ONEYOGAHOUSE

by Sara Awada, Embodiment Guide & Somatic Practitioner

Tight hips? Painful back? Stiff shoulders? Heavy chest?

That’s your body talking.

When you don’t say no, eventually your body does. Ignoring these symptoms only prolongs them. So let’s practice listening early, shall we?
To step into your feminine embodiment—your innate ability to live intuitively and creatively—you need to heal as you go. AKA, feel our feelings on the reg and not bottle things up.

What does “processing” an emotion mean?

Emotion is a wave.

First, you recognize the wave is coming.

Second, you allow the wave to come—let it crest up, feel the gunky feelings in your body, let it ALL come in order to finish the cycle. You don’t get the relief, the catharsis, if you don’t ride it up and down.
Most people confuse talking about their feelings with feeling their feelings. That’s where the shift needs to happen—so that the energy can flow and move along.

Here’s the issue with actually feeling our feelings: it’s petrifying.

Most people stop at the top of the wave. That’s where our fight-or-flight response kicks in because they get stuck in fear right at the peak. This is when compulsive behaviors like numbing, avoidance, and chronic freeze show up.

Emotions aren’t good or bad—they’re messengers that tell us about our needs (in this case, the need to see and accept ourselves). Somatically, they’re energy in motion. Unfinished energetic motion doesn’t just vanish; it gets stored in your muscles and fascia, the connective tissue throughout your body

Unprocessed emotions are beneath all disruptive patterns in our lives.

For example: Fear of rejection might lead you into a few patterns:

• Thinking pattern (limiting belief): “I’m never going to get that job.”, “I’m not good enough.”, “Everyone else is better than me. Why bother?”
• Behavioral pattern: Isolating, anxious attachment, people-pleasing, self-abandonment, numbing through Netflix, shopping, scrolling, binging etc.
• Holding pattern: Hunched posture, stiff shoulders, shrinking/making yourself small.

Emotions aren’t good or bad—they’re messengers that tell us about our needs (in this case, the need to see and accept ourselves). Somatically, they’re energy in motion. Unfinished energetic motion doesn’t just vanish; it gets stored in your muscles and fascia, the connective tissue throughout your body. This trapped energy can manifest as tight shoulders, a clenched jaw, or hips that won’t relax. Your body holds on to what it never got to complete. Realizing this shifts everything we thought we knew about healing.

An embodied feeler:

• Slows down to practice body-listening.
• Acknowledges the wave is coming and validates themselves, neither fighting nor denying it. You can say to yourself, “It makes sense that I feel this way.”
  Feels safe in their body to stay present with the feeling, trusting that it will pass.
• Allows themselves permission to ride the wave up, expressing whatever arises in a contained environment. (If the moment isn’t right, they know they can return to it when the conditions feel safer.)
• Practices somatic attunement, giving your body what she needs, to soften into relief.
• Finally, after some time has passed, they integrate what this emotional experience was here to teach them—for example, by journaling the lessons.

Be kind to yourself: This is a skill we were never taught.

Life came with no manual. For most of us, we didn’t grow up with emotionally intelligent parents—or worse, our feelings were either ignored or punished. Even when parents were negligent of our emotions, they did not mean to be. In most cases, they did the best they could with what they knew.

If you’re curious to put this work to practice, join us for upcoming feminine embodiment workshops at ONEYOGAHOUSE where we highlight the deep connection between your body and emotions as the key to your freedom. We’ll dive into specific emotions—such as grief, fear, anger, shame, joy—along with somatic practices to process and release each one.

In every class, the teacher will ease you into practice, allowing time for your body to adapt to the flow and temperature of the room. No class is exactly the same, but overall, you can expect emphasis on mindful movement, mobility, alignment, breathwork, and drishti—a focused gaze—cultivating a sense of presence and awareness on the mat. Our focus on breath allows you to deepen your practice, quiet the mind, and experience a profound sense of relaxation and inner peace. You’ll be encouraged to listen to your body, honor its limitations, and explore your edge with compassion.