Yoga is the Place to Let Your Tears Flow

We were out for breakfast and my friend began to shed gentle tears as she confided that her mom was undergoing breast cancer treatment.  In the next quiet moment, she apologized for crying.  If you had been there with us, I’m sure you would have had a similar feeling and response to say, “don’t be sorry -we understand”.  Jesus wept (John 11:35) and wasn’t embarrassed.  So why do we jump into feeling ashamed when we are overwhelmed with emotions that bring us to tears?
Holding back by denying the shedding tears can be painful to my body.  I tend to bottle it up as I allow my fear of what other people may think to outweigh what I know to be true: that God does the bottling of tears, if I only let Him (Psalm 58:6).  The last time I went to a movie that conjured up deep emotion, I held back my tears for the entire 2 hours and left the theater with an adult-sized-baneroo-of-a-headache and promised that I’d never do that again!  I didn’t want to embarrass myself by making too much noise.
At Frogpose Yoga we celebrate tears!  We flow through postures that bring up emotion as well as offer the safe space for you to leave your emotions at the feet of Jesus.  It’s a place where your tears can flow freely.  There’s dignity in crying as God designed humans as the only animals who do this! There are different types of tears and studies to show that tears are beneficial.  There is no judgement for showing emotion in f.r.o.g.pose  classes because we know that when God integrates our mind, body and soul there’s going to be an overflow of either crying (a tapping into your emotions) or yawning (an indication your body is healing). And this is very good.
The next time you’re at church and the Spirit moves you to tears, let it OUT!  And if you’re at a sappy movie and you hear the woman in the back letting it out with big boohoos, assuredly it will be me.   I’m ok and I won’t need an Excedrin… but I would take a tissue!

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