Something powerful happened to me today.

As I was stretching in my yoga class, the skin on my chest felt like it was on fire. I had to stop stretching and look at my skin to make sure I wasn’t having some kind of reaction, to what I don’t know.

My instructor saw me looking uncomfortable and more than a little scared and asked what the matter was. I told her that the skin on my chest felt like it was on fire. It was so powerful, I was sweating and on fire all at the same time. I felt like I couldn’t breathe. She said that it was energy. This heat burning my skin was pent-up energy trying to get out. Energy huh?! How about that.

So of course I had to Google this magical happening. God bless Google.

According to my Google results, energy is a pulsation that moves in waves through-out our bodies. Yoga poses help to ease tension and clear blockages, allowing your energy to be released and flow freely.

In Yoga there is no separation between the mind and the body. What happens in the mind happens in the body and ultimately affects your spirit. So if something is bothering you emotionally or something is on your mind it will manifest in the body. My insomnia comes to mind here. When you work your body during a yoga class, the more you stretch and breathe the more likely you are to encounter your pent-up emotional issues and their release can be powerful.

During Yoga, I focus so much on getting my breathing right and holding my poses that I don’t think too much about the energy being released. It’s simply amazing to me that this happened to me at this time though. You see, I recently had a conversation, that required I be absolutely honest about what I was feeling and while this made me vulnerable, I felt empowered. After that conversation, I felt so free.

I did not realize until my yoga class that I had experienced a breakthrough. Through my stretch, I was able to release the energy of that conversation and what it represented through my chest. Which in itself is poignant because that’s where it was focused. My heart. That conversation required I speak from my heart. That heat I was feeling was the last of those unresolved issues with the fear of expressing what was in my heart being released from my body.

I will admit I was more than a little scared at first, because I did not know what was happening inside my body. But now that I do and I know what that conversation meant for me, I am amazed at the connectedness of it all. I love my yoga. I have always known it was good for my body and my breathing, now I know it is good for my mental and emotional health as well.