Release Held Emotions Through Yoga If you have never been exposed to yoga or have never done it I highly recommend that you try it. What is it that really hooks you on yoga? It is when you have an experience that has a profound affect within you. It is of course very important to learn proper technique because you can injure yourself if you don’t know what you are doing. What I did was go to a yoga class several times a week until I felt that I had most of the fundamental poses down. After that I put together my own practice, which I did at home by myself. I still would go to classes now and then to add things to my routine. The beauty of doing yoga by yourself is that during the practice you are free of any distractions and you can totally focus on your breath and your body. When you are in poses you can breath into the areas your are stretching and holding and communicate to them to release what ever is held there in those areas. I would start out my routine in child’s pose and work into Vinyasa Flow for about 35 minutes. Next I would go into hip openers, cow, pigeon, and so on, for about 20 minutes, finally I finish off with some balance poses. The whole practice is about 1 hour and 15 minutes. There is no way I can even explain to you the experiences that come when you do this practice alone. Most of the profound experiences can in the heart opening poses. My breath would be so labored and catching that I could barely hold the pose for 30 seconds. This is when I learned the value of using props. If you use a prop when you are new to yoga you can hold the pose for much longer periods of time, thus dis-lodging long held emotion. It isn’t a inflexible body, it is a body full of emotions that are causing the inflexibility. When you are able to experience this first hand then you will know the beauty and value of yoga. When a release comes there will be sobbing, tears, and emotions that are way beyond what you can imagine feeling. There is a sense, an awareness, a knowing, that something has been released from deep inside of you. You won’t always know what it is connected to and it doesn’t really matter, all that matters is that you release it. It’s never too late to learn something new and there is something refreshing about taking up a new interest even if it is later in life. Sometimes things come along just when you need them. Often times you were introduced to them several times during your life, but has to be just the right time. Don’t worry if you don’t do it the first time it will come back around.