings of empowerment and inner strength (Gangadhar & McCall, 2018) and Gard et al, 2014 state that self regulation becomes more efficient over time with practice.
So going back to the beginning we have established with some evidence that yes trauma and stress increase allostatic load and have severe consequences on the body, but are emotions linked to trauma? Joshi (2021) found there is a connection between physical pain and emotional pain by the physical discomfort signalling to the brain that emotional trauma needs to be resolved and that certain body pain may indicate different emotions. In this study it was found that yoga nidra was the best course of action due to the complete self awareness and extreme relaxation of the nervous system. Likewise other studies of this nature have included Davies (2018) who investigated the affect of yoga nidra for reducing emotional pain and Kumar (2010) who investigated yoga nidra on guilt. I have struggled to find much research that gives conflicting evidence.
Ultimately, with the evidence found there is a link between trauma, mental health , emotions and physical pain and that yoga in some form can help. There are other considerations such as age, type of trauma, mental health conditions, when stress and trauma happened and the types of language used by different researchers ( emotions/trauma/stress) which will affect the answer to this huge question but I intend to research this further to help me on my yoga journey as student and teacher.
Have you checked out our upcoming wellbeing workshops?
References
Andrea. W & Sharma. R & Zelechoski. A.D & Spinazzola. J. Physical health problems after single trauma exposure: when stress takes root in the body . Journal of the American psychiatric nurses association. 2011. 17(6) 378-392 DOI : 10.1177/1078930311425187
Afari. N & Ahumada. S.M & Johnson Wright. L & Mostoufi. S & Golnari. G & Reis. V & Cuneo. J.G. psychological trauma and functional somatic syndromes: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Psycosom Med. 2014 Jan 76(1): 2-11 DOI: 10.1097/PSY.0000000000000010
Gangadhar. B.N and McCall. T. Yoga for mental health. 2018. Edinburgh.
Gard. T & Noggle.J.J & Park.C.L & Vago.D.R & Wilson. A. Potential self- regulatory mechanisms of yoga for psychological health. Front. Hum. Neuroscience., 30th September 2014 https://doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2014.00770
Joshi. B Impact of yoga nidra as natural tranquilliser in emotional pain International journal of health science research. 2021. 11(4): 156-169. DOI: https://doi.org/10.52403/ijhsr.20210422
Juster. R.P & McEwan. B. S & Lupien.S.J Allostatic load biomarkers of chronic stress and impact on mental health and cognition. 2010. Neuroscience and biobehavioral reviews. 35. (1): 2-16 DOI: 10.1016/j.neurobiorev.2009.10.002PMID19822172S2CID33562563
McEwen. B.S & Stellar.E Stress and the individual. Mechanisms leading to disease. Archives of internal medicine. 1993. 153 (18) : 2093-2101 DOI: 10.1001.archinte.153.18.2093PMID8379800
C.C. Streeter a,⇑ , P.L. Gerbarg b , R.B. Saper c , D.A. Ciraulo a , R.P. Brown Effects of yoga on the autonomic nervous system, gamma-aminobutyric-acid, and allostasis in epilepsy, depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder . Med hypotheses (2012) doi:10.1016/j.mehy.2012.01.021
