Heart in Your Hips

If you’ve spent any time in the yoga world, you’ve probably heard it over and over again:

• “Your tight hips are a sign of unprocessed trauma.”

• “Your hips store emotions like guilt and anxiety.”

• “Tight hips block energy from flowing through your body.”

From teacher to student, who then become teachers themselves, the idea has become so widespread that many yoga practitioners accept it without question. But does it actually hold up to scrutiny? The hips are essential to movement and are a common area of tension for many people. But the idea that the hips have a unique role in storing and processing emotions is misleading. Let’s examine what’s really going on.

The Psoas and the Fight-or-Flight Response

One of the most common explanations for why the hips “store trauma” is that the psoas muscle—a deep hip flexor—plays a role in the fight-or-flight response. The argument goes like this:

1. In times of danger, our ancestors instinctively engaged their hip flexors to climb trees or run away.

2. Because the psoas is activated in moments of stress, it “remembers” these moments, accumulating trauma over time.

3. Therefore, tightness in the psoas is a sign of unprocessed emotional distress.

This idea has some roots in biomechanics, but it oversimplifies the reality of how stress affects the body. While chronic stress can contribute to increased tension in the psoas, it can also cause tightness in other muscles, such as the shoulders, neck, and jaw. If the psoas “stores” trauma, then so do many other parts of the body.

The real issue is that prolonged activation of the sympathetic nervous system (fight-or-flight mode) can lead to habitual muscle tension anywhere in the body—not just the hips. The psoas is involved, but it’s not special in this regard.

Fascia and the Nervous System

In recent years, the yoga and wellness communities have embraced fascia research as validation for deep stretching, mobility work, and mindfulness practices. It’s a classic case of confirmation bias—"Aha! I knew it. Yoga is the answer—it’s because of the fascia!"

Fascia is a connective tissue that surrounds muscles, bones, and organs, and its importance in movement science has gained attention. But as often happens, this excitement has led to overblown claims. 

A common assertion is that “fascia stores emotions” or that myofascial release “releases stored trauma.” However, fascia itself does not regulate emotions—what it does is provide sensory feedback. Fascia contains nerve endings that relay information about muscle tension to the nervous system.  

So, while fascia (along with the muscles they surround) play a role in the body's response to stress, it is not a storage unit for emotions. Instead, any emotional release that occurs is likely due to changes in the nervous system and relaxation responses.

The Chakra Argument

Another justification for the “hips store emotions” claim comes from yoga’s energetic framework— the chakras, specifically, the Svadhisthana (sacral) chakra. This energy center is associated with emotions, creativity, and sexuality in modern yoga teachings and feelings of guilt or anxiety are associated with blockages in this chakra.

But here’s the thing: there is not one single chakra system. Different traditions describe different numbers and locations of chakras. What many modern yoga practitioners miss is that, historically, chakras were not descriptive of some objective energetic reality. In modern yoga teacher training we memorize ‘chakra facts’ but traditionally chakras were much more fluid. Chakras were used in meditation practices as a prescriptive system— you visualized colors, sounds, images etc. to produce a desired result.

The fixed map of seven chakras most of us are familiar with and the idea that each chakra governed psychological domain is a modern Western interpretation, influenced by Carl Jung. That doesn’t mean it’s invalid, many people including myself find it a useful tool—it just means it’s one of many possible frameworks for understanding the body-mind connection, not an absolute truth.

What Tight Hips Really Mean...

As a whole, yoga teachers and practitioners are seekers trying to find deeper meaning in their lives. We want to know how life the universe and everything is connected. But we should be careful trying to force a sense of order and causality when the reality is much less certain. 

It's possible that a physically or psychologically traumatic even might express itself in the body as tight hips and a limited range of motion.

But there are any number of reasons why your hips might feel tight including 'no reason at all'.  Feeling tight doesn’t necessarily mean your muscles are short or stiff. Many people who feel tight actually have a full range of motion.

So, Should You Focus on the Hips?

Absolutely—but not because they "store emotions." The hips are one of the most important areas in movement. They connect the upper and lower body, stabilize the pelvis, and generate power in walking, running, and nearly every athletic activity.

A movement practice that builds strength and flexibility in the hips can have profound benefits, including:

✔ Improved strength and energy
✔ Reduced lower back and knee pain
✔ Increased confidence in movement,
✔ A general sense of well-being and ease in the body

Could this lead to better digestion, reduced anxiety, and even a greater sense of emotional balance? Possibly—but the magic here is stress relief, not the hips themselves. When we move, breathe deeply, and work with the nervous system, we create conditions for relaxation and emotional processing. But that doesn’t mean the hips are some special storage vault for emotions.

Moving Beyond the Myth

Yoga and movement practices absolutely have the power to help us process emotions, alleviate stress, and improve our physical and mental well-being. But we should be cautious about oversimplified or mystical explanations that distort the real mechanisms at play.

Instead of fixating on the idea that our hips store trauma, a more useful approach is to:

✅ Recognize that muscle tightness is a neurological response, not just a physical limitation.
✅ Understand that chronic stress can lead to tension in many areas, not just the hips.
✅ Emphasize strength and stability alongside flexibility for better long-term mobility.
✅ Appreciate that any emotional benefits from movement come from nervous system regulation—not from fascia, psoas “memory,” or energy blockages.

By shifting our focus away from these myths and toward scientifically sound movement practices, we can enjoy all the benefits of yoga and mobility work—without needing to believe that our hips are hoarding our emotions.