Please Help: Emotional Stress in Upper Torso won't Release

Yoga Discussion General Yoga
#1

Hi everyone,

During the last few months I have been committed to cleaning by body from all emotional stress and tension. First I have focussed on my lower torso, by meditating and then breathing into my lower torso using breath of fire. After a while I felt the tension release as I was using breath of fire.

Now I am trying to release my upper torso from emotional stress. However, it just won’t work. I have been breathing into my upper body for a week now using breath of fire. I have also done kundalini yoga poses (for three minutes each time while using breath of fire).

It’s not that I don’t feel anything. I can clearly feel the tension and where it is. During and after the excercises I feel a difference, but It’s more like the tension is being thrown into my back muscles and back into my chest and to the neck and again and again. It’s moving around in my upper torso but it just won’t release like the tension in my lower torso did.

Please help. How can I finally remove this terrible feeling in my upper body.

#2

try restorative poses that are chest/heart openers.

Lie face up with a bolster, or a rolled up blanket lengthwise down your spine.

#3

Yes please consider the aforementioned restorative poses and perhaps a break from the ones you are presently using that may well be aggravating the condition.

Moderators Might you consider a +1 a like or approval options for supporting comments like the one above without requiring an actual reply.

#4

i do not know what is your practice for now…but general suggestions for tenssion would be:

  • do just a 3-part breath for at least 15 minuted daily… instead of pumping your energy up with kabalabhati(fire breath)

  • do not try to [U]fight[/U] the tension… accept it and work with it

  • get a CD or just learn the practice of so called “yoga nidra” - the first thing for relaxation.

  • poses for as long as you can keep: fish (maybe with the block), pashimotanassana (maybe supported), forward fold (if you BP is ok), yogamudra, savasana…+ [U]joint freeing warm ups[/U] ( also called pawanmuktasana) help a lot though look silly. :wink:

  • meditation on the breath, and exhale into your tense parts of the body

  • look up some mudras for tension…

and please stop pumping with fire breath:) hope you feel better…

#5

Hello, thanks for the replies.
I have a few questions.

1: is there also a ‘opener pose’ like that for the upper back? More like a upper back opener.

2: why is breath of fire bad?

#6

[QUOTE=harhas;64008]Hello, thanks for the replies.
I have a few questions.

1: is there also a ‘opener pose’ like that for the upper back? More like a upper back opener.

2: why is breath of fire bad?[/QUOTE]

1.hard to tell exactelly…you should feel it yourself…cat&caw should be good… pashimotanassana will work (if you have loose hamstrings)…sitting twists like marichasana, just simple neck bending (left-right-forward) might release tension, bridge, supine poses and twists, eagle (arms), caw face, and [U]savasna[/U]

  1. it is not bad…but i would avoid it for a while if one has a persistent tension
#7

Well releasing a coiled snake or tapping into a live high-voltage wire for starters.

Kundalini is bringing a lot of energy up to an area you are already tense in.

And breath of fire? Well it isn’t breath of soothing mint julip is it? It is BREATH OF FIRE!

There is a time and place for both these efforts and you’ve hinted that this may not be that moment.

Consider seeking out a restorative practice or perhaps a yin class and see if you can find surrender and release your emotional holdings rather than fire them up.

Opening your heart and engaging the muscles in the front body will place the back muscles in a position to relax. PNF method stretching might be another way for voluntarily tightening the muscle to bypass the body’s defence mechanism to tighten up and defend itself and fight the stretch. Seek out a qualified PNF instructor or RMT for optimal results.

Here is one separate effort you might find some release in the meantime

Sit on a chair wth your feet apart and your back and abdominals alert and engaged no slouching sit up straight.
Lean your body to the right just a bit like your low riding a convertable with a stick shift then lift your left shoulder up like your shrugging off question.
Hold for ten seconds then release the shoulder relaxing it down and til to the side a bit more.
You are now in the correct position to begin:
Lean your head to the right in line with the body and then slightly turn your head and gaze up to the ten o’clock position for ten seconds then reach your right arm over your head til it cups above your left ear and apply equal tension to your hand and to your head and hold for ten more seconds.

Target Muscle: Trapezius
Symptoms of shortening or tightness. Local pain or holding across shoulder girdle between shoulder blades. Headaches localized to base of skull behind eyes or above ears. Difficulty rotating or tilting head sideways.

#8

Again thanks for the information.
You are right about breath of fire not being the right tool for this area right now. All my muscles in my upper torso are painful. It’s the kind of muscle pain one usually feels after sporting too much. It feels very stiff, but I have hopes that in a few days the muscle pain will go away and the upper torso feels better than before I started using breath of fire. In the mean time I am using the chest opener and the catcow pose.
Is it true that the fact that the emotional stress has been pumped into the muscles, causes the feeling in the muscles I am having now?

#9

What makes you so sure that the tension is entirely emotional in nature? Could it be physical imbalances?

#10

Oh, and by all means, continue the breath of fire. If it’s effective for you, it’s effective for you, and it sounds like it has been exactly that. Sometimes you need to fight fire with fire.

Until the practice of yoga takes us to a place of grace where we no longer enter fight or flight unless truly warranted, we’re all too often flooding our bodies with epinephrine, norepinephrine, and cortisol. What’s the best way to burn those high octane hormones and neurotransmitters and return ourselves back to a place of relaxation? Run or fight. Well, more specifically, make our bodies feel like we’ve done exactly that. And you don’t efficiently do that by sitting around drinking tea and thinking peaceful thoughts.

#11

Hello David,

I’m sure this tension is emotional in nature because in the past I have been taken over by it, so to speak, several times and made me do some stupid things. It is the result of evading the grief and not ‘processing’ it after my first love relationship went wrong. During the years after it became a feeling of bitterness and anger, stuck in my chest. It prevented me from trusting new girlfriends and I became pretty short-tempered in general (having this ‘fight-response’ in situations that aren’t really dangerous).
Meditation was like openening the door to this truth. At first I was pretty skeptical towards meditation etc (‘I don’t have time for this kind of nonsense har-har-har’). But I realized that this burden I was carrying was actually something inside my own body that could be felt. I know the nervous system often carries the emotional value of certain beliefs and thoughts about the world. I want to become free of that. I could sound pretty overestimated but I believe that freeing myself from this, might be one of the most important things I ever do in my life.
Today I’m using both the chest opener and some (careful) breath of fire. I notice that my neck, shoulders and back are making a lot of sound when I stretch (krrrrkrrrkrr). Feels very promising.

Greetings,

#12

Sounds good.

Don’t be too surprised if you find other things in there as well.

The past cannot hurt you.

Good luck on your journey.