Yoga for a Broken Heart: 4 Poses that Will Help You Cope

At some point in our lives, all of us will experience the pain of a broken heart. A pain that is so fierce and all encompassing it seems as if life will never go back to normal.

After a break-up you might start to think that if you didn’t have expectations, you wouldn’t get hurt, but that’s not always the best way to go about it. Everyone should have expectations for the people they let into their life and everyone should be able to move forward with grace if those expectations aren’t met. No matter how your heart has been hurt, yoga for a broken heart can be the key to help you cope.

Yoga invites you to think about your life choices and examine all of the emotions that comprise the decisions you make on a daily basis. After a breakup, it’s important to think about the subject of love.

Here are four simple yoga poses that you can incorporate into your practice to help heal a broken heart.

Compassion

The compassionate energy allows you to feel tenderness from others because you’ve touched upon that tenderness within yourself. By embracing all of your strengths and weaknesses you can come to a better understanding of what you really want and what you are compassionate about.

A wonderful pose to draw in compassionate awareness is Cat pose/Cow pose. The combination of these two poses is a great way to gently open the heart center and massage the lower back, allowing a release of stuck energy and radiating your heart to the world.

Cat pose/Cow pose

Sanskrit: Marjaiasana/Bitilasana

Step by step:

Starting on your hands and knees, with your knees hip distance apart and wrists, elbows, and shoulders stacked in a straight line, allow your belly to sink down while drawing your shoulders back and expand through your heart center. Then round through your spine, drawing your chin in. Continue as long as it feels good.

Passion

Awaken your passion for life, loved ones, and yourself by opening your core energy. Allow yourself to become the force that motivates your thoughts and actions. Connect to your passionate energy through One-Legged King Pigeon pose. Hip openers, such as this one offer release because most of our emotions become stored in the hips.

One-Legged King Pigeon pose

Sanskrit: Eka Pada Rajakapotasana

Step by step:

Beginning on your hands and knees, draw your right knee forward and place it behind your right wrist. Extend your left leg straight out behind you. Place your right foot in front of your left hip. For a more intense stretch, extend your foot further from your hip and more parallel to the top of your mat. Hold for three minutes and switch sides.

Forgiveness

Lack of forgiveness creates a barrier when trying to connect with others. Through forgiveness, you let go of your own negative thoughts so you can heal your wounds. Forgive yourself and others by practicing Child’s pose and allowing yourself to draw into your heart space.

Child’s Pose

Sanskrit: Balasana

Step by step:

From your hands and knees, slowly extend your arms forward on the mat, while letting your hips sink back to your heels, resting your forehead on the mat. From here, you can widen the distance between your knees to create more space if you prefer. Hold for three minutes.

Yoga for a broken heart, is a great way for you to embrace the stronger connection by connecting to the compassion, forgiveness, and passion within yourself.