Episode 117: How Movement Can Heal Stored Trauma, Grief and Emotions with Paul Denniston

Listen to Episode 117 with Paul Denniston →

When Grief Hides in Your Body

Your shoulders carry chronic tension that massage temporarily relieves. Stomach pain persists despite doctors finding nothing wrong with tests. Anxiety won't lift despite all your coping strategies working. Could hidden grief be creating these physical symptoms?

Grief is an emotion that many of us avoid. But what happens when we don't let it out? In this episode, we explore how hidden grief can get stuck in the body causing problems. Causing tight shoulders, stomach pain, and nonstop anxiety symptoms.

Paul Denniston joins me today as founder of Grief Yoga. He explains that grief doesn't simply disappear when ignored. Instead, it hides in our muscles and body tissues, making them hurt or feel uncomfortable in chronic ways.

This conversation sheds light on how movement helps release feelings out of our bodies in a safe controlled way. And even how laughter can let the feelings out safely.

Whether you're a practitioner working with grief professionally, someone supporting a loved one through loss, or navigating your own healing journey through grief personally, this episode shares insights into transforming pain through movement practices that incorporate breath, sound, and embodied awareness.

Paul Denniston is the founder of Grief Yoga®, which uses yoga, movement, breath, and sound together to release pain and suffering stored in tissues and connect to love underneath the grief layers. His intention with Grief Yoga involves combining many different forms of yoga in order to help heal grief through the body.

Understanding Hidden Grief

"Emotions need motion" captures Paul Denniston's core wisdom clearly. Feelings must move through the body to complete rather than staying stuck indefinitely.

Many of us try to avoid grief deliberately. It feels too big, too painful, too overwhelming. So we push it down hoping it disappears. It falls into our bodies unconsciously and automatically.

What happens when we don't express grief matters enormously. When we don't let grief out through expression, it doesn't disappear or fade away over time. It gets stuck in our bodies, creating symptoms that seem unrelated to loss experienced.

Understanding the Biology of Trauma® reveals grief's physical storage patterns. Hidden grief in the body operates beneath awareness. You might not recognize it as grief initially. It shows up as physical symptoms instead. As physical symptoms doctors can't explain through testing.

Physical Manifestations

Tight shoulders represent one way grief shows up physically. Shoulders carrying the weight of unexpressed sadness constantly. Muscles holding what you can't express verbally. What you can't express or let out safely. The physical tension reflects emotional holding unconsciously maintained.

Stomach pain involves grief in the gut creating pain and digestive issues that perplex doctors. The belly holding unshed tears that need releasing. Unexpressed feelings that your body stores in tissues. Your gut holding what your throat couldn't speak.

Nonstop anxiety can be hidden grief operating underneath. Your nervous system is activated by unprocessed loss continuously. That needs moving through your body for resolution. Anxiety masking the grief that feels too vulnerable.

Paul Denniston's background as founder of Grief Yoga® matters. He combines many different forms of yoga specifically to help heal grief through body-based practices. Through the body rather than just talking about loss. His method addresses where grief actually lives physically.

The Grief Yoga Approach

What Grief Yoga actually is involves using yoga, movement, breath, and sound intentionally to release pain and suffering stored in your body's tissues. To connect to love underneath layers of grief blocking your access.

Grief doesn't disappear when you ignore it hoping time heals everything. It hides in your muscles and connective tissues, creating chronic tension patterns. In your body affecting function and well-being.

Body hurt happens when hidden grief accumulates over time. It makes your body hurt or feel uncomfortable chronically. This isn't random pain appearing without cause. It's stored emotion your body holds for you. Emotion your body holds until you're finally ready to release it.

Why movement is essential for trauma healing becomes clear because emotions need motion fundamentally. Movement completes what couldn't complete during trauma occurring. Or loss happening without ability to respond fully. During trauma or loss that overwhelmed your capacity.

Movement as Medicine

Movement releases what's stuck in your body persistently. The feelings, the energy, the pain held tight. The pain that couldn't move through when loss happened. Movement lets it flow through and out finally. And out of your tissues into expression safely.

Laughter as a tool seems contradictory for accessing grief initially. Laughter can be used to access grief. This seems contradictory but works effectively in practice. It works because laughter and crying share physiology. They share diaphragm movement and breath patterns almost identically.

Why laughter works involves laughter and crying using the same diaphragm movement and breathing patterns together. Same breath patterns activating similar neural pathways. Laughter opens the pathway to tears that felt blocked. To tears that wouldn't come through direct approaches.

Creating dedicated space involves the power in creating time and space for grief expression to happen safely. Intentional containers for release that your system trusts. For release without fear of being overwhelmed completely. Your body needs to know there's structure.

Working With Grief Safely

Learning to sit with grief safely prevents overwhelm happening. How to sit with grief without drowning in it. So it doesn't feel too overwhelming to bear. Building capacity for being with pain in doses. For being with pain your system can handle.

Sitting safely means not avoiding grief completely. Not drowning in it without any ground beneath. But sitting with grief in doses your system can handle, building tolerance gradually over time. Building tolerance for difficult emotions emerging and moving.

Movement practices that incorporate breath, sound, and embodied awareness. These three elements together create optimal healing conditions. Create healing that individual elements alone cannot provide. The sound component involves making sound and vibration intentionally to release what's stuck in tissues through resonance effects.

Embodied awareness means staying present in your body consciously while grief moves through your system actively processing. This is key for integration happening effectively safely. Awareness plus movement creates integration of experience. It creates integration that talking alone cannot achieve completely.

For Practitioners and Personal Healing

For practitioners, it involves how to hold space skillfully for others' grief without becoming overwhelmed personally. Essential skills for sustainable grief support work long-term. Staying present with another's grief without taking it into your body as if it's yours.

The movement medicine concept recognizes movement as medicine literally for grief, for trauma, for stuck emotions everywhere. This isn't just a metaphor. It's biology designed for completing emotional cycles.

Why this works is because emotions need motion fundamentally. Your body is designed to move feelings through, completing the cycles that got interrupted during overwhelm. That got interrupted during trauma or loss occurring.

Transforming through the body means not bypassing the body in healing. But through it, where grief actually lives stored. This is where grief actually lives. And where healing happens most effectively and completely.

This Episode Is For: 

✓ People with physical symptoms they suspect are grief

✓ Anyone avoiding grief because it feels too big

✓ Practitioners working with grieving clients

✓ Those supporting loved ones through loss

✓ People with chronic tension or pain that won't resolve

✓ Anyone interested in body-based grief work

✓ Those who've tried talk therapy without full relief

✓ Yoga practitioners wanting grief-specific approaches

What You'll Learn

Listen to discover how "emotions need motion" works biologically. And learn Paul Denniston's Grief Yoga approach using movement, breath, and sound to release hidden grief. Plus how to create safe space for expression. And why laughter can access deeper grief layers effectively.

Your chronic tension might be grief needing motion to complete.

Listen to Episode 117 with Paul Denniston →

Disclaimer

This podcast is for educational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional medical or mental health advice, diagnosis, or treatment. The information shared reflects my clinical expertise and research, but every person's biology and healing journey is unique. Always consult with qualified healthcare providers before making changes to your treatment plan or starting new interventions. If you're experiencing a mental health crisis, please contact emergency services or a crisis helpline immediately.

Join the Conversation

I'd love to hear your thoughts on this episode. What resonated with you? What questions came up?

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